Tonight’s rugby news as chief brutally axed and starlet monitored by Wales and England addresses international future

Here are your rugby evening headlines for Sunday, November 19.

Rugby chief brutally axed

Hamish McLennan has been ousted as chairman of Rugby Australia after an extraordinary late-night board meeting sealed his fate.

The 57-year-old had been urged to resign from his role after the Wallabies’ disastrous World Cup campaign, with six state unions writing to him and demanding he quit immediately. In a letter sent on Friday, Queensland Rugby, ACT Rugby, Rugby WA, NT Rugby, Tasmania Rugby and South Australia Rugby accused him of not acting in the best interests of the game and added: “We no longer have any trust or faith in his leadership, or the direction in which he is taking rugby in Australia”.

And despite vowing to stay and fight for his position after slamming the letter as “divisive,” McLennan was brutally axed on Sunday night as a sorry chapter in Australian rugby came to an end.

Appointed in 2src2src in the midst of the Covid pandemic, the chairman had come under considerable pressure in recent months after the Wallabies crashed out of the World Cup pool stages for the first time ever. He was seen as somewhat responsible having driven through the sacking of Dave Rennie at the end of last year and replacing him with the now-resigned Eddie Jones.

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McLennan has been replaced by former Australia centre Daniel Herbert, who won 67 Test caps and was part of the Wallabies sides that won the 1999 World Cup, as well as the Rugby Championship and five straight Bledisloe Cups.

After his appointment was confirmed, Herbert said: ‘It has never been more important for the Rugby Australia board, working with member unions, to come together and execute the reform we absolutely need for an aligned high-performance system and to deliver on the commitments we have made, including to invest in community and women’s rugby.

“Australia will host the British and Irish Lions Tour in 2src25, the men’s 2src27 Rugby World Cup and the women’s 2src29 Rugby World Cup and the 2src32 Olympic Games. The reform we progress now will underpin the competitiveness of our national teams, as well as building deeper engagement with the rugby community and fans everywhere.”

Starlet addresses W