Starved of success: Wallabies fans are struggling to remember when the team last had a win. Credit:Getty Images The news comes in the midst of a spirited debate about the role of the private school system in Australia, sparked by a Fairfax Media article suggesting the code should no longer rely on a select group of institutions to provide the majority of its top-tier talent. Many will feel this sort of review was at least a decade too late but McLean and other key ARU figures are determined to ensure it is more than just lip service and want to set in stone cultural and concrete change as part the ARU's five-year strategic plan. "When we started working on the strategic plan, it was really important that schools were a big part of that. When we started to look at what we had, we didn't really have a plan in place for schools," McLean said. "There has been nothing as detailed as this. And as our game becomes so much more competitive around those schools, we really need to give the leaders at the schools confidence that if the kids play rugby, these are the things that have been addressed and there is a plan for rugby and where schools fit in on that broader picture.

"We've talked to about 150 schools. And the thing that surprised me is that schools now want a level of governance and direction. They're wanting us as a body to work with them on this journey. " The disconnect between the direction of elite schools and the ARU has been one of the major points of dysfunction in Australian rugby but the changing landscape has prompted fresh dialogue between the two key parties. Some of the earliest changes revolve around safety, including the likelihood of standardised concussion protocols across any schools game in Australia as well as the potential for weight-for-age competitions, which have already been adopted by some schools. "If you went to a junior game, an U15s game at those schools, you mightn't see the same [concussion] procedures in place as you would in the first XV. What' we're hoping to have is a set of protocols to sign off to, so no matter what grade it is, they will be adhered to. If we have that in place we've achieved something," McLean said. Flogged: Wallabies players look on during the Bledisloe Cup loss to the All Blacks at Westpac Stadium on August 27. Credit:Getty Images

If you put all of your eggs in the GPS basket in Brisbane and Sydney, we're not going to do any good. ARU director Paul McLean While those sorts of safety issues should be adopted with minimal fuss, other potential changes would take longer to finesse given the tradition attached to the schools and their various associations. They include discussions around tinkering with competitions to ensure fairer competition as schools that may have been rugby powerhouses undergo demographic and generational change. "We've had situations where there are 80-point margins. Some schools have been applying a mercy rule. But there's a broader picture ... there are some schools where rugby doesn't have the same influence it did 30 years ago, because of the make-up of the school," he said. "Maybe the traditional competitions are meant to be restructured so there's a better balance of who's playing who. They're the things that are on the table that are on discussion. That level of competition is very important."

And on clubs: "We don't want to be interfering with schools but with schools and clubs, that connection can be strengthened. It's easier in some cases with history, geography. But I think with school rugby, if you're playing seven or eight games a year as a 16-year-old ... at that age if you're not playing 25 games a year you'd think there's something wrong." McLean also said there were moves afoot to provide concrete pathways for players outside of the inner-city and private school systems, which have traditionally supplied a large percentage of Wallabies. "It's the old saying ... if you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got. We're sensing there is a feeling around schools generally that if we keep doing the same thing, it's not going to work. That's not to say that some of the competitions aren't still good," McLean said. Loading "But it's not our intention to put all our eggs on one basket. If you put all of your eggs in the GPS basket in Brisbane and Sydney, we're not going to do any good.