It's official. In the span of nine months, Hamish McLennan and Eddie Jones have brought Australian rugby to its knees and sounded the death knell with the Wallabies sinking to what 12 months ago would have been an unimaginable new low, all but eliminated before even reaching the quarterfinals.
Easily dismantled and soundly beaten by a Wales pack that hardly left first gear, the young Wallabies team looked bereft of ideas with the experienced players who could have righted the ship either sitting on the bench, watching from their couch or standing in a TV studio on the other side of the world.
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As McLennan rightly pointed out in the week leading into the match, the Wallabies poor performances at the World Cup and the lead in were symbolic of the many governance issues that have plagued Australian rugby over the last 20 years. But on Sunday night, as die-hard Wallabies fans who'd travelled halfway around the world to support their team began to file out of the stadium with 10 minutes left on the clock, it was obvious McLennan's and Jones' actions over the last nine months has done more damage to Australian rugby than any administration previously.
The decision to sack Dave Rennie less than a year out from the tournament, after a mixed season that saw close to a full squad of players injured rather than on the park, was contentious at the time, and will only be questioned further after Monday's debacle. Even the way Rennie was informed of his sacking was shambolic, with the coach not even afforded a face-to-face conversation, instead told he was gone over Zoom.
It was no secret Rugby Australia wanted Jones back in the fold in any form they could, but to sack Rennie and sign Jones on a five-year deal spoke of the desperation not just to find results, but more so, to get rugby back in the headlines again.
While McLennan and the RA board hailed the second coming of Eddie, many questioned why the coach who had a horror end to his first stint with the Wallabies close to 20 years ago and was just sent packing from his most recent job at England, should be so eagerly welcomed back, and what he could do differently for a side that had shown signs of upward trajectory under Rennie despite some heartbreaking results.
Of all RA's coach daggerings, (the last decade is littered with them), Rennie's seemed the most brazen and has ultimately led to this, Australian rugby's darkest day.
But for McLennan, Jones' return did exactly what he wanted. The Wallabies were in the headlines again. Media were feasting on any comment Jones would make - despite being told they're the real problem with Australian rugby -- as the former England coach lapped up the attention and played his usual mind games. Some long, lost fans made their way back, hoping and dreaming Eddie would bring something new, different and exciting.
But as the poor results kept on coming -- a demoralising loss to the All Blacks, and another failed attempt to win back the Bledisloe, the side's heaviest loss to the Springboks since 2008, and a home loss to the Pumas -, and the endless questionable selection choices were made, it became clear Eddie had brought nothing new to the Wallabies set up. And TV sets were beginning to be switched off again.
With his mostly rugby league based coaching staff and his determination to use a youth first approach, the Wallabies looked a shambles in their five matches leading into the tournament. But Jones doubled-down on his youth-centric plan despite the poor results, taking the least experienced Wallabies side to a World Cup ever, leaving behind most notably Australia's most experienced Test player and captain Michael Hooper.
Meanwhile, as the wheels continued to fall off the Wallabies World Cup preparations, McLennan focused on his war of words with Peter V'Landys. Constantly seeking headlines with his 'code wars' diatribe throughout the year, the Wallabies' abysmal results in France will no doubt be front and centre at NRL HQ while Joseph Suaali'i -- who signed on from 2025 -- is surely questioning what he just got himself into.
Millions was spent sacking Rennie and bringing in Jones who was entrusted to bring in a "winning culture" to the Wallabies, instead Australia are one from eight, while the decision has cost RA even more. All but certain to fail to reach the quarters for the first time, Australia will also likely finish the tournament outside the top 10 in World Rankings, another new low for a side that just over two decades ago became the first team to lift the Webb Ellis trophy twice.
While the writing was on the wall months before the Wallabies' obliteration to Wales, it was still a heartbreaking watch to see the young, inexperienced side put to the sword so brutally on such a global stage. It was men against boys, as players with no Test experience - many with no right to be there -- and no real support system were thrown under the bus in another of Jones' endless mind games.
Scars will be left on these young players. Carter Gordon and Ben Donaldson, especially, after they were essentially thrown to the wolves and told to fight with their bare hands, while for others it could spell the end of their Test careers - Test careers that should never have begun at a World Cup.
Jones apologised to the Australian rugby faithful on Monday, saying he took "full responsibility for it, I haven't done a good enough job and I'm bloody disappointed about that", while he also claimed he's 100 percent committed to his job despite the bombshell report on the eve of this morning's Test he'd interviewed for the Japan coaching job. For many fans though, it's white noise as they look to overcome the hurt.
For the last 20 years all Australian rugby fans have had is hope; hope the Wallabies' Bledisloe drought would come to an end, hope that results would turn around and the Wallabies would be World Champions again, hope that Australian rugby would find a way. Now, heartbroken fans have nothing left but hope that this darkest of days will result in systematic changes, and the bringing to light of just how poorly run the code is within Australia.
Hitting back at critics and so-called nay-sayers in the week leading up to the Wallabies loss to Wales, McLennan told detractors simply "don't watch". The issue is, many of them already don't and after Monday they may never switch it back on again.