Wallabies mess will only be fixed if Michael Cheika can work alongside Bill Pulver

It doesn't really matter if you think ARU chief executive Bill Pulver should be sacked. If you think he's a glorified spectator. An L-Plater in sports administration. The wrong man for the job. Of far greater importance is what Michael Cheika thinks of him.

That's who Cheika will need to work with if they're to navigate Australian rugby out of the proverbial shitfight it finds itself in less than a year before the World Cup in England.

Last week, Pulver and Cheika denied to Fairfax Media colleagues they had discussed the idea of the Waratahs coach taking over the Wallabies as the walls fell in on Ewen McKenzie in the wake of the Kurtley Beale saga. Yet the mail was strong: that Cheika had knocked back - during a conference call - the suggestion of stepping in because he didn't have faith in Pulver and an administration described as "a rabble".

Either way, it didn't matter because McKenzie refused to yield.

Then it got funky.

McKenzie stunned all of us when he resigned on Saturday before the All Blacks match, although there had been some speculation on the eve of the game this was going to happen. Cheika's imminent appointment as McKenzie's replacement is already being considered by many stakeholders as the silver lining to the darkest cloud to be cast over Australian rugby in recent memory.

There are eight Tests between now and the World Cup. Australia came within three seconds of the beating the All Blacks, and if not for a few brain explosions in the final minutes would've done so.

But the optimism comes with this clause: how will the short-fused, self-made Lebanese boy from Coogee work with the former Shore student who resides in Mosman?

As anyone at the Tahs will tell you, Cheika sheltered his side from the front office. He can be high maintenance, and doesn't take direction from those wearing suits well. He has no hesitations in banning them from his dressing-room.

If anyone wants Cheika to succeed, it should be Pulver. Success for the Wallabies can be the only thing that saves his job.

Some of the city's heaviest hitters are clearly after him. There is already talk he won't be at the Christmas party.

When Pulver was appointed chief executive, taking over from the departing John O'Neill, it was a risky move for a code already at the crossroads. From his first news conference, he identified the need to fix the game's bottom line when most of us were more concerned about what he should do about Robbie Deans.

Since February 1 last year, Pulver's been so transparent in regularly telling the public Australian rugby has no money that you suspect you'll next see him lining up outside Cash Converters. In the wake of the crisis involving Beale, McKenzie and business team manager Di Patston, he showed a frightening naivety when it comes to running a professional sporting code.

Indeed, Pulver would never make it in rugby league, where they deal with a text message/social media/player revolt scandal almost on a monthly basis.

The ARU has hired media consultants to deal with the ugly fallout that has claimed the coach, the team business manager and could still see the bad boy superstar go as well.

Let's hope the same consultants didn't advise Pulver it would be wise to front a news conference after McKenzie last Saturday night and blame the media for a "character assassination" of the coach.

Let's hope the same consultants didn't advise him to also blame the public - those wide-eyed, expectant souls who keep turning up to Wallabies matches decked out in gold - for bringing him down, too.

Let's hope the same consultants tells someone to stop pushing 22-year-old captain Michael Hooper beneath the glare of the spotlight to be bombarded with questions about the national team.

Much like his NRL counterpart, former banker Dave Smith, Pulver is illuminating the risk in appointing those without any sporting administration experience to run a sporting code, in a tough market.

There's the bottom line - but there's also politics.

In the end, McKenzie said he resigned for exactly the reasons laid down by this column a week ago - that he'd lost the support of his players. Whether you think player power has become too strong in the Wallabies warrants a whole new analysis.

But there's one thing of which you can be assured: Cheika will run the side with the same authority that he has run the Waratahs.

It will now be intriguing to see if there's now a place for Beale. The Waratahs playmaker would walk into training this year with his head down and seemingly at war with himself and the rest of the world. Sometimes, he'd be full of life.

Cheika handled him like he would any other player. He wasn't afraid to pull him into line and bruise his ego in front of other players, if warranted. But he managed to do what few coaches have and squeeze the best out of him. It's been said that McKenzie resigned knowing Beale's representatives were about to bring a strong defence of their client to Friday's disciplinary hearing.

As many questions were going to be asked of the coach as the player.

There's a relatively bright future ahead for the Wallabies. It involves Cheika. Will it also involve Beale?