Tonight's rugby news as chief brutally axed and starlet monitored by Wales and England addresses international future

Here are your rugby evening headlines for Sunday, November 19.

Rugby chief brutally axed

Hamish McLennan has been ousted as chairman of Rugby Australia after an extraordinary late-night board meeting sealed his fate.

The 57-year-old had been urged to resign from his role after the Wallabies' disastrous World Cup campaign, with six state unions writing to him and demanding he quit immediately. In a letter sent on Friday, Queensland Rugby, ACT Rugby, Rugby WA, NT Rugby, Tasmania Rugby and South Australia Rugby accused him of not acting in the best interests of the game and added: "We no longer have any trust or faith in his leadership, or the direction in which he is taking rugby in Australia".

And despite vowing to stay and fight for his position after slamming the letter as "divisive," McLennan was brutally axed on Sunday night as a sorry chapter in Australian rugby came to an end.

Appointed in 2020 in the midst of the Covid pandemic, the chairman had come under considerable pressure in recent months after the Wallabies crashed out of the World Cup pool stages for the first time ever. He was seen as somewhat responsible having driven through the sacking of Dave Rennie at the end of last year and replacing him with the now-resigned Eddie Jones.

McLennan has been replaced by former Australia centre Daniel Herbert, who won 67 Test caps and was part of the Wallabies sides that won the 1999 World Cup, as well as the Rugby Championship and five straight Bledisloe Cups.

After his appointment was confirmed, Herbert said: 'It has never been more important for the Rugby Australia board, working with member unions, to come together and execute the reform we absolutely need for an aligned high-performance system and to deliver on the commitments we have made, including to invest in community and women's rugby.

"Australia will host the British and Irish Lions Tour in 2025, the men's 2027 Rugby World Cup and the women's 2029 Rugby World Cup and the 2032 Olympic Games. The reform we progress now will underpin the competitiveness of our national teams, as well as building deeper engagement with the rugby community and fans everywhere."

Starlet addresses Wales 'chatter'

Exeter Chiefs wing Immanuel Feyi-Waboso has addressed his international future after admitting neither Wales nor England have yet contacted him after a strong start to the season.

The 20-year-old Cardiff academy product is eligible for both nations, with Warren Gatland understood to be keeping a close eye on him ahead of the Six Nations, while England are also monitoring his progress. His former manager at Cardiff, Gruff Rees, previously tipped him as a "future Welsh international", with the star also having previously trained with the Wales national squad and representing the U18 side.

Having recently admitted that he would "love to be a Welsh international", Feyi-Waboso has made no secret of his allegiances and doubled down when asked what his priority would be if either Wales or England came calling.

"I was born in Wales, Wales is my home country. I speak a little bit of Welsh," he told the BBC's Scrum V. "They do have a pretty good back three at the moment with players like Josh Adams, Rio Dyer and Louis Rees-Zammit."

However, despite an impressive start to the new campaign seeing him score three tries in nine appearances, the speedster is not getting carried away, admitting that neither nation have contacted him amid "chatter" of a potential call-up.

"Neither of them have spoken to me directly," he said. "As far as I'm concerned at the moment it's all chatter and at the moment I don't want to entertain the chatter. I feel there's a lot of my game that I need to work on, a lot that I'm still learning. It's up to the coaches whether they decide if I get called up or not.

"It would be a huge privilege to get called up," he added. "I would love to be called up but there's a lot of my game that I need to work on to be considered an international. It's nice to hear the chatter but you need to know where you are."

Disgraced ex-World Rugby boss lands new job

Shamed former France coach Bernard Laporte has returned to rugby less than a year after he was handed a two-year suspended prison sentence for bribery and corruption.

Laporte was convicted in a French court last December after it was ruled he showed favouritism in awarding a contract to sponsor the front of the French national team's jerseys to close friend and billionaire owner of Top 14 club Montpellier, Mohed Altrad. This saw Laporte resign from his role as World Rugby vice-chairman, months before France hosted the World Cup.

He was also banned from working in rugby for two years, but that ban is suspended pending his appeal. And now the former FFR president and Six Nations winning coach - who led France between 1999 and 2007 - is back in the game after being appointed Montpellier's new director of rugby.

The stunning move sees him succeed Philippe Saint-André and link up with his old friend Altrad, who was given an 18-month suspended sentence for his part in the offences, which according to the charges saw the pair carry out illegal influence-peddling and passive corruption.

And Altrad played down the controversy as Laporte's appointment was confirmed, refusing to comment on proceedings in an exclusive interview with Le Journal du Dimanche, before issuing a statement lauding the former Toulon coach as "one of the best French rugby experts".

"In this sporting period, which is one of the most complicated that this club that I love so much has known, Bernard Laporte will have to strengthen cohesion within the collective," he said. "His support for our objectives, his passion for rugby make him the sports leader that the MHR urgently needs."

Scarlets boss in awe of 'world class' star

Dwayne Peel said his Scarlets side were taught a "tough lesson" after they were hammered 54-5 by Leinster.

A grim night in Dublin saw the Irish province run in eight tries as a number of their World Cup stars enjoyed themselves on their first starts since returning home from France. That quality ultimately shone through as they reached a half-century of points with Garry Ringrose, Jamie Osborne and Sam Prendergast all getting amongst the tries.

Peel was under no illusions as to the gulf between the two sides on the night and singled out one of Leinster's returning Irish stars, Hugo Keenan, as the best player in the world in his position as he admitted his side were "hurt" by his performance.

"It was a tough lesson, they were obviously stacked and I thought the quality they had in their group told in the end," he said. “We battled hard for the first 50-60 minutes, they started like a train like they always do here, they came out quickly and then we got back into the game. We had a few opportunities in their 22 at the end of the first half which we didn’t convert, but in the physical contest of the game they came out on top.

“They are big men and they won those battles," he added. "They managed to win the gainline and a couple of times they bossed the breakdown, turned over the ball and our transition defence was caught lacking. I thought Keenan on the edge was world class, probably the best 15 in the world at the moment and people like that will hurt you."

Despite the hammering, Peel said his side have come away from the defeat with "lessons to be learned" amid hopes they can turn it around in their upcoming west Wales derby against the Ospreys.

“There are lessons to be learned for our boys," he added. "We made some changes, gave boys some opportunities. We have players at home and players injured so it is good for these boys to experience this. We also need to understand we need to close the gap, the gap is too much at the minute. We keep saying we will get better but it is going to take time and patience.”