Former Wallabies fullback Greg Martin has raised concern for the mental wellbeing of Australia's young players as they battle through the squad's dismal World Cup campaign, even predicting "they'll need psychologists".
Martin, who played nine Tests across 1989 and 1990, also called for the number of Australian Super Rugby Pacific teams to be slashed from five to three.
Australia opened its World Cup campaign with a 35-15 win over Georgia, but a 22-15 defeat to Fiji and a 40-6 thrashing at the hands of Wales have followed.
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Barring a miracle, Australia is now on the brink of failing to advance from the pool stage of a World Cup for the first time, ahead of a game against Portugal on Monday morning (AEST).
Martin said the young Wallabies players would require mental health treatment and argued that Eddie Jones was not "soft" enough to be the man for the job.
"The problem is he's become erratic and bizarre as he's now 63 and he doesn't have that soft touch," Martin said on Triple M radio.
"What's the bloke who's coaching Collingwood? Craig McRae. He's soft. Collingwood had big problems two years ago.
"[Brisbane Lions coach] Chris Fagan is soft.
"This is what these modern kids need.
"[Former Wallabies coach] Dave Rennie, the Kiwi, was as boring as a chair, but he was soft.
"They don't want to be told what to do.
"Eddie Jones used to make blokes who were 120 kilograms, 130 kilograms cry, and I thought he might have got that out of his coaching technique, but no.
"All these kids — they'll need psychologists, these kids.
"They've been blown away, they'll be lucky to beat bloody Portugal on Monday morning.
"He's wrecked them."
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Jones returned as Wallabies coach in January, signing a five-year deal that would cover the World Cup in France and the 2027 World Cup on home soil.
The veteran mentor's "erratic and bizarre" streak, as Martin described it, reared its head as he delivered a mind-boggling press conference before flying out to France for the World Cup.
"I jumped on the Eddie train in January," Martin said.
"I went, 'Well that's what we need, we were going no good, we may as well try something new', but I didn't realise how bad this was.
"Michael Hooper and Quade Cooper should have been picked.
"Even if they didn't play … they would have been there for those younger guys to speak to.
"Those young kids don't want to speak to a 63-year-old coach; they want to speak to someone who's 32 and who's played 100 Test matches and ask them, "How do I work my way through this next time? How do I get through this tomorrow?".
Jones made the astonishing decisions to axe Hooper and Cooper for the World Cup. Hooper has 125 Test caps and was Australia's captain before incumbent skipper Will Skelton, while Cooper has played 79 Tests.
The Wallabies squad has an average age of 26 and a Tests-played average of 20, the lowest of an Australian World Cup squad since the 1991 tournament.
"I've been to all nine World Cups before this, either commentating or in tour groups, and the reason I didn't go [to this World Cup] is because I didn't think they were good enough," Martin said.
"We didn't have a good enough collection of players to make any impact.
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"I base this on how shit our five Super Rugby teams [are].
"Going into the future we only need three — remember that.
"You don't go from being losers playing Super Rugby to being winners when you put losers all together — it won't work.
"I knew we didn't have good enough players so I went, 'I'm not wasting tens of thousands of dollars going to watch the Wallabies'."
The five Australian Super Rugby Pacific teams are the ACT Brumbies, NSW Waratahs, Queensland Reds, Western Force and Melbourne Rebels.
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