And then it all changed with stunning rapidity. Just over a year after flogging T-shirts for $20 – and Kiwi bucks at that – Eales signed a contract for a reputed $500,000 a year, when rugby went professional, and the game changed forever. Or did it? But we’ll get to that ... Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video The first burst of professional rugby in Australia, basically until just a bit after the Eales era was over, went better than anyone could have imagined: the Wallabies started winning Bledisloes; lifted the 1999 World Cup; beat the British and Irish Lions; and crowds swelled as never before. The Waratahs regularly played before crowds of 40,000 at the Sydney Football Stadium and everyone in the wider rugby community felt a deep connection to their representative teams.

In the past few years, however? Loading I know it, and you know it. The game in this country has lost its way, on and off the field. Both the provincial teams and the Wallabies more or less stopped winning, the crowds stopped coming and, most worryingly of all, there was a loss of connection between the rugby community and our highly paid stars. After the Wallabies miraculously made the final of the World Cup in 2015, I had to threaten management with holy hell to get five Wallabies to turn up at a Cauliflower Club lunch, where 800 of the rugby community were gathering to welcome them home. I was told at the time the cause of their reluctance was because they were "tired, after a long World Cup".

Ambassadors for the game? Not really. Raelene Castle had to threaten her own holy hell to get some of the 2019 Wallabies to turn up for a function at the Australian embassy in Tokyo during that year’s World Cup. The same malaise was apparent at provincial level. Earlier this year, the fine rugby folk of Albury did a promotion on the morning of a trial match between the Rebels and the Brumbies, saying come and meet the stars, only to be advised by Brumbies management a short time before their scheduled appearance that they wouldn’t be coming because there was a bit of drizzle. Tevita Kuridrani of the Brumbies is tackled by NSW playmaker Will Harrison during round seven of Super Rugby, just before the season was suspended. Credit:Getty Who was there? Nick Farr-Jones and Tim Gavin, two Wallabies of the old days, still turning up to beat the rugby drum all those years on, for no reward.

My point? Rod Kafer is right in saying Australian rugby has been sick for many years, and we all know that. I disagree strongly, however, in attributing the slide to any person in particular or even a few people. Mostly the people you see at the top level are seriously good rugby folk – and I am thinking particularly at board and chair level – doing their absolute best for the game, with their only reward being endless headaches and bitter public criticism as everyone rips in. What ails the game in this country is not due to particular people making wrong decisions. The way back to rude rugby health will not be an easy one. The coronavirus pause, however, is going to allow a massive reset of the game in this country. It's a time to recognise what has gone wrong and how we can come together as rugby people of good will to fix it, make it better. I say the starting point is we need to get back to the old values as much as possible, make players understand they owe the game far more than the game will ever owe them. Got that, you blokes? While it is one thing for you to make a good living from it, if you don’t have a sense of privilege in wearing the jersey, you needn’t bother putting the boots on in the first place, and good luck in rugby league, or France, or wherever.