Wynne Gray: Weakened Wallabies will get no mercy

Steve Hansen would do well to tell his men this weekend is all about the No Mercy rule. Photo / Getty Images

The annual rugby war cry across the Ditch has a 'this is our time' theme before it is replaced with growing regularity by 'Wallabies in disarray' headlines.

That familiarity has gone to a new level with the current soap opera about the coach, the business manager, the chief executive and the recalcitrant utility back.

The shambles is not in the same ball park as the Lay Down Sally, NRL match-fixing or AFL supplements controversies but it's layers ahead of any recent All Black social indiscretions.

Media outlets are frothing as the dirt within the Wallaby walls and accompanying stench from ARU headquarters leaches into the public arena and they can drape themselves in those revelations instead of another media conference about training.

It's not the first time the Wallabies have shown a fragmented public face before a test against the All Blacks.

Self-inflicted injuries were companions when Alan Jones, Greg Smith and John Connolly were at the helm but the Wallabies were usually able to muster a reasonable performance.

There have been blowouts from the 43-6 wipeout at Wellington in 1996 and the 33-6 belting in 2009, to the 51-20 pasting they suffered at Eden Park this year.

The Wallabies have also managed to inflict enough wounds to keep the transtasman contests tasty, if a little one-sided, with even a dusting like the 28-7 victory engineered by Rod Macqueen's crew in 1999.

Now they are inflicting more harm on themselves. There was an undertone of mistrust between the players and management during their tour to Europe last year which leaked into this year's Super rugby series.

It resurfaced in June and then erupted during the latest overseas excursion to South Africa and Argentina.

The tension will be as strained as it was when the Three Amigos were strutting about as the Wallabies hosted the Lions in 2012.

When the All Blacks landed in Brisbane yesterday, newspaper billboards blared dire warnings about the Wallaby chaos.

'The enemy within', 'Text sex and blow-ups' and 'Beale should not be sacked' were lively headlines suggesting victory for the All Blacks was a cinch on Saturday night at Suncorp Stadium.

Steve Hansen would do well to tell his men this weekend is all about the No Mercy rule.

The All Blacks are coming off a loss in Johannesburg and lurched to a tired draw last time they were in Brisbane. Hansen's message must be that the All Blacks are a better team but in his language, they must prepare "bone-deep" if they are going to jab a stiletto through the Wallaby ribs.