You could set your watch by it, couldn’t you? The Wallabies are bundled out of the World Cup and the call goes up:

Get rid of the lot of them! Sack the coach, sack the board, and use them as a warning to all who pass – win, or meet this fate.

My friends, bring it in tight. Let’s talk on this.

Damn right the Wallabies were disappointing. Damn right, Cheika had to go – particularly after he said he would fall on his sword if they didn’t win the World Cup. But to take that same sword to smite everyone else on the grounds, for starters, that they totally mismanaged Cheika?

Listen, you have only got credibility in the field if you were saying Cheika was stinking up the joint, before this World Cup. Were you? And there were none of you that I can recall saying that publicly.

As far as I can see the chief critics of Rugby Australia are being wise after the event, implying that it was obvious that he had to be sacked and they just didn’t do it.

No, it wasn’t obvious Cheika had to be sacked. For starters, the idea of handing Cheika a big cheque to walk with no obvious reason to do so, when the finances are so strained, would have caused a major outcry on its own.

Yes, Cheika’s results were underwhelming during his tenure at the Wallaby helm. But against that he had two things going for him. Whatever else, he was the coach of the best-performing rugby team we’ve seen in Australia since forever – the 2014 Super Rugby-winning Waratahs. And the following year he got the Wallabies to the World Cup final against the All Blacks, and against all odds.

This year, admittedly against the run of play, he somehow managed to coach the Wallabies to put 47 points on the All Blacks in a thrilling victory in Perth – something never achieved before. In all likelihood Cheika will shortly be the coach of the side that put 47 points on a team that has been world champions on three successive occasions.

I agree there were many things with the Cheika approach that were frustrating – starting with the all but perpetual narkiness, which inevitably flared up when he left the stage. But under the circumstances it was not unreasonable for Rugby Australia to let him take the Wallabies to the World Cup, rather than saying “the team bus is leaving in five minutes and you should be under it.”

Another criticism levelled at Rugby Australia is its handling of the Folau case.

Again, it is obvious in hindsight that it was madness to sign Folau again after the initial imbroglio. But that is only in hindsight. Who could possibly have believed that Folau would tweet much the same stuff again?

The answer is, no-one in their right mind.

And when Folau did do it again, of course they had no choice but to let him go. Keeping him on board after he broke his commitment not to so tweet, and after such severe consequences, was out of the question and the only people who say different are either religious zealots or have a political axe to grind – sometimes both.

And so we are where we are in Australian rugby – at the bottom of a fairly dark pit, with only three strong points of light. Club rugby is going better, and both the Australian Schoolboys and the Australian under-20 side have just beaten their New Zealand counterparts. That, at least, is a good sign that there must be a lot of talent coming through.

Where to from here?