Australian rugby can’t waste chance to remodel the code
Due to border restrictions in this health crisis, Australian rugby is finally in charge of its own destiny, and it can’t waste the chance to reshape the game, writes JIM TUCKER.
Rugby
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Rugby has built a flawed mythology about being a world game, yet for too long it has been a straitjacket in Australia that has prevented meaningful change.
No longer.
Don’t waste a crisis, as they say, because the leadership being reshaped at the top must grab this once-in-25-years chance to remodel the code.
It was a resignation but Raelene Castle was pushed to the exit as chief executive when she discovered she had lost the faith of the Rugby Australia board to enact the change agenda coming.
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The NRL may lurch from brushfire to drama at times but if it decides that two on-field referees are better than one, the decision is made in a week.
It would take a year of trials, reports, SANZAAR pussyfooting and World Rugby intrusions to get something that simple to happen in rugby.
Because of border restrictions in this health crisis, Australian rugby is finally in charge of its own destiny.
Here goes.
Punt South Africa from the next “Super Rugby” competition which should be trans-Tasman focused with Japan, reconnect the professional game to grassroots club rugby, engage the millions of Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, and give broadcasters a new look in friendly time zones.
Remove some of the ridiculous travelling for Super Rugby players like the Queenslanders who covered more than 30,000km to open the season in Canberra, Johannesburg and Buenos Aires.
Former Wallabies skipper Simon Poidevin, a signatory to the captains’ letter that rocked rugby this week, said this is “the beginning of change, not the end” to win back the rugby public.
You may have a strong view on Castle’s performance as a rugby CEO but the consistent bullying she endured for over 12 months unfairly reached some despicable levels.
She was a full-hearted worker and never deserved the personal attacks on social media that moved RA chairman Paul McLean to on Friday tag them “abhorrent” and upsetting.
“One of the things that we were concerned about was and I’ve said this to Raelene as well, one of my greatest concerns with her was her welfare and how she was on a daily basis,” said McLean, who phoned Castle more than once, as well as meeting with her on Friday. “A lesser person would’ve thrown the towel in ages ago, quite simply.”
Australian rugby already has three new board members and a fourth will join when McLean follows after his role as executive chairman ends in July.
Rugby can’t waste this crisis and it may prove the catalyst for a decade of rejuvenation.
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