Matt Toomua named Rugby Union Players’ Association president
Better known as a playmaker on the field, Wallabies star Matt Toomua is now making his pitch in the boardroom at a time when Australian rugby is at the crossroads.
Rugby
Don't miss out on the headlines from Rugby. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Having a front-row seat to the most contentious player talks since rugby went professional made Matt Toomua realise one thing.
The Wallabies playmaker was still cutting his teeth in his role as a player representative but he knew straight away that he wanted to have a say in how things were run.
Now, he’s got his chance, elected as the new president of the Rugby Union Players’ Association (RUPA).
Watch the 2020 Super Rugby AU Final Live & On-Demand on Kayo. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >
“It was something I was pretty keen on. I enjoyed my role and wanted to stay involved at a higher level,” he told News Corp Australia.
“I enjoy this stuff, I really enjoy sports admin and business so anything that combines the two I’m pretty interested in.
“I’m a bit of a sports nut and I love seeing how it works so to get some first hand experience and see things from behind the scenes a little bit is something I’ve really enjoyed.”
Toomua, 30, takes over the role from Damien Fitzpatrick, who stood down earlier this year when he retired from the game in June.
Ross Haylett-Petty will take over as the Rebels’ Player Director, the same job Toomua occupied during the talks where the players agreed to take massive pay cuts to keep the struggling code afloat.
“When I jumped on the board earlier in the year the CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) was pretty much front and centre and that was what we thought was going to be the big ticket item this year,” Toomua said.
“Obviously with COVID and everything else, there’s been other priorities and there’s still a little to be sorted out with the COVID situation.
“We still have the CBA, which expires later on this year, so individually they are the big ticket items but collectively, it means the next few months we’ll be quite busy.”
The immediate future of the game in Australia remains under a cloud with no decision yet on next year’s Super Rugby competition or a broadcast deal but Toomua is confident the code is in much better shape than it appears.
As a senior player who has spent several seasons overseas and was a member of the Wallabies squad at the last two World Cups, he says the state of the game in Australia is healthy though the key barometer is always the strength of the national team.
“Just because we’re a union doesn‘t mean we’re against that, we’re not just trying to get holidays for the boys,” he said.
MORE RUGBY NEWS
Super Rugby AU grand final: Brumbies bold ambition to be among world’s greatest club sides
“We want Australian rugby to be successful because if we flourish on the field everything kind of trickles down from there.
“One thing I have noticed is that there’s a lot of youth there and a lot of excitement about Australian rugby and I think we are very much turning a new chapter.
“There’s a lot of people very excited about where we can go because we’re not where we want to be right now but there’s definitely a sense of confidence and a determined spirit.
“We’ve been pretty lucky because we have one of the best CBA systems and players’ unions across the world and that‘s something I’ve seen from my experience from playing overseas so I’d say a continuing, if not an improvement, would be pretty high on the pecking order of priorities for me.”
RA rages against ‘unacceptable’ Bledisloe Cup date
- Wayne Smith
Rugby Australia is considering three mutually exclusive options for how the Wallabies will deal with the two Bledisloe Cup Tests in New Zealand next month, but a boycott of any Test scheduled on the weekend of October 10-11 remains firmly on the agenda.
It came as a bolt from the blue when an email from New Zealand Rugby arrived late last week, alerting Australian rugby officials that as far as the Kiwis were concerned, the first Bledisloe would be scheduled for October 10.
Until then, all the correspondence had indicated that the Wallabies-All Blacks Tests would be played on October 17 and 24, in Auckland and Wellington.
Watch the 2020 Super Rugby AU Final Live & On-Demand on Kayo. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >
Australia immediately argued that an October 10 date was clearly unworkable.
It would entail the Wallabies boarding a flight to NZ on Sunday, the day after the Brumbies-Queensland Reds Super Rugby AU grand final in Canberra, and going immediately into quarantine at an Auckland hotel.
Under NZ’s quarantine protocols, as outlined by NZ Rugby chairman Brent Impey, players initially go into individual isolation for the first three days. If they pass a COVID-19 test at that point, they are able to form a biosecurity bubble of groups of 15 for days four to seven. If at that point they pass a second test, that bubble can be expanded to 25 for days eight to 14. “If there was a positive test, then it’s all over,” Impey told NZ journalists.
The Wallabies were prepared to accept the protocols if the first Bledisloe was to be played on October 17. But if the earliest they could assemble as a 44-man party turns out to be October 5 ahead of a Test on October 10, it would be too rushed.
To this point, the Wallabies have not assembled as a team, and even if coach Dave Rennie was able to do some work with the NSW and Melbourne players later this week, there are squad members involved in the grand final.
By contrast, NZ’s Super Rugby Aotearoa competition finished on August 16, giving All Blacks coach Ian Foster two full months of access to his players before the scheduled Bledisloe start.
Importantly, while the Wallabies are in quarantine, the All Blacks will be able to train without restriction.
Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan has stated that there is no way the All Blacks would ever be asked to play a Test in Australia under such circumstances.
Rennie simply calls the arrangement “unacceptable”.
Option A in Rugby Australia’s battle plan is that the Tests are pushed back to October 17 and 24. Even those dates are flexible in RA’s mind because it is possible that Australia would prefer the matches be played on October 16 and 23, to enable both the Wallabies and All Blacks to fly across the Tasman and do identical lockdowns prior to the start of The Rugby Championships on November 7.
Option B is that the Bledisloe internationals are played in Australia — better from a quarantine and commercial viewpoint.
Option C would see one of the Bledisloes in New Zealand cancelled and a solitary Test played on October 17 or 23.
MORE RUGBY NEWS
Kiwis fuming as Aussies land ‘mini-World Cup’
NZ PM blamed for All Blacks snub
Given that a further two Australia-NZ Tests are scheduled on Australian soil during The Rugby Championship, there would be no problems from broadcasters who, contractually, are only paying for a three-Test Bledisloe series in any case.
Meanwhile, Wallabies strike weapon Jordan Petaia appears likely to play for the Reds against the Brumbies in the grand final after making a better-than-expected recovery from his head knock.
And given Queensland winger Chris Feauai-Sautia’s history of making surprise early returns from soft-tissue injuries, he too is given some chance of playing despite his groin problem.
More likely, however, Wallabies bolter Hunter Paisami – who was so excited he was up at 6am on Sunday in the hope of being named in the Australian side — is likely to be chosen in the starting backline.
Originally published as Matt Toomua named Rugby Union Players’ Association president