Dana Johannsen: ARU boss blames everyone else for coaching debacle

Ewen McKenzie. Photo / Getty Images

Far be it for a Kiwi to stick their beak into what is going on across the Tasman, but for heaven's sake, can Australian Rugby just get their act together already?

We're starting to get embarrassed for them at this point, and it's distracting us from our own national embarrassments such as Steve Hansen mixing his metaphors, the consumption rate of RTD bourbon and cola mixes, and the exorbitant price of a 1kg block of cheese.

But it is certain Ewen McKenzie stepping down as Wallabies coach will not be the end of the sorry saga. That's because after all that has happened ARU boss Bill Pulver is still pointing to external reasons for the organisation's crisis. He reckons the media and wider Australian rugby public are to blame for McKenzie's departure.

"In essence, Ewen said he was going to struggle to retain the level of support he needs from the playing group and, in my view, because of the character assassination he's suffered in the last two weeks," Pulver explained after McKenzie abruptly announced his resignation following his side's one-point loss to the All Blacks on Saturday night.

Yes, McKenzie has copped a bit of a battering in the press for his handling of the Kurtley Beale situation, which has been allowed to fester since June... JUNE! But the discussion in the media appears to have been fuelled by Pulver's own dysfunctional organisation.

It is quite extraordinary for a newspaper to come into possession of a transcript of text messages at the centre of a disciplinary hearing and suggests someone within or close to the ARU leaked those texts (or ess-em-esses as they're called over there). As Quade Cooper warned all those months ago, there is something awfully wrong with the culture of Australian rugby. These very public flare-ups are just the way they manifest themselves, they're not the root cause of the issue. Until Pulver and his sidekicks recognise this, they'll continue to lurch from one crisis to the next.

Oz police see funny side

Given the parlous state of Australian rugby, the All Blacks' last-gasp 29-28 win over the Wallabies on Saturday night was a bit of a cruel blow. Still it's good to see the locals are keeping their sense of humour about it if a tweet from the Queensland police on Sunday morning is anything to go by: "Many people reporting a robbery at Suncorp Stadium last night. Sorry guys, we have no jurisdiction to investigate."

Poor ad for league

The actions of a handful of league stars in Brisbane over the weekend did come under the jurisdiction of the Queensland police, however.

More than 100 NRL and English Super League players have descended upon Queensland ahead of this Saturday's opening double-header in the Four Nations tournament. The arrest of Samoan international and Cowboys centre Tautau Moga following an incident involving several more of his teammates in a nightclub on Sunday morning was just publicity the tournament didn't need.

Actually, that's probably not true. The tournament is in such dire need of publicity that the exploits of the Samoan players at a VIP event at the Hot Gossip nightclub boosted the event into the public consciousness. But still, not the way organisers had hoped to do so.

Brisbane's Courier Mail reported the Samoan players fought with another group of men and police were called to the scene but players refused to co-operate with them.

As the NRL have been known to deal with incidences of violence, male-on-male that is, harshly (except during the State of Origin) Samoa could be without several of their stars for Saturday's opener.