The now New Zealand-based administrator, who stood down from his position of running Welsh rugby earlier this year, was the guest speaker at a marketing conference in Auckland. He later repeated his strong views on the World Cup to a number of media outlets in New Zealand.

Moffett said he believed that the World Cup had become so dominated by the "big five" of international rugby that it no longer had any particular relevance. He added that rugby has reached saturation point at the highest level.

"The answer may lie in replacing the rugby World Cup with something a bit better on an annual basis in the autumn period involving more teams," Moffett told ONE News.

Moffett believes the World Cup is a fatally flawed competition because only a limited number of teams can win it.

"I can tell you that the winners of the World Cup in 2023 will come from five teams, now that can't be good.

"So lets look to see if something better can be put into place. I don't have the answers to that but at the moment I don't need to have the answers, I'm asking the questions."

He also said rugby was suffering from "fan burnout" and was highly critical of Graham Henry's withdrawal of 22 players from half of next year's Super 14 for their World Cup conditioning programme.

Moffett also called for an overhaul of the International Rugby Board (IRB) and said if he had his way he'd have former Aussie boss John O'Neill as chief executive and New Zealand's own Jock Hobbs as chairman of the board.

"I think there's an unhealthy obsession with the World Cup given that in a good year only one of about five teams can win it ... and perhaps next year only one of about three teams could win it," Moffett told Radio Sport.

He listed the All Blacks, France and Ireland in his chosen trio.

Moffett said this obsession with the World Cup forced people to make decisions "not in the best interests of the game" and nor the fan for that matter

And this was where he took careful aim at Henry's controversial World Cup conditioning programme that removes the so-called top 22 players from the first seven rounds of next year's Super 14.

"I think the fans have been short-changed," he said. "I'm an immense supporter of what Jock Hobbs and Chris Moller are doing - but on this occasion I would have liked to see them say no to Graham Henry and the players been playing [in the Super 14]."

Moffett said he had nothing against Henry and acknowledged the success of the All Blacks coach, but raised the point: "What happens if we have a repeat of 1999 and we don't win the World Cup?

"What does that say about the fact the Super 14 has been devalued and the fans have not seen the All Blacks playing?

"It's having a knock-on effect, so what is going to be the full cost of the Rugby World Cup when in a good year only five teams can win it?

"One of the unfortunate consequences of professional rugby is it's increased the gap between the major five unions and to a large extent the second-tier unions. And third-tier unions like Samoa, Fiji, Argentina and Italy are never going to win the World Cup."

Moffett is also not happy with the way rugby has bowed down to Rupert Murdoch's demands while a more important voice is being ignored.

"Too much money is being sucked out by the professional game and the fans, being asked to watch more and more rugby on television or live, are suffering burnout. There's no doubt about that"

Moffett pointed the inability of the NZRU to sell out Bledisloe Cup tests this year to underpin his argument.

Moffett is now calling on administrators to wake up for the sake of the game.

"The most valuable sporting tournament outside of the Olympic Games and the soccer World Cup is the NFL football in America and that's played for 13 weeks, and that's not about quantity, that's about quality."

"People have got to remember this argument somewhere, it's not just about money it's about quality and it's about engaging the fans."

Moffett said given these fundamental issues the game was facing, strong leadership was needed. Unfortunately, he added, it's not being delivered by the IRB as it is set up now.

He confessed that he and O'Neill "don't like each other" and that he and Hobbs were "not on each other's Christmas card list" but said he would have both in the key positions on the IRB "in a heartbeat".

"But the chances of Jock becoming chairman of the IRB are pretty small when you've got the northern hemisphere bloc just installing another northern hemisphere chairman.

"If you want to put someone in there with some drive and vision and who can get things done then put in Jock Hobbs as chairman along with John O'Neill as CEO and you will see some real changes."