Guest post: Spiro Zavos on Australian rugby and the Folau factor

Former Wellington journalist Spiro Zavos wrote a highly regarded rugby column in the Sydney Morning Herald for nearly 30 years. He is the author of "How to Watch a Game of Rugby". Here Spiro brings his insight to bear on a crucial factor behind the decline of Australian rugby and ponders whether Eddie Jones can repair the damage.

Eddie Jones took over a Wallabies side on 29 January 2023, seven months ago, that was jaded, too old, falling rapidly into second-tier status and most importantly was divided on race and religious grounds because four years ago Rugby Australia sacked the soul of the side, as far as the Polynesian players were concerned, Israel Folau.

In preparing his squad for the 2023 Rugby World Cup tournament, Jones has responded to this problem of a team that had no morale by making two crucial decisions.

First, he has sacked most of the senior members of the Wallabies side he inherited, including its leadership group.

Second, he has appointed an outsider from the squad who happens to be Polynesian, Will Skelton, as the captain.

In my opinion, Jones is correct to do this even though the short-term problems involved with creating a new side in a few months could make the coming World Cup tournament a painful learning experience for his side - and for all Wallabies supporters.

There is method, in other words, in the Jones madness.

This wilful destruction of the Wallabies spirit by the Australian rugby class is a story that has essentially been neglected by an anodyne and compromised rugby media.

From the moment the then CEO of Rugby Australia, New Zealander Raelene Castle, decided to sacrifice Folau to appease big business interests, the Wallabies were doomed.

This is not to endorse what Folau did or said. It is to state the fact that Folau was the leader on and off the field for the significant number of Christian Polynesian players in the Wallabies squad. He was the team's talisman and, perhaps most importantly the side's main try-scorer.

The Polynesian players made representations to RA and to their trade union, RUPA, after Folau was sacked to find out what they could say about the woke policies RA enforced on them. RA and RUPA refused to tell them. So the punishment given to Folau was potentially theirs, too, if they expressed religious views similar to his.

Take the case of Samu Kerevi, the only other world-class Wallaby in recent years, aside from Folau.

Kerevi was born in Fiji. His father is a pastor. He was one of the Wallabies who "liked" Folau's "hell awaits gay people" post.

He told ABC documentary-makers for a programme on the Folau issue that none of Folau's supporters in the team were allowed to "say anything about supporting Izzy or saying anything at all".

While denying Kerevi and his fellow Polynesian Wallabies their rights to express their religious beliefs, the leadership of the Wallabies, including the captain Michael Hooper, said they would never play with Folau again.

The new coach, New Zealander Dave Rennie, also insisted that he was committed under the terms of his appointment never to select Folau for the Wallabies.

Kerevi reacted against all of this hostility to Folau by leaving Australia to play his rugby in Japan.

In my view, the expulsion of Folau and its subsequent creation of disenchantment by Wallabies Polynesian players was the main reason why, under Rennie, the national side then created the dismal a record of winning only 38 per cent of their Tests.

The most important signs that Eddie Jones understands how much damage was done to the morale and integrity of the Wallabies by the rejection of Folau is his clean sweep of most of the older white Wallabies who were in leadership positions under Rennie.

This has been followed by the first appointment of a new captain from outside the Australian rugby environment that piled on against Folau.

Jones has been open with journalists about the risks involved with what he has done: "Obviously I'd like to have a better win-loss record but we've destabilised the team, we've taken away all the leadership that was there previously, we've got a new leadership team in its place.... we do have a longer-term plan in terms of the World Cup ..."

There are clear risks with this scorched earth policy.

Steve Hansen, the former All Blacks coach, remarked after his three-day look at the Jones training regime that the new group of Wallabies were a "nice group of young men ... they are very excited about the World Cup tournament ... but the leadership group is not in the same place as the All Blacks ..."

We saw examples of this lack of leadership during the France-Australia RWC warm-up match last weekend. The Wallabies could not cope when France opened up play out wide, a weakness that was never shut down throughout the match.

The new Skelton Wallabies did present a strong scrum and a competent lineout against France. This is a reflection of the fact that Jones has based a number of his selections, in the backs and in the forwards, on size, something that has been lacking in the Wallabies for some years.

The Wallabies scored three tries to the five of France, a better outcome than the All Blacks managed against the Springboks.

There is a belief expressed in most commentaries that the Wallabies have an easy route to the semi-finals.

Admittedly, France, Scotland, New Zealand, South Africa and Ireland - the top-ranking rugby nations and all sides with the potential to win the RWC tournament - are all on the same side of the draw.

Indeed, the South Africa/Ireland/Scotland pool seems to be the most lethal "pool of death" in any pool in the history of the RWC tournament.

For this tournament, though, the second lethal pool is Australia's.

Starting on September 10, the Wallabies play Georgia (a team with one of the most impressive packs in Europe), September 18 Fiji (a team ranked above them, coming off an historic victory over England at Twickenham), September 25 Wales (a traditional rival with a good winning record against the Wallabies) and October 2 Portugal (the only assured victory for the Wallabies in the pool).

And the Wallabies are diving into this pool with five successive defeats this year. As Tom Decent in the Sydney Morning Herald has pointed out, this "is the worst pre-World Cup record in the last 20 years".

Twenty years ago, the Wallabies went into the RWC tournament with four losses from five Tests. The team fought its way through to the final in which a field goal in extra time gave victory and glory to England.

The Wallabies coach in 2003 was Eddie Jones. Can lightning strike twice for him and his new team?

■ Spiro, who is now 86, coached the St Patrick's College Silverstream Third Grade "C" rugby team, of which I was a member, in 1966. Our record for the season was: played 7, won 5, drew 1, lost 1. I had never played rugby before and knew so little about the game that Spiro had to come onto the field at half-time and turn me around.