Greg Growden

What an absolute shambles. A rudderless and distracted Wallabies outfit got what they deserved by suffering the embarrassment of being Argentina’s first victim in The Rugby Championship.

Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie’s position is now under serious question after the team suffered one of its most inexplicable losses of recent times at the end of a road tour from hell that publicly exposed the division within the Australian team camp.

Full marks to Argentina for taking advantage of a sidetracked opposition, who made it so much easier for them by being ill-disciplined, disorganised, dispirited and clearly lacking on-field leaders.

In the end, the most entertaining moment of the Australian performance was singer Marcelo Zelada’s mangled version of Advance Australia Fair before kickoff, which included snatches of English, Spanish, gibberish and even a bit of humming.

ESPNscrum

Unlike the Wallabies players who couldn’t do anything right during the game, at least Zelada got a few of the words right.

He was the only candidate for the Wallabies Man of the Match award, as he actually made the national anthem sound better.

After the All Blacks-Springbok spectacle in Johannesburg which was Test football at its best, it was back to mediocrity at Mendoza when two average teams went out of their way to see if they could make more blunders than their opponents.

The Wallabies easily won the mistake-error count. The Pumas won the up-front battle, mincing the Australian scrum at times, and so were able to dominate possession and territory. A better side – New Zealand, South Africa, England even – would have put the Wallabies away by at least 20 points.

What was so diabolical about the Wallabies was the lack of spirit and aggression. They performed like a bunch of disheveled strangers who had lost their way on a bush tour.

Then again, the Wallabies have been a troubled outfit for some time. The problems began during last year’s end-of-season Northern Hemisphere tour, and the Dublin drinking affair where numerous players were publicly outed by officials, and it has continued to fester this year.

Even well before the incident involving Kurtley Beale and the Wallabies business manager Di Patston on the flight from Johannesburg to Brazil, there has been ill feelings among the players over numerous administerial issues.

Several Australian team sources have told scrum.com in recent months that the Wallabies camp has this year become unnecessarily sombre. Some players have admitted to being ‘unhappy.’

It is known that Patston’s relationship with several Wallabies players could not be described as amicable, with some questioning her substantial power base within the team structure. Also, other ARU staff members have become nervous about Patston’s role.

There is now a fear among some Wallabies that Beale will be the scapegoat for what occurred on the flight, with several players arguing he was not entirely to blame for what occurred. One said that Beale had been ‘goaded’ on the flight by a team official into reacting.

Senior players are also prepared to back Beale during the Australian Rugby Union inquiry into the incident.

As McKenzie said, this is a ‘complicated issue.’ That is almost an understatement, and how much is revealed during the ARU inquiry over what has occurred in recent times will be intriguing.

As the ARU deliberately cut corners and minimise costs, which has included not having a proper Wallabies team manager for some time, relying on an inexperienced off-field staff has caught them out.

It is no surprise that the team luggage disappeared in the lead-up to this Test match.

The players certainly weren’t shocked this happened. This bungle was reported; others this year have been cleverly hidden away by the ARU propagandists.

And McKenzie has to accept much of the blame for the Mendoza fiasco. Missing a Wallabies training session is a very bad look, and he will now have to work hard to regain the faith of his players.

His Rugby Championship record is underwhelming. In both 2013 and 2014, the Wallabies have finished a distant third behind the All Blacks and Springboks.

He boasts only four wins (three against Argentina, one against the Springboks) PLUS a draw from 12 Rugby Championship Tests.

McKenzie’s Test success record (52%) from 11 wins in 21 Tests is the lowest of any Australian coach in the professional era, ranking below Robbie Deans (58%), John Connolly (64), Eddie Jones (57), Rod Macqueen (79) and Greg Smith (63).

So now Australian Rugby is in crisis mode.

At a time when Beale has told colleagues he wants to join the NRL ranks next year, McKenzie’s role is under scrutiny, the team standards continue to slip and loud murmurs that FoxSports will not telecast the National Rugby Championship next year due to poor audience figures, the ARU needs good, strong leadership to sort out this mess.

The big question is whether they possess the right men at the top who are prepared to put the welfare of Australian Rugby ahead of their own self-interests to get it back on track?

I have my doubts.