Hawker must act as patient is fading
THE moment has arrived, if it didn't arrive months ago, for Michael Hawker to come to the rescue of Australian rugby.
It was at the end of April that Hawker, the former Wallabies centre, became Australian Rugby Union chairman, an appointment that fanned the flickering flames of hope that the sport's governing body could be reformed and revived from within. Five months have now gone by since he took charge, time he has used to take the pulse of the game in this country.
It has been a worthy and worthwhile exercise, even if it smacks of taking a census in the middle of an earthquake. But the time for gently holding the wrist and studying the sweep of the second hand on his watch has passed. Has Hawker not noticed the patient's pulse slowing, the breath shortening, the skin beginning to turn cold? Australian rugby is deteriorating fast and if he doesn't hit the button for the crash cart now, the game will soon slip beyond the point of saving.
The defibrillator paddles have to be applied and the first jolt needs to shake loose Robbie Deans from the coaching position.
There is not the slightest doubt that Deans has given his all over the past five years and tried to make the Wallabies work. But clearly they're not working and that was obvious at Pretoria long before injuries reduced the team to a shambles midway through the second half.
Bad enough that there is scarcely any life in the Wallabies' attack, save for the occasional spurts of adrenalin injected by Kurtley Beale, but now their defence is faltering as well. The Springboks finished with five tries but it could easily have been eight.
Even in going down to the All Blacks yesterday, the Pumas showed vastly more vim and vigour than did the Wallabies at Loftus Versfeld. There is self-evident energy within the Argentinian team. The Pumas are playing with passion and purpose. The Australian team, by contrast, is labouring and hesitant. There is no sparkle in the Wallabies' eyes and that same lifeless, heavy-hooded look is characterising their play. The final scoreline was "only" 31-8 but at times it felt like Australia was reliving the 61-22 massacre at the same ground 15 years ago.
That was the final Test of Greg Smith's reign as Wallabies coach and indeed it is scarcely possible to think of a time since then when Australian rugby supporters have felt so disillusioned and disconnected from their team. Perhaps only the ragged ending of the Eddie Jones era in 2005 had the same torn sense of dislocation.
But it would be so terribly unfair if Deans became the scapegoat for all of this which may yet happen as those above and around him scramble to save themselves. The Wallabies' coach is operating in an environment not of his own making and over which he has little control. His job is only to work within the limitations of a deeply flawed Australian rugby system and to do his best.
Soon after Hawker took office and probably a long time before that, he would have become aware of the ominous rumblings of discontent within Australian rugby. His pulse-taking exercise would have revealed to him the deep suspicion the Super Rugby franchises have of the ARU administration, their utter disillusionment with ARU officials constantly berating them about the importance of everyone staying on the same page and then reading in the columns of handpicked journalists vital information concerning their own operations, information they themselves weren't aware of.
The ARU has killed off the desperately needed third tier between club and Super Rugby, centralised the Academy system under its Low, sorry, High Performance Unit and now wants to centralise the appointment of Super Rugby coaches as well. The vibrancy of Australian rugby has always come from the merging and melding of different styles and approaches but, if the ARU has its way, a grey cloak of bureaucratic uniformity will be laid over the game. Shroud, more like it.
But as the pressure on the national body begins to intensify, the ARU appears to have been forced into a new and more desperate game, criticising the one component of Australian rugby that is thriving at present, Queensland.
In the wake of Quade Cooper's ill-timed, poorly thought-through and yet potentially valuable outburst last week, sections of the Sydney media have begun to speculate openly about a Queensland conspiracy not only to replace Deans with Ewen McKenzie as Wallabies coach but also John O'Neill with Jim Carmichael as ARU CEO.
Frankly, I think that is precisely what should happen but since I have openly been advocating such a course of action for the best part of a year now, I hardly think it qualifies as a conspiracy.
Instead of standing by while Carmichael is attacked, the ARU should be making a detailed study of the many initiatives this former AFL executive has taken to turn Queensland rugby from floundering to flourishing. It might particularly note that Carmichael devotes himself entirely to his tasks as Reds CEO and is not sharing his time or energy with a highly paid non-rugby second job.
No doubt it is extremely embarrassing to the national body that it is being shown up so spectacularly by a state organisation but, just this once, it would be helpful if egos could be put on hold.
While all these shenanigans have been playing out, Hawker has been staying in the background, keeping his own counsel. But that's a luxury he and Australian rugby can afford no longer.
It's time he and the ARU board took charge and made changes and they shouldn't hold back.
