Rugby Australia boss Phil Waugh says there won’t be a rush to lock in Eddie Jones’s replacement as Wallabies coach with emotions still “raw” after his ugly exit, declaring it won’t be a “quick fix” to turn the team and the code around.

Speaking for the first time following a horror campaign in France that ended with Jones’s resignation last weekend after less than one year of his five-year deal, Waugh had no insight as to who would take charge of the Wallabies next.

Former assistant coach Dan McKellar and Stephen Larkham have been mentioned as possibilities, as has former All Blacks boss Ian Foster, with a panel to be established to find the best candidate to rebuild from the rubble Jones has left behind.

“It’s all very raw so we want to make sure that we get the right panel together,” Waugh said on Tuesday.

“Once we get that panel together then we’ll run a process.

“Our next Test is not until July next year so we have time. The most important aspect now is reconnecting with the Australian public and the community and then making sure we land on the right coach.

“The most important aspect is getting the right coach, so (we’ll take) however long that takes.

“Historically, we’ve made decisions quickly, and the most important aspect is to make the right decision.”

The Wallabies have dropped to ninth in the rankings after failing to make it out of the group stages at the World Cup for the first time.

Fallout has included severe criticism of the RA board, and chairman Hamish McLennan, for appointing Jones, who was widely panned for adopting a failed youth policy for the World Cup and then abandoning his post with the team, and the sport, in turmoil.

Waugh conceded there was “no hiding” from the board’s responsibility for the current state of affairs but, as he addressed Jones’s abrupt departure for the first time, said there was little point raking over old coals, including the sacking of Dave Rennie, with their job now to right the ship in time for a home World Cup in 2027.

“Speculation or hypotheticals about where we would have been had we not have made that call and Dave stayed on, we’ll never know,” he said on Tuesday.

“But clearly the performances of the team and the results that we delivered weren’t up to the expectations of anyone.

“Hindsight is a wonderful thing and when you make decisions at any time during your career, you get presented information at the time and you make decisions based on that information.

“Where we ended up is clearly not good enough. It may have been different and it may not have been different. That’s a decision we have to live with.”

Jones will officially finish in the role on November 25, with Waugh choosing not to disclose the financial fallout from his sudden resignation that he described as a “sensible outcome”.

Winning back the support of the public is going to take a while, with Waugh conceding “expectations weren’t met” at the World Cup and performances have been on the decline for “quite some time”.

An announcement in August to align all the high-performance teams so everyone is working towards national success has been spruiked as a way to fix rugby’s struggles, but Waugh has warned the public to be patient.

“I don’t think it’s a quick fix,” he said.

“The Irish took some time when they moved to a new system and a new framework, so I’d say it won’t be a quick fix (for the Wallabies).

“What I will say is that we need to maximise our performance.

“We’ve got the Lions in 2025 and a home World Cup in 2027 for the men and 2029 for the women, and as we’ve seen with the 2003 home World Cup and the Matildas just recently, going deep in a home World Cup is so critically important.

“This is hopefully a low point and a chance for all of us to reset moving forward.”