The biggest issue for Australian rugby and CEO Raelene Castle in 2018
IN 2018, Australia must have a team in the Super Rugby final, win the Bledisloe Cup and unearth a genuine superstar or Raelene Castle will face the fate of her predecessors, writes JAMIE PANDARAM.
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BY the end of 2018, Australia must have had a team in the Super Rugby final, hold aloft the Bledisloe Cup and unearth a genuine young superstar who creates global excitement.
If not, new chief executive Raelene Castle will find herself under the same pressure that predecessor Bill Pulver constantly confronted during his four-year stint.
Australian rugby has numerous problems, well documented, but the most serious is on-field performance.
That is the single biggest reason fans have been switching off and staying home, bleeding the game of money.
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The lack of on-field success amplifies all of the backroom drama.
And after 15 years of Bledisloe failure, you can’t blame the disaffected, eye-rolling masses who’ve gone from rugby fanatics to part-time observers.
In 2014, the Waratahs’ Super Rugby title brought some back. The following year, when the Wallabies made the World Cup final, it brought a whole heap more and won over new supporters.
But performances have been diabolic since, particularly last year when Australian teams lost all 29 Super Rugby games against Kiwi rivals, and the All Blacks then put 40 points on the Wallabies in the opening half of the Bledisloe.
At that point, not a single public message sent to the Australian rugby public resonated or was cared for. It was same old, same old.
Here is a new year, a new boss, a revamped Super competition that should benefit the remaining four Australian teams, and out of absolute necessity, wins must follow.
Castle will sit down for a two-hour meeting with Wallabies coach Michael Cheika on Tuesday and should have a clear idea of how this success will be orchestrated.
It will start with Super Rugby, where wins against Kiwi sides are a must, then flow through to the tough June series against Ireland, who will fancy their chances down under defeating the Wallabies in three of their past four Tests.
And without question, the Bledisloe heartache must end in 2018.
Castle’s brief is to generate more money and fan engagement for the game, but only positive on-field results can allow her scope to do this.
Her tenure is doomed if all she is left to do is plug holes in a sinking ship.