Former Wallabies have called for wholesale changes in the Australian Test set-up after the side's worst-ever season and revelations of dressing-room tension.
With just five Tests left until Australia open their World Cup campaign against Fiji in Sapporo next September, time is running out to reset the Wallabies' course before the sport's showpiece event.
Too big for his boots? Brendan Cannon and Matt Burke say Wallabies coach Michael Cheika wields too much power in Australian rugby.Credit:AP
Decorated former Australian fullback Matt Burke and 42-Test former hooker Brendan Cannon were stinging in their assessments of Michael Cheika's management, which has seen the team slump to sixth in the world and notch a season of nine losses from 13 Tests.
Cannon said the Rugby Australia board and executive had no choice but to take action.
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"They cant sit back and let this decline continue without someone deciding to take the bull by the horns, say this is unacceptable and we need to do something to turn it around," he said.
"Whatever that is – changing the coach, appointing a former Wallaby as a chairman of selectors on a panel, appointing new assistants – take a bit from each of the successful teams in the world and implement that.
"For a period of time we were the world leaders in rugby – three years ago we played in a World Cup final – but our decline has been so rapid, so quick and so sad."
Burke said the team had lost the respect of their rivals.
"You can win your games against Italy, just, but that goes to show where [Australia] are in world rugby," he told the Big Sports Breakfast.
"You saw Italy get smashed by New Zealand, 66-3. There was no chat from Conor O'Shea, their coach, about 'we're going to take it to the Kiwis today, we're going to really get stuck into them'. Where they said that about us.
"I reckon that respect factor's gone. We're down at [sixth] in the world, we started at No.3 at the start of the year."
Even former Wallabies coach Bob Dwyer, a close ally of Cheika's, said it was time for him to draw a line in the sand.
"When the chips are down the leader has to step up," Dwyer said. "It requires some sound judgment and it definitely requires 'Cheik' to show what hes got. Hes got plenty of ticker and he needs to show it, stand up and say this is what were going to do and this is how were going to get there."
RA chief executive Raelene Castle arrives home from Europe on Tuesday and will meet with officials and board members later in the week to chart a course of action.
The board's final meeting of the year is on December 10, which could leave fan frustrations to fester for the next two weeks.
Burke said Castle and the board would have no appetite to sack Cheika because he wielded too much influence at head office.
"He survives because he has the run of the mill at the Australian Rugby Union," the former Waratah said.
"There'll be a review and they'll put things in place but he has total autonomy over that joint at the moment.
''They're not going to change him, whether or not anyone calls for his sacking."
Cannon, who has been critical of RA chairman Cameron Clyne over his handling of the demise of the Western Force last year, said Cheika was not the whole problem.
"Theres a lot of people that need to be held to account, Michael Cheika isnt the only one," he said.
"On the professional side, there's a number of systems that need to be reflected upon. In the space of three or four years, weve gone from being second in the World Cup to [sixth] in the world and each year our performances as a group and our individual skills arent getting any better."
But the hooker, who played for NSW and Queensland, did not miss Cheika, calling on Castle to reel in the head coach's unfettered power.
"I think RA need to take a lot of control back off Cheika and use it as a catalyst for change," he said. "If they don't want to then I'll find another sport. I don't know what to say about them at the moment."
It has been revealed over recent days that the team ended the season with strained relations, mostly over perceptions of a double standard on team discipline.
Kurtley Beale and Adam Ashley-Cooper, both of whom played under Cheika at NSW in 2013 and 2014, were not disciplined for breaking team rules until 10 days after the fact.
Fairfax Media revealed a group of players had approached team leaders with concerns the incident was going unpunished, pointing to the standing down last month of Sefa Naivalu after the Melbourne winger almost missed a team bus in South Africa because he had been drinking.
Georgina Robinson is a Sports Reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald
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