Eales: ARU has nothing to hide

Wallabies great John Eales. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Wallabies great John Eales believes there is no need for a Senate inquiry into Australian rugby, while current skipper Michael Hooper is adamant the remedy to ease the code's pain is simple ... win.

Eales is a director on the Australian Rugby Union board that cut the Force from Super Rugby. He put himself in the firing line at a rugby lunch for the University of Western Australia.

He questioned the Senate inquiry that has been ticked to examine the the code in Australia, focusing on the transparency or lack of it, around the Australian Rugby Union's decision to cut the Force.

"I would seriously question whether there is a need for that [but] it's not me making that decision," said Eales, a two-time Rugby World Cup winner. "I know that there is nothing the ARU or the ARU board has got to hide."

Eales said a detailed timeline of events and financial modelling was published on the ARU's website late Tuesday. "We've published everything. Go through that timeline and there's detail."

Eales said the Force issue and the Wallabies playing in Perth last night were separate and he encouraged people to back the national side.

"Everyone is doing what they think is right and, yes, you have issues where there are going to be conflicting views."

Hooper said the Wallabies had not been distracted by the Force drama this week and had focused on fixing key on-field issues like restarts and making 20-year-old reserve hooker Jordan Uelese feel at home before his debut.

"It hasn't been swept under the rug by any means. It impacted all of us, but those directly impacted we offered our support to," Hooper said.

"Despite the tough times over here in WA, we've had some great support this week when going out to schools or around training."