Rugby World Cup: IRB not in good books

The International Rugby Board "couldn't market a piss up in a brewery" and needs to be overhauled following the Rugby World Cup, former Springbok coach Nick Mallet said.

Mallet said the administration of the IRB was fundamentally flawed and it's leaders were out of touch.

IRB chief executive Mike Miller's comments that the All Blacks were replaceable following the NZRU's threat to pull them from the 2015 World Cup were a case in point, he said.

"I mean someone so out of touch with rugby as it is, could make a comment like that, he has no appreciation."

He said the attempted censure of Samoan tweeter Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu and the $10,000 fines against the Tuilagi brothers for wearing branded mouthguards were "crazy".

Fresh leadership from outside the Old Boys' Club of rugby administration was needed, he said.

Mallet, who coached the Italian team at this year's Rugby World Cup, was speaking at an Ernst & Young World Cup lunch yesterday.

His Italian team defeated France 22-21 in Rome in March, and Mallet has spent a number of years coaching French teams, including Stade Francais.

He said the mindset of the French rugby player rendered Les Bleus previous 37-17 defeat to the All Blacks in pool play irrelevant.

"They didn't really care. They knew they were going to finish second, they had no problem with that.

"It's not about the jersey as much for them. It's about emotion, and what they've got inside them, what they really badly feel at that moment."

Mallet said he thought the All Blacks would win, but the game would be decided by only around 10 points.

When the French played Australia in the 1999 final they used dirty play in an attempt to unsettle the Wallabies, he said.

"But that was right at the end of the amateur era...I think they realise now that you just going to get a yellow or red car."

He was confident the French team would rise to the occasion: "They do love theatre. And this is the greatest theatre of all".