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SAINT-ETIENNE: Wallabies legend Michael Lynagh fears young players will be deeply scarred after becoming the first Australian squad to be dumped out of the Rugby World Cup in the pool stage.
Fiji’s bonus point loss against Portugal on a dramatic day in Toulouse on Monday (AEDT) confirmed Australia’s embarrassing exit after the Wallabies went 2-2 in Pool C.
Australia’s 22-15 loss in Saint-Etienne was Fiji’s first win over the Wallabies since 1954 while the 40-6 loss to Wales in Lyon was a record margin against that nation.
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Lynagh played in three World Cups and piloted Australia to their first victory in 1991.
He remains Australia’s leading Test point-scorer with 911.
“My overriding emotion is one of sadness,” Lynagh told BBC’s Rugby Union Daily podcast.
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“Australia really haven’t fired a shot at this World Cup and it’s really disappointing. I feel for the players. They’re not bad players and they’ve worked really hard but when they get out on the field it just doesn’t seem to click for them.
“I feel the way this has gone there’s going to be a few of them that might struggle to get over this experience. I hope not.
“So sadness, not just for the players but a lot of Australian supporters, not only the ones back home but also the ones that have financially and emotionally supported the team in France to be knocked out so early, is terribly disappointing for them all.”
Lynagh paid credit to Fiji and Wales as superior opposition but lamented the Wallabies meekly going “out with a whimper.”
The former No.10 now lives in England and is a rugby pundit.
One of his sons, Tom, is a Queensland Reds five-eighth while another, Louis, is an outside back for Harlequins.
“It’s probably the culmination of a downward trend over the past 10 or 15 years that rugby’s been heading this way,” Lynagh observed.
“And this was a really full stop wake up call that something has to be done in Australia about this and the decline of rugby – in the way of people attending games in Australia. The youngsters coming through are choosing different sports which are better funded than rugby.
“We all hope that a successful Australian rugby team can carry us through and plaster over these problems but I’m afraid this time it hasn’t. It’s time for a full stop and see what we can do going forward.”
Australia will host a British and Irish Lions series in 2025 and a home World Cup in 2027.
Rugby Australia is moving towards a centralised system which it hopes will trigger similar success to Ireland and New Zealand.
“We want them to be competitive, we want to have the local support behind us, the whole country behind us, as opposed to AFL and rugby league supporters laughing at us and putting us down – which is what is happening at the moment,” Lynagh said.
“There has been for a while. It’s at pretty much a low point at the moment but a lot of people – me in particular – have seen it coming for a while and been worried about if for a while.”
Lynagh agreed with Stephen Hoiles’ assessment that Australia could not field five competitive Super Rugby teams.
“Like Leinster, they play together a lot, they know each other really well, they gel together and we seem to have lost that a little bit now with having five teams in Super Rugby and competing against New Zealand and South Africa when they were in the competition,” he said.
“It’s tough and we’re not winning a lot against those teams.
“Having five teams has really disappeared the playing togetherness, we just don’t have the playing population to fill these teams.
“Maybe there’s going to be some tough decisions having to come up as to how we structure the whole situation in Australia and I’m afraid the results at this World Cup have shown the current system hasn’t been working for a while and it’s going to take some time for any changes to come to fruition, but something has to happen, we can’t continue this downward spiral…
“In Australia we have a federated system and states are their own little fiefdoms and they don’t like each other and don’t trust Rugby Australia. There’s got to be a change in how we’re doing those things. They are big, bold decisions that will not be popular but if we don’t there will be real problem in going the same way we’re going…
“Aussie rules and rugby league can afford to go into all the schools, rugby union traditional schools, find the best talent and take it, because kids look at their rugby league stars and they can go and give contracts to these kids straight out of school.
“It’s a big issue and a big problem. There’s hopefully smarter people than me making decisions going forward. They’re not going to be popular but unless we do them, there’s a real possibility of Australian rugby disappearing down a big sink hole.”
Lynagh also questioned a lack of experience in Eddie Jones’ squad which was ruthlessly exposed in France.
“I’m not blaming the players but Australia, say against Wales or Fiji, you look through the team – where’s the experienced person the rest of the team look to?
“When you’re standing under the posts, Fiji have just scored you’ve gone behind and there’s 15 to go, who’s doing the talking? Who’s the one saying ‘here’s what we’re going to do, we’ve trained for this’? I just didn’t see it.”
