LYON, France -- Wallabies great Stephen Moore has hit out at the continually changing "narrative" emanating out of Rugby Australia's head office, the 129-Test hooker renewing calls for major change across the game in the aftermath of what is likely to be an inglorious pool stage exit from Rugby World Cup 2023.
And Moore is adamant that if coach Eddie Jones is found to have met with Japan on the eve of the tournament, as is alleged by the Sydney Morning Herald, that his position as Wallabies coach would be untenable.
Speaking exclusively with ESPN after Sunday night's embarrassing 40-6 loss to Wales, which all but sealed Australia's World Cup fate, Moore said he shared the pain of disconsolate Wallabies supporters who were making their way back north the next morning.
"I really felt for the people on the train from Lyon to Paris, people who have made the decision to come over here, and it costs a lot to come on these trips, and you do feel for them because they really do want Australia to win," Moore told ESPN.
"But right to the last moment, they're there supporting the team. But we've got to do better bringing them along for the ride and give them something to be happy about, and we haven't done that this time.
"And whenever you don't do that you need to go back and look at why, and how, and yeah there's that 20-year memory thing; but have we got everything right within the Wallabies team? I think it's pretty clear that we've made some pretty ordinary decisions in a lot of different areas in the last 12 months, that if we had our time again we might do something different.
"And that's the point I guess, the people who are involved in that need to be accountable for that, because that's how it works."
Moore's point about accountability will ring true across many with an interest in Australian rugby, no matter at what level they are involved or to what degree they are engaged.
Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan has come in for significant ire in the wake of the back-to-back defeats, given he was the leading figure in the decision to sack Dave Rennie and appoint Jones. McLennan also told those who were readying to knock the Wallabies last week "don't watch" and blamed the team's slide -- Jones is 1-7 since his return as coach -- on the failings of the past 20 years, a declaration Moore said was made to safeguard those currently in power.
"Well I think the narrative has changed that many times, that it's hard to know what Rugby Australia is trying to achieve," Moore said. "This time last year it was Dave Rennie taking us to the World Cup and I remember people coming out categorically and saying Dave will be our coach at the World Cup.
"We get rid of him and bring Eddie in, he's going to win the World Cup, and then it turns into a rebuild narrative, and now it's turned into the whole game in Australia needs restructuring. And it's all suiting the people in the roles, to maintain their own tenure I guess.
"I don't know how we can continue as a code without some significant change at the top of Rugby Australia, and I'm not talking about individuals, I'm just saying that any organisation that has performed this poorly, we need change at a board level to be able to get out the other side of it. That's my personal view, I don't know how we can continue with the same people running the game and the quicker we make a decision on that stuff, the better."
Moore also has doubts around the desire for centralisation - as is Rugby Australia's grand plan - given the Brumbies have already come out and suggested they intend to fight it, fearful of what might happen to Australia's most successful Super Rugby franchise.
He also renewed calls for the national footprint to be examined, specifically that Australia couldn't sustain five professional franchises either from a talent or resources perspective, echoing calls of former Wallabies teammate Stephen Hoiles and others who have privately expressed to ESPN the need to a cull a team, or even two, to help get the Wallabies back on track.
Such a move would reopen still-mending wounds created by the decision to axe the Western Force in 2017, though that franchise has since been sold to mining magnate Andrew Forrest and is at least well-resourced off the field.
As for the story that continues to dominate Australian -- and world -- rugby circles, Moore said that if Jones was found to have met with the Japanese Rugby Union about the soon-to-be-vacant Brave Blossoms job, then his position would simply be untenable moving forward.
McLennan this week said he was aware that Jones had an "open invitation" to return to Japan whenever he liked but that both he and RA chief executive Phil Waugh were satisfied in the coach's denials that he wasn't preparing to jump ship.
Jones is expected to face further questions on his alleged Zoom meeting with the JRFU, and plans for a follow-up interview, when he speaks to the media on Friday morning [CET] after naming his team to face Portugal.
And as for testimony from Wallabies players that they had neither read nor discussed the bombshell article ahead of their loss to Wales, Moore again found that hard to believe.
"The players would have read it as soon as it was online. There is no doubt about that," Moore insisted. "As much as they say they didn't see it, they would have definitely seen it and spoken about it before the game.
"We had a similar issue with Jake White at the Brumbies, there was speculation in the press that he was going to go to England, and we sat down with Jake and looked him in the eye and we discussed it, he was honest with us and on we went from there.
"Someone's clearly not telling the truth, the report in the paper, he [the journalist] was pretty confident that it was accurate. So if he's standing behind that and it is true, I would imagine Eddie's position is untenable and we need to part ways with him; if that has happened on the eve of a World Cup I can't see how he can continue in the current structure. And I'm not saying that it is true, but if it is I can't see how we can continue with Eddie as the coach.
"And look if there'd been zero speculation about this prior to this breaking, then maybe it would have a bit less suspicion around it, but this has been bubbling away the whole time, he's said it himself in interviews and then sort of had to renege on it around moving on after the World Cup. There's been a continuous stream of rumour and innuendo around Eddie's long-term tenure in the role and it just hasn't gone away, has it? It keeps turning up everywhere and I think that's a bit unsettling for everyone, especially the players."
On field, Moore can't fathom the regression in the Wallabies' maul, which not only failed to make any imprint on Wales, as had been its recent trend, but was also marched back 20 metres on multiple occasions in Lyon.
"Definitely [dominated], and that's really disappointing to see, that says a lot about a team when that happens. We haven't seen it that often from the Wallabies because our maul has been really solid," Moore told ESPN. "I thought last week against Fiji we had probably a dozen maul opportunities and we went nowhere off them.
"If I think back to 2015, I think against Fiji, we scored two or three maul tries and then you score another couple, a few penalties, and it's game over. So that's how you beat teams like that, you've got to squeeze them up front and dominate them in that part of the game. And when we're getting dominated in that area it's not a good sign."
Moore also found it difficult to understand the logic of injured Wallabies skipper Will Skelton's "up until kick-off" team naming, which turned out to be nothing more than a failed distraction tactic against Fiji. Skelton was ruled out of last Sunday's clash with Wales and will not face Portugal either, making a mockery of Jones' subterfuge.
"I agree, and if you make a decision several days out from the game, what does it say to the guy who's replacing him?" Moore said of the Skelton situation. "In my view, you should be backing the replacement and coming out with it, and giving that player the confidence that you believe in him and he can get the job done.
"So if you're hiding it and not announcing, if you're playing a Test match and you're not even named in the side just before kick-off, that doesn't give you a lot of confidence as a player that the coach thinks you can do the job. That's my view on it, I understand the smoke and mirrors piece for the opposition and all that, but is it really a big deal that stuff?
"Given where we are as a team, I would have thought we need to be as up front and as transparent as possible, for ourselves more than anyone else, just to give ourselves confidence that we can do the job."
Transparency across the board, it appears the only way out for Australian rugby.