Rebel Wallabies captains issue manifesto to save Australian rugby
The 10 Wallabies captains who called for change across Rugby Australia got their wish. Now the former stars have proposed the formation of a board to unite rugby and rescue the game.
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Ten Wallabies captains have proposed the formation of a board to unite Australian rugby and rescue the game as it faces a $120 million revenue black hole.
All Wallabies captains including Nick Farr-Jones, Simon Poidevin, Nathan Sharpe, Stephen Moore have been the drivers behind the formation of the Australian Rugby Review Board (ARRB) which will devise solutions to revive the ailing code.
Fortescue boss Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest is set to be consulted not only to repair the relationship with Western Australia (the Western Force were ousted several years ago) but to encourage him to put his ideas on the table to help fix rugby.
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The ARRB is a proposal currently being considered by Rugby Australia board members.
Poidevin – who was a co-signatory of the Wallabies captains’ letter which rocked Australian rugby earlier this week – said the ARRB is designed to unite the Australian rugby community as it faces its biggest battle to date due to previous financial mismanagement and COVID-19.
“The ARRB will not answer to Rugby Australia it will answer to all of Australian rugby,” Poidevin said.
The 10 Wallabies captains currently propose the ARRB have an independent chairman, one Rugby Australia representative, two people appointed by Rugby Australia (who will have an appropriate gender and geographic balance), at least four state union representatives, a RUPA representative and four independents.
It will be a 13-person board which will include at least three women.
Former Wallabies captain Stephen Moore, who signed the letter and was consulted on the design of the board, said it was important for the ARRB to be formed and said the 10 captains remain strong in their push for transformation of the game.
He said he hopes the new board will create trust within the rugby community and generate change.
“There’s been a build-up of issues over a fairly long period of time and people have had faith that those issues would be dealt with but that hasn’t happened,” Moore said.
“The issues we face today are quite similar to the issues faced over the last decade. I do think that. Governance even longer. The governance structure of Australian rugby is problematic, it is a federated model, that doesn’t always lend itself to an agile and nimble organisation.”
“You need trust at the top, if that’s not there then the whole thing falls apart.”
The Saturday Telegraph can reveal that following the departure of chief executive Raelene Castle, the blood letting in the Rugby Australia hierarchy is not over with powerful board member Peter Wiggs likely to appoint a ‘trusted advisor’ as an interim chief executive undertaking a review of head office’s budget.
The greatest challenges remain off the field, including a break down in the relationship with Rugby Australia and member unions.
“Part of the problem has been a very poor relationship between the member unions and Rugby Australia,” Poidevin said.
“We see ourselves as a healing agent to bring all parties together with a really strong aim to connect professional rugby in Australia back with the amateur part of the code which is so important.”
“We are one game. The connection to grassroots is central to the success of the game going forward. As former captains of the Wallabies, we understand what the success of that game means to so many diverse people across the country. That the people we want to have with us going forward.”
“We think the way the game has gone towards that professional model, the grassroots have been left behind.”
The captains are calling each other twice daily and remain united in fixing the game. One of their requests is that the findings of the 11 reviews be laid bare.
“There is a lot of great work that hasn’t seen the light of day,” Poidevin said.
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“One of the frustrations of this movement is there has been a lot of great IP produced but it has just been buried.
“That’s why we believe that Rugby Australia is not the right body to do this review, but an independent body which can bring everything to the table.”
“That’s to put all competition structures on the table. We don’t pretend we know all we are prescribing and the answer to that. We know there is a lot of good ideas out there, that need to be put on that table. We also understand it is an international game … but until you have a position to take back to those international bodies. You can’t get there.”
“The business model has got to change. We are very, very clear that Western Australian rugby is a big part of this and the ideas of Andrew Forrest should be put on the table.”
“What he has built at Fortescue and with the (philanthropic) Minderoo Foundation is extraordinary. He is a willing ally of what we want to take the game to. If we need to embrace Andrew Forrest in all this then he should be part of that discussion.”
ALAN JONES BLASTS CASTLE ON WAY OUT
Former Wallabies coach Alan Jones has savaged Raelene Castle’s performance following her resignation as CEO of Rugby Australia.
Jones had been one of Castle’s harshest critics and did not mince his words on Friday morning, saying she should not have been in the role in the first place.
“It’s an appointment that shouldn’t have been made,” Jones said on 2GB radio.
“She knows nothing about the game.
“It’s like putting someone to become the first violinist in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra who can’t read music.”
While he was brutal in his assessment of Castle’s achievements, Jones did say that a clean out of the entire board is needed to bring about any actual change.
It feeds into the argument that when Castle took the gig in late 2017, she was essentially taking a hospital pass into a constant stream of criticism for existing issues she was not responsible for.
“This solves absolutely nothing. I have said all along it’s easy to throw Raelene Castle under the bus,” Jones said.
“I can’t imagine anything she has done, whether it’s the bloated expenditure, the ridiculous growth in staff of over 150, the foolish, personal and spiteful attack on Israel Folau, the hopeless performances off the paddock and on the paddock.
“All of these things have been endorsed by the board.
“Now the board have told Raelene Castle, ‘You must go, we need clear air’. You won’t get clear air with the departure of Raelene Castle. The whole kit and caboodle have to go, that’s what the Wallaby captains (who sent RA a letter this week demanding a change in leadership) wrote about.
“And that’s the only way sponsors will return, the public will return, it’s the only way credibility can be regained.”
Earlier, Raelene Castle was pushed to resign suddenly as Rugby Australia boss when a fatal loss of confidence from her own board was the breaking point in a year under constant siege.
Remarkably, Castle spoke of having the “very thick hide” to withstand criticism and plough on with her rescue plans for the code just hours before the end.
In a hurtful moment some time after pre-recording that save-the-game interview for the ABC’s 7.30 show at 4pm yesterday at RA’s headquarters in Sydney she discovered her board had turned.
A few hours later she was alerting RA chairman Paul McLean of her resignation.
There is instant fuel to suggest former Wallabies skipper Phil Kearns is positioning himself to bid for the chief executive’s role he missed out on to Castle in 2017.
“I made it clear to the board I would stand up and take the flak and do everything possible to serve everyone’s best interests,” Castle said in a statement.
“In the last couple of hours it has been made clear to me that the board believes my no longer being CEO would help give them the clear air they believe they need.
“The game is bigger than any one individual...so this evening I told the chair that I would resign from the role. I will do whatever is needed to ensure an orderly handover.” - with AAP
Originally published as Rebel Wallabies captains issue manifesto to save Australian rugby