Rugby Australia chief Rob Clarke in ‘difficult position’ – NSW boss takes aim at leadership debacle
‘We are very disappointed about the lack of a permanent chairman and a permanent CEO to make permanent decisions and lead this business.’ To say rugby stakeholders aren’t happy would be an understatement.
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Rugby has a leadership crisis that threatens its immediate survival, NSW boss Roger Davis declared as new RA chief Rob Clarke spent his first day plotting several lifesaving measures.
Davis, the NSW Rugby Union chairman, slammed the RA board over the shock resignation of director Peter Wiggs last Wednesday, which was followed by Wiggs’ pick as new CEO, Matt Carroll, withdrawing his interest in the role, leading to the appointment of Clarke on an interim basis.
“Good organisations have good, stable leadership and we are very disappointed about the lack of a permanent chairman and a permanent CEO to make permanent decisions and lead this business,” Davis told The Daily Telegraph.
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“I’ve known Rob Clarke for a long time, I wish him well. He has stated quite clearly he will only serve for a short time, he is going to be in a very difficult position by virtue of being an interim.
“The broadcasters have said to us time and again, ‘we only want to deal with people who will be around to see the deal through’. That won’t be possible under an interim CEO.”
News Corp executive and former Network Ten boss Hamish McLennan has been touted as the likely chairman and, if he were to take that position in coming days, executive chairman Paul McLean would stand down from the RA board.
RA owes NSW and the rest of the Super Rugby franchises money as well as millions of dollars to the HSBC bank after broadcaster Fox Sports ceased quarterly payments due to lack of live matches because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Clarke, who would have been sailing around the Mediterranean had the virus not halted global travel, must navigate the fractious relationships within rugby and also secure a $16 million loan from World Rugby that will keep the game afloat for the next few weeks.
RA still has not been able to get auditors KPMG to sign off on its 2019 financial statement, but Clarke believes World Rugby will send it the low-interest $16 million loan early next week, after which it can get the audit signed by May 31 after the original deadline of last Thursday was moved due to coronavirus complications.
“The government moved that deadline for all businesses such as ours,” Clarke said.
“We haven’t actually missed a deadline on that and I’m very confident that we will submit our accounts appropriately to KPMG for sign-off well before May 31.”
While Davis has grave concerns about an interim chief being able to land a broadcast deal beyond this year to secure the game’s future, Clarke is hopeful of delivering a 2021-25 package before he resumes sailing round the world once travel bans are lifted.
“I’d be brave to say (I can get a broadcast deal done) but I’m going to give it a real shot and I do believe the opportunity could be there, but we have a lot of work to do in a relatively short period of time,” he said.
“Our broadcast partners are our largest sponsor and therefore they’re our largest and most important commercial partner, and I have good relationships with Foxtel and with Network Ten and I look forward to having dialogue with them as we get clarity around competition structures that we can put to them this year and 2020 and then, most importantly, ’21 and beyond what that looks like.”
Clarke forecast Australia’s domestic Super Rugby tournament would return on its proposed date of July 4 with players resuming training as a squad next month hopeful that the Australian government will have eased border restrictions by then.
Having served as chief operating officer under Bill Pulver at the ARU in 2017 when it axed the Western Force from Super Rugby, earning the ire of fans in the west, Clarke will work to rebuild relationships.
“Decisions were made for reasons back then and some of those were driven by financial issues,” Clarke said.
“I don’t harbour any grudges. I don’t have any negative feelings towards WA or anybody else.
“I can’t speak for them, you’ll have to ask them about how they feel about me.
“But, at the end of the day, my focus is really engaging all of our member unions, trying to unify everybody behind the challenges we have and if I can do that in my time here, I’d be really pleased.”
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