By Toby Tancred Ariel Durant wrote, “a great civilisation is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within”. She was referring in the Story of Civilisation to the Roman Empire but her words equally describe the current climate of our game.  Australian Rugby is not yet dead, but it’s doing a pretty good job at killing itself - sadly from within. In my eyes, one of the major problems with the game in Australia presently is the general negativity and mood of pessimism among long-time supporters, former and current players and former and current administrators – except of course for those on the board of Rugby Australia. It is hard to know how to lift the collective out of this mood particularly when there is objectively not much about which to be happy. Only recently one of the shining lights in Australian Rugby, the Sydney Shute Shield competition, has killed one of its own. It has excluded the Penrith Emus only five games into the season.