From Mosman to Manly: Clarke targets sailing mate to right rugby ship

A storied rivalry straight out of Middle Harbour Yacht Club will be rekindled when interim rugby boss Rob Clarke makes the first conciliatory overtures to Foxtel boss Patrick Delany in coming weeks.

Clarke and Delany are good friends and former sailing rivals from Sydney's north shore sailing set, with rugby folklore suggesting that Delany borrowed the name of Clarke's yacht, Kick 'n Chase, for the pay television network's now-defunct rugby magazine show a few years back.

While Clarke was keen to point out to journalists he'd sold that yacht and moved out of Mosman - all the way to Manly - since leaving his last posting in rugby, it's fair to say the new Rugby Australia chief will be leaning on his old connections to repair a damaged relationship between governing body and broadcaster.

Murmurs out of telco Optus on Thursday suggested a further cooling of interest in rugby, leaving Foxtel as the code's only hope for a broadcast deal next year.

Senior sources said the company had been horrified by the governance fiascos of the past fortnight. Clarke's predecessor Raelene Castle quit suddenly after catching wind of the RA board's own cooling interest in her, and influential new director Peter Wiggs sensationally quit the board after a failed coup attempt. A damaging campaign for change launched by a group of former Wallabies captains also worried the game's former suitors.

...At the end of the day our broadcast partners are our largest sponsor ... they’re our largest and most important commercial partner.

Interim Rugby Australia boss Rob Clarke

It is also likely that the mooted appointment to the RA chairman's role of former Ten boss and staunch News Corp ally Hamish McLennan has convinced Optus it had missed its opportunity to grab a foothold in rugby. Observers believe McLennan, a former right hand man to Rupert Murdoch in New York and storied deal maker, will look straight to his old stables to renew their partnerships with the game.

Media sources have also noted that recent international broadcast trends suggest the only deals being done around the world are extensions or re-negotiations with incumbent partners. This is primarily because of ongoing uncertainty on travel restrictions in different markets, a factor rugby is heavily exposed to.

This follows the Herald's recent report that the Singapore-headquartered telco would not be in a position to re-start negotiations for up to 12 months.

Asked in Sydney on Thursday about his attitude to Foxtel and whether the relationship needed repairing, Clarke said: "You’d have to ask Foxtel that. I think at the end of the day our broadcast partners are our largest sponsor, therefore they’re our largest and most important commercial partner."

He was careful to point out that competition format needed to be worked out before RA would engage with its current partners and any other interested broadcasters.

Former Ten boss and News Corp senior executive Hamish McLennan.Credit: Wayne Taylor

"I have good relationships with Foxtel and with Ten and I look forward to having dialogue with them as we get clarity around competition structures that we can put to them for this year and most importantly for 2021 and beyond, what that looks like," Clarke said.

"There’s still a bit of work to go there but we’ll be reaching out to our broadcast partners and working with them on that."

An extension with Foxtel will come with its own pitfalls, not least of which is a drastically reduced overall package value.

Castle had the full backing of the RA board when she rejected an opening offer worth $35 million per year last October to test the value of the game's rights on the open market.

Although the broadcaster is now preoccupied with locking the NRL into an extension, observers have also noted the company's deal to lock in television drama content from HBO in a deal with Warner Media worth up to $200 million.

With a severely challenged business model, it is feared Foxtel may only offer RA a figure of between $10 million and $15 million per year, which would radically alter the game's financial model, potentially sending it shopping for private capital or a private equity partner.