Nick Farr-Jones, Phil Kearns to meet with Rugby Australia’s new kingmaker Peter Wiggs
The former Wallaby captains, who were wrongly accused of staging a drive-by coup without having any concrete ideas for the future, will reveal their plans to RA’s new driver for change, Peter Wigg.
Rugby
Don't miss out on the headlines from Rugby. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Rugby Australia’s new kingmaker Peter Wiggs will meet with former Wallaby captains Nick Farr-Jones and Phil Kearns on Monday to hear their full proposals on how to rebuild the struggling code after the sudden departure of chief executive Raelene Castle.
Farr-Jones and Kearns were among the 10 former Test skippers who signed a petition last week expressing their lack of confidence in the board and calling for an emergency meeting to overhaul the administration, which is now one step closer after they secured an audience with the influential Wiggs.
That letter has been cited as one of the catalysts for Castle’s decision to fall on her sword, even though the worst-kept secret in the whole saga is that her fate was sealed long before the skippers put pen to paper.
Stream over 50 sports on-demand with KAYO SPORTS on your TV, computer, mobile or tablet. Just $25/month, no lock-in contract. Get your 14-day free trial and start streaming instantly >
Sources have said that had she not left on her own accord, the board would have voted to remove her anyway because sponsors were threatening to walk out and the broadcast negotiations had stalled, adding to the pressure to get a deal done for 2021 and beyond.
The former Wallaby captains have been wrongly accused of staging a drive-by coup without having any concrete ideas for the future, but that’s not the case.
While they didn’t reveal all their plans in the letter – which they told RA chairman Paul McLean was coming almost two weeks before they went public – they will present them to Wiggs in Monday’s hook up.
As previously revealed by News Corp Australia, the players are pushing for the creation of a high-powered review board that will help the sport navigate through the COVID-19 crisis.
Independent of RA, the board will comprise 13 people, including at least three women, as well as representatives from each of the states and the players’ union, RUPA.
RA will be represented by one board member but will also be permitted to appoint two other independent representatives.
The first order of business will be repairing the breakdown of trust between RA and members, from elite professionals right down to grassroots level.
The decision to appoint Wiggs to represent RA in the delicate talks with the disgruntled Wallaby captains underlines how fragile those relationships are as he only joined the board three weeks ago but is already calling the shots.
A no-nonsense businessman who is one of the biggest players in the Australian private equity market, Wiggs has quickly emerged as the new, albeit unofficial, lead driver of change.
The V8 Supercars chairman played a key role in finalising the agreement between RA and RUPA on player pay cuts after the union’s negotiations with Castle and Brett Robinson were at a stalemate.
Along with the two other new board appointees, Virgin Blue co-founder Brett Godfrey and former Wallaby Daniel Herbert, Wiggs also helped “crystallise” the board’s loss of confidence in Castle, which led to her resignation last week.
What’s become increasingly clear though is that Castle’s exit wasn’t the end game because the new board members want a complete overhaul to ensure meaningful reform.
RA is also meeting on Monday, in a separate hook up, to start working out the time frame for a new chief executive, with McLean agreeing to act as temporary boss but with no ambitions for the full time job himself.
"In the very short-term, I will adopt the role of executive chair,” McLean said.
“But for a very short period until such time as we meet with the executive team and map out what the next steps might be an interim CEO, running in parallel with a program to seek a process to appoint a full-time CEO somewhere down the track."
Rugby Australia bet on outsider in huge gamble
Rugby Australia is betting the house on another rebel outsider to help get its finances back in the black after the messy resignation of Raelene Castle.
But it’s not Phil Kearns, the outspoken two-time World Cup winner who is emerging as one of the favourites to succeed the departed Kiwi as chief executive.
And it’s not Peter Wiggs, one of the high rollers in the Australian private equity market who played a key role in Castle’s resignation just three weeks after he joined the board.
It’s Agustin Pichot, the former Argentine captain who is running against Bill Beaumont for the position of World Rugby chairman.
The Englishman has got the backing of the powerful European establishment but Australia is supporting Pichot because the pay-off if he wins will be the game changer RA needs.
If there’s one clear takeout every rugby administrator should remember after Castle was left blindsided by the board that had lost faith in her, it’s that everyone is in it for themselves so it’s prudent to follow the mantra of keeping your friends close and your enemies even closer.
That’s why RA is joining forces with New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina in a southern hemisphere coalition that will vote for Pichot in Sunday’s election, with the result announced in mid May.
“We as SANZAAR decided collectively that we would support our own in that regard and we’ve been very upfront with Bill Beaumont, the current chairman, about that,” RA executive chairman Paul McLean said.
“We were very disappointed that we didn't get the global competition up and running last year. There’s no greater interest than self interest and that was the case in that regard because we thought it would have been a defining moment in our game.”
RA’s also motivated by self interest and there’s nothing wrong with that.
For all the talk about breaking away from SANZAAR and going it alone, RA needs its biggest rivals more than ever if it’s to climb out of the financial hole it finds itself in.
As the only country in the world with four professional football codes, RA relies on its regular international competitions as a key point of difference and a key source of income.
That’s why RA is so desperate to reignite Pichot’s failed attempt to create an annual World Nations League that will deliver billions of dollars of new revenue to the game.
It was rejected last year when some of the weaker northern hemisphere countries opposed the idea of a promotion and relegation system offering developing nations a way into the elite 12-national top tier if they were good enough, but it’ll be back on the table if the Latin American wins the election.
“We thought it was just a no-brainer,” McLean said.
“Anyway that didn't happen and we’ve made it clear that we were unhappy about that and we were unhappy about the process … because there was a benefit not just to the SANZAAR countries but our Pacific Island region et cetera.
“So we stuck together and SANZAAR have done that and we let it be known to the northern hemisphere that we’re unhappy about that and we think it should be revisited sooner rather than later.”
The rush to create a lucrative global league has become even more critical to RA because it offers some hope of securing a television deal for 2021-25 after Castle turned down a $200 million offer from Fox Sports.
Broadcast rights are forecast to drop in the post COVID-19 which could spell the end of Super Rugby as we know it so a new international competition to fill the void is needed.
With international borders closed for the foreseeable future, all the Super rugby teams will play internal domestic competitions when matches resume in July which could be expanded to a trans-Tasman competition next year with the high cost of travel meaning South African and Argentine provincial teams will hold a separate competition.
Originally published as Nick Farr-Jones, Phil Kearns to meet with Rugby Australia’s new kingmaker Peter Wiggs