Former captain Stephen Moore says drastic action is needed to save Australian rugby following the Wallabies’ disastrous World Cup pool exit.
The two-time world champions suffered the ignominy of a pool stage finish in France despite Fiji’s stunning one-point loss to minnows Portugal.
The result – Portugal’s first win at a World Cup – meant that Fiji and Australia finished level on 11 points in Pool C, but Fiji advanced on the head-to-head rule after beating the Wallabies earlier in the tournament.
MORE: Aussie media rues ‘cruel’ World Cup exit
It was the first time ever that the Wallabies had missed out on the World Cup quarter-finals, prompting calls for a major reset of rugby union’s structures in Australia.
“It’s been alarming the way the team’s gone backwards,” a frustrated Moore told AAP.
“It’s really been in the last couple of years that we’ve really slipped down into that bordering on being a second-tier side, so it’s been a rapid decline.”
Moore, who played 129 Tests for Australia and captained the team that finished as runners-up in 2015, signalled the rushed recruitment of Eddie Jones, a misguided youth policy, and a poor game plan as specific issues with the Wallabies.
However, he said Australia needed to restructure from top to bottom if the Wallabies hope to become realistic contenders for the World Cup.
“Five Australian teams [in Super Rugby] is not working for us from a performance point of view, from an entertainment point either, so we need to look at different ways of doing it,” the 40-year-old said.
“I think the trigger for all these things is that we just we’re not improving, so we have to keep exploring how we can get better and we seem to be keen to just keep going down the same path and expecting something different to happen.
“We’ve got to be pretty courageous about what the future looks like, because we’re at that point now, aren’t we?
“I think the code in Australia has probably gone to another low, so we really have to do something urgently.”
Photo: AFP