Professional journey has taken an ugly turn

An early advocate for rugby to turn professional never thought the move would bring the game to the brink of disaster.

Mark Ella and David Campese had an uncanny understanding on the field.

It was an interesting time for me in 1986 after I decided not to switch to rugby league. Instead I became directly involved with rugby again when I signed a two-year deal to act as a promotions consultant to the NSWRU.

The role included endorsing sponsors and promoting the game at the junior level which was ideal for me.

Even though I had retired I was still considered, for better or worse, one of the most marketable commodities in the game at the time.

It wasn’t worth a lot of money but it fitted into my nine-to-five job with Rothmans.

I was already in the promotions and marketing game and the role was a natural fit.

One of my promotional duties was to play for a Tooheys Invitational XV against teams from regional areas of NSW. I conducted coaching clinics, made speeches and raised the profile of rugby in the bush before finishing off with a game.

The promotional matches were run by former Wallabies fullback Arthur McGill who was still fit enough to take the field and we had a lot of fun playing rugby like the Harlem Globetrotters.

A regular ring-in for the team was David Campese who at that stage was easily the most dynamic player in world rugby.

We quickly re-established the great combination we shared in our time together with the Wallabies.

One time in Wagga I had to take a dropout on the 22 line. I looked over at Campo and he just winked at me.

I did a short drop-kick and Campo took the football on the fly, and then went about flummoxing 14 opposing defenders. Meanwhile, I just waddled up the middle of the field in time for Campo to draw the fullback and I scored underneath the posts.

It was just like the good old days and who ever said that rugby was a hard game to play!

In May that same year I was invited to play for the Australian Barbarians against a Townsville XV but the ARU banned me from playing because I was deemed a professional as a result of my promotional and media activities for rugby!

The decision outraged rugby followers and made the game’s amateur regulations look like a relic from the 19th century. Not much has changed since then.

The ARU said that I would have to apply for reinstatement which I thought was ridiculous after I was allowed to play in the exhibition games organised by the NSWRU to promote rugby in country towns.

The ARU’s decision to ban me came only days after I had written a column in The Australian, calling for rugby to go professional.

Looking back I remember being invited to speak at a conference in Brisbane on the future of the game before the start of the ­inaugural World Cup in 1987, ­hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

I opened my speech by declaring that the game should go professional. I knew the remark would cause some controversy but never thought that I would be loudly booed by the crowd for a good five minutes.

I kept my cool and gradually the room calmed down. I then explained that the growing demands on players were becoming too much for amateurs.

At that time, nobody in their wildest dreams could have imagined the Rugby World Cup was going to become so big. However, the potential was there and that meant players had to make sacrifices that had an impact on their day-to-day lives.

I often talk about the good times as an amateur, and they were fabulous, but by the late 1980s and certainly early ’90s, the game had to go professional.

It was a global game with big business, more Test matches and greater demands. The players prepared professionally without the financial reward.

Rugby finally took the plunge after the 1995 World Cup in South Africa, but now, 25 years later, Australian rugby is teetering on the edge.

The game is struggling in Australia because it has lost sight of its core values. Rugby was meant to unite and grow the grassroots.

It was supposed to promote and expand the game beyond the elite private school system so that public schools and amateur clubs around the country could also play a role as they did when I played.

I may have promoted rugby’s shift to professionalism some 30 years ago but never in my wildest dreams did I expect it to run Australian rugby into the ground.

Perhaps back in Brisbane in 1987, I should have listened to the hecklers, taken note of their jeers and kept my mouth shut.