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Max Jorgensen\u2019s serious injury at training is a shame on multiple fronts, but he really should not have been in France in the first place.<\/p>\n
This column repeatedly warned this year that he was being overplayed even at Super Rugby level, and that someone at Rugby Australia needed to tell Eddie Jones he wasn\u2019t taking a bloke who has barely turned 19 to a World Cup.<\/p>\n
His injuries this year were all too predictable, but sadly standard practice for Australian rugby: young players are thrown into Super Rugby before they\u2019re ready because there are two too many teams and too many positions to fill.<\/p>\n
Jorgensen was another player selected with an eye to the future, with the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour fast closing in, followed by the home World Cup two years later.<\/p>\n
The rationale is superficially easy to understand \u2013 in fact it is far too simplistic.<\/p>\n
Using France as an example, Rugby Australia argues that blooding young players at this Rugby World Cup, as opposed to waiting a year, will set them up for 2027.<\/p>\n
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Wallabies Matt Philip and Samu Kerevi address the media in France with assistant coach Dan Palmer. <\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty <\/cite><\/p>\n But, exactly how many of the French squad from 2019 have been selected again in 2023? Only eight, which is not an unusually high number. Also, four of those blokes were already mature-age picks in 2019, aged between 24-26, and therefore Test-ready athletes.<\/p>\n In other words, only four of France\u2019s \u2018future player\u2019 picks in 2019 made it through to 2023 (that will go down to three if it is confirmed that Antoine Dupont suffered a facial fracture against Namibia).<\/p>\n And again that\u2019s not atypical; the Wallabies themselves picked a \u2018young\u2019 Jordan Uelese, Taniela Tupou, Izack Rodda and Jordan Petaia in 2019.<\/p>\n The France comparison, therefore, doesn\u2019t stack up and Rugby Australia should stop using it to justify the Wallabies\u2019 2023 strategy, which is on a different scale and far from the \u2018tried and tested\u2019 approach it has been presented as.<\/p>\n Jordan Petaia, Carter Gordon, Marika Koroibete and Ben Donaldson at training ahead of the crunch Wales clash.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n The second point about waiting for 2027 \u2013 setting aside the fact that Wallabies fans\u2019 appetite for delayed gratification is basically zero \u2013 is that the theory only works if all of their rivals plan on sitting still or going backwards over the next four years.<\/p>\n That\u2019s plainly a ridiculous statement: everyone has a plan to improve (the South Africans and New Zealand Rugby, for example, are making good progress on plans to revive Springboks-All Blacks tours, including midweek games against Super Rugby clubs \u2013 a development that would leave Australian rugby somewhat on the sidelines).<\/p>\n I wouldn\u2019t have the Wallabies (or the All Blacks) in the top five of my \u2018most likely to improve over the next four years\u2019.<\/p>\n The conditions are far more conducive for Fiji, Samoa, Italy, Japan and France to improve, for varied and sometimes complex reasons.<\/p>\n But, take Fiji for example.<\/p>\n It\u2019s true that some of their big players such as Levani Botia, 34, won\u2019t make it to 2027, but imagine what they\u2019d be like with a genuine top-class Test No.10?<\/p>\n Guess what, the Fijian Drua have just announced the signing of Isaiah Ravula-Armstrong, a gun who came through the New Zealand system (Hurricanes under-20 and Manawatu in the NPC) but has committed his future to Fiji. If he develops the way Fiji expects, the Pacific Islanders have the potential to be top five in the world.<\/p>\n The third element of this is that I have no faith that the professional game in Australia is actually structured in a way to guarantee the improvement of the Wallabies. Australia doesn\u2019t have the depth or the resources to run five professional teams, one more than Ireland and South Africa.<\/p>\n As for \u201ccentralisation\u201d being the great answer, Rugby Australia\u2019s recent announcement about this strategy lacked detail.<\/p>\n And frankly, why would the states give more power to RA if the Wallabies don\u2019t make the quarter-finals in France, on the back of the well-documented issues in the Wallaroos program?<\/p>\n All of the above is connected to former Wallabies winger\u2019s Drew Mitchell\u2019s emotion-fuelled rant at Eddie Jones this week. What do Australian rugby fans want at the moment? Yes, a run into the quarters and semi-finals would be nice \u2013 and it\u2019s still a possibility \u2013 but the yearning out there is for something far more important: accountability.<\/p>\n Watch all the action from <\/b>Rugby World Cup 2023<\/b> on the Home of Rugby, Stan Sport. Every match streaming ad-free, live and in 4K UHD with replays, mini matches and highlights available on demand.<\/b><\/p>\n Sports news, results and expert commentary. <\/i><\/b>Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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