Payto & Panda: Rebels in tug of war with Irish club Munster for Dave Wessels signature
MELBOURNE Rebels and Irish giants Munster in tug of war for Dave Wessels, coaching drama to rock Reds, ARU executive hires security guards.
MELBOURNE hope to lock in Dave Wessels’ signature “in coming days” but they’ve got a shock new rival in the shape of Irish giants Munster.
We understand Munster are very keen on Wessels and have offered to fly him to Ireland next week in a bid to do a deal.
Munster’s head of rugby is fellow South African Rassie Erasmus, who gave Wessels his first assistant coach job at the Stormers in 2008.
Wessels’ Force troops - many of whom plan to go to Melbourne with him - have been lobbying their mentor to not get on the plane.
The Rebels have been targeting Wessels since Tony McGahan announced he was leaving the club in June, but they had to wait until the court battles resolved the Force’s future in Super Rugby one way or another.
Negotiations between Wessels and the Rebels are now steaming ahead and Bade Stephenson told us they hoped to have an outcome “in the next couple of days”.
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“We are at the pointy end,” the Rebels CEO said.
Making life tricky still, however is Andrew Forrest’s newly announced IPRC plan. Wessels is loyal to WA and has been a superb leader in times of crisis for the club, and the rugby community, this year.
Given the investment of time and effort required at Super Rugby level, it’s unlikely Wessels could run both the Rebels and the Force in the same year but Stephenson said he’d be happy to talk with the 35-year-old about a continuing role in WA Rugby.
“Given the year the Force and Rugby WA have had and given Dave is clearly a respected and influential person over there, I would be open to a conversation about assisting in some sort of rugby in WA,” Stephenson said.
“But we’d need some clarity I guess and ultimately at this point no-one really knows what the comp is and what it be entail.
“That’s probably part of the challenge at the moment is for Dave and others to make a decision, working out exactly what the landscape is in regards to the Indo league.”
Stephenson said Wessels had “loyalty to Australian rugby” and informed sources say the South African - who has coached here since 2012 when Jake White brought him to the Brumbies - is keen to coach the Wallabies one day.
Many believe Wessels signing on with the Rebels will begin a wave of signings at the club of ex-Force players.
Stephenson said the Rebels had a number of “plan B” agreements with the Perth men and expected they would begin to formalise their moves soon, just as Ben Daley did on Wednesday.
ARU GOES CEO HUNTING
The ARU have appointed executive recruitment firm Odgers Berndtson to find them a new CEO, which HR-minded rugby nuts will know is a different firm that brought Bill Pulver into the head role in 2012. Back then Russell Reynolds conducted the infamous “international search”.
Interestingly, we’re told the ARU’s appointment panel is being chaired by increasingly powerful director Ann Sherry. Others on the panel are John Eales, Paul McLean, Cameron Clyne and Liz Broderick.
SOUR GRAPES?
BRACE yourself for the high-decibel moaning from Australia’s Super Rugby rivals if Melbourne sign up all the big names from the Western Force.
After the Rebels already signed Will Genia, the prospect of Adam Coleman, Dane Haylett-Petty, Curtis Rona, Jono Lance and a handful of other big names also hitting Melbourne already has rivals muttering about the salary cap.
ARU WIVES GO 12 ROUNDS
ONLOOKERS were left stunned when the wives of two high profile rugby officials engaged in a heated argument in a corporate suite during last week’s Test in Perth.
And is it really true one jittery ARU executive had plain-clothed security guards following him around in the city in case Force fans attacked?
REDS COACHING CHAOS
STAND by for coaching drama at the Queensland Reds. We hear Nick Stiles is on very shaky ground and may not see the year out as head coach.
The reasons are being kept pretty dark but we understand it has to do with frayed relationships between Stiles and key players, and with some powerful members of the QRU too. Insiders believe the damage may be beyond repair.
Tony McGahan has joined the Reds but we understand he doesn’t want to take on the head coach role.
Speculation is flying around Brisbane that assistant Reds coach Brad Thorn is being considered for the main job.
But there are also concerns that while the ex-All Blacks hardman brings all the tools to fix the Reds’ culture problems, it may be a few years too early for the rookie coach and poor results may hurt a promising career before its even started.
SANZAAR SWEATING ON COURT BATTLE
SANZAAR have pushed ahead quickly on the 2018 Super Rugby schedule after the ARU’s court win last week finally freed them up to lock down detail.
We hear they’re aiming to have the fixture list of the new 15-man competition out in the next few weeks, which isn’t too far off its September 20 release date last year.
SANZAAR were sweating on the ARU winning their court battles with Rugby WA and fulfilling their promise to field four teams. South Africa’s pledge to remove two teams was met months ago.
BREAKING DOWN BATTLE LINES
WALLABIES coach Michael Cheika believes Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest can be part of the solution to unify Australian rugby after its most bitterly-fought period.
Cheika sat down with Forrest last week to discuss the billionaire’s plans for his Indo-Pacific Rugby Championship tournament.
“The one thing I walked away from the meeting from is a guy who genuinely wants to make rugby in Australia better,’ Cheika said.
“He’s obviously got resources and he feels if he can put those resources to improve rugby in the country that’s a bonus.
“Anything like that has to be done in collaboration [with the ARU] to have the effect.
“It’s about unifying the game completely, it’s going to be one of the priorities for the future.
“From junior and club rugby to the top, it needs to be directly connected, both aspirationally and logistically, everything in the middle is included.
“There has been a fall there but it also can be a great opportunity for us to start from here, look at reunifying the game and building it to be stronger.”
FIJI EXPANSION ON THE MONEY
THE NSW Country Eagles are the first Aussie team to travel to Fiji to take on the Drua in the NRC this weekend and there is talk a huge crowd is set to turn up in Sigatoka.
Aussies connected with the Drua have reported back that 15,000 Fijian rugby fans are likely to attend the game.
Of all the political and strategic moves being plotted - by a range of different groups - in the Indo/Pacific/Asian region right now, the quietly-achieved addition of Fiji into the NRC could end up being a long-term masterstroke.
Though only drawn from Fijian-based players, the Drua beat the Melbourne Rising last week; a team who have Wallabies and a majority of professional players.
FAITH IN HEGARTY
WARATAHS utility Bryce Hegarty has struggled with injury for a few years but coach Daryl Gibson clearly rates his ability to turn a match. Hegarty was re-signed by the Tahs for two more years this week.
Originally published as Payto & Panda: Rebels in tug of war with Irish club Munster for Dave Wessels signature
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