I watched a lot of rugby this weekend — the Tests, the Top 14 — and a few things really hit me about where Australian rugby’s at right now.
Let’s start with the Wallabies game against Italy. There was a moment that summed up the whole issue for me. At the back of a scrum, you’ve got the 12 taking the ball up, Joseph Suali’i — probably the best aerial athlete we’ve had in years — clearing out, and then Gordon putting up a box kick for Corey Toole, who’s maybe 5’7” on a good day.
How does that make sense? Why is one of our most gifted high-ball players being used as a ruck cleaner instead of the guy competing for the ball in the air? It’s like using a diamond as a doorstop.
I’ve coached, played, and been around the game long enough to know that elite-level decisions aren’t always simple. But even from the outside, you can see when a system’s out of rhythm. The Wallabies hammer away at the line, phase after phase, but there’s no real cohesion or purpose. For a side that’s played 15 Tests together this year, that’s worrying. There are flashes of brilliance, sure — but no shape, no structure, no consistency.
And that inconsistency runs deeper than tactics. Flicking between Tests and the Top 14 this weekend, I saw Will Skelton limping around 70 minutes into a game, his side getting absolutely battered by Toulon — I think it was 34–5 — ankle strapped, and he’s still out there.
These club teams squeeze every drop out of their players — battle rams until the final whistle. But then the moment they’re in Wallaby camp, the narrative changes. “We’ve got to look after him, he’s a bit sore, bit bruised, played a lot of rugby.” Maybe that’s true — but it’s hard not to feel like it’s an excuse. Either to rest someone unnecessarily, or to give another player a go under the guise of “player welfare.”
If that’s genuinely the philosophy, fine. But don’t tell us this is a high-performance national setup driven by accountability. Because right now it feels like club rugby is the priority — and the Wallabies are just tagging along.
And don’t even get me started on not paying for player releases against England. That decision alone tells you everything about the stagnation. You get these little sugar rushes of improvement, but nothing that lasts.
Which brings me to the captaincy call a few weeks ago — Nick Champion de Crespigny, a guy with one Test cap, named captain against Japan. When Joe Schmidt was asked about it, the focus was all on what a good bloke he is.
Now, Schmidt’s a Kiwi — and I can’t imagine, in any lifetime, the All Blacks giving the captaincy to someone with two caps just because he’s “a good bloke.” That’s not how their culture works. They build succession, identity, and hierarchy. They protect the jersey.
When you hand the armband to someone based on personality instead of potential, you undermine the system. You’ve got young players like Jeremy Williams or Nick Frost — genuine future leaders — who would grow massively from that kind of responsibility. Instead, it goes to someone who isn’t going to shape the future of the Wallabies. It’s another opportunity lost.
And that’s the bigger issue here: when you bring in foreign coaches, sometimes they just don’t grasp the heartbeat of the country they’re leading. They see a team; they don’t feel the culture that team is supposed to represent.
Right now, Australian rugby feels like it’s full of diamonds being used as doorstops — incredible talent, misused, misdirected, and misunderstood. And until that changes — until there’s alignment, purpose, and genuine belief in what the Wallabies stand for — we’ll keep getting moments of brilliance wrapped in layers of frustration.
