A Six Nations-led World Rugby means more trouble at chaotic Rugby Australia

Former England rugby player Bill Beaumont, who has been re-elected as chairman of World Rugby. Picture: AFP

In the fourth century, the Greek philosopher Aristotle defined politics as “the things concerning the polis (people)”; so it’s naive in the extreme to think that rugby and politics don’t mix.

In fact, the International Rugby Football Board (IRFB) was first formed in 1887 at a meeting in Manchester when members of the Irish, Scottish and Welsh Rugby unions sought to agree on the standard rules of rugby football. Up until then, England had played politics and claimed they were the game’s official lawmakers.

Wind the clock forward 130 years and while the governing body is now called World Rugby, the game’s powerbase remains with the Six Nations.

The re-election of Bill Beaumont as World Rugby chairman illustrates the point that rugby and politics are inseparable.

I feel for Agustin Pichot, painted as the Che Guevara-type revolutionary willing to take on the establishment and stand up for the southern hemisphere. In the end, Beaumont and the powerful and savvy Frenchman Bernard Laporte lobbied and won the two Japanese votes and like Guevara, Gus Pichot’s revolutionary crusade was snuffed out before it began.

Beaumont may be seen by some as a safe pair of hands in uncertain times but in reality he is a dinosaur. His alliance with Laporte is clear evidence that the Six Nations bloc has no intention of relinquishing control of the world game.

Make no mistake, at the end of this World Cup cycle, Bernard Laporte will be the next World Rugby chairman. The voting bloc is rigged in favour of the Six Nations.

To address the protesting voices like mine, Bill Beaumont has cleverly called for a “governance review” to be run by the British Olympic Association chairman Hugh Robertson. He is a former Conservative MP and was Sports Minister during the London Olympics in 2012. How impartial do you think Sir Hugh will be?

So what can we expect from the Beaumont-Laporte coalition and how will it impact Australian rugby? That is, if Australian rugby is still alive.

One putative chairman has gone, one putative CEO is gone, all in the space of a week following the resignation of the former chairman and the former CEO, and now an acting CEO has been appointed, Rob Clarke, nice young man that he is, but he has been part of rugby administrative failures in the past.

Who sold Melbourne Rebels for a dollar?

But back to World Rugby. First on Beaumont and Laporte’s action list will be to pay back Japan for its important swing vote in the World Rugby election.

Invite Japan into the Rugby Championship. This may be a good thing commercially for the international season but Japan is currently planning on upgrading its top league club competition and this will undoubtedly take more Wallabies away from our provincial teams. Second on the Beaumont-Laporte action list will be to steal Agustin Pichot’s Nations Championship concept and sell it to CVC.

As I have written before, CVC, the international private equity group, already control about 30 per cent of the game in the northern hemisphere. We have no bargaining power to prevent them from bailing us out. CVC are not interested in growing our game; they are interested in profit, in projects that will make money for their shareholders. They want to grow revenue and cut costs.

CVC are investing close to one billion dollars in the professional game in Europe. With Pichot out of the picture, CVC will be invited to invest in the Beaumont-Laporte version of the “Nations Championship”.

Then, to keep the big clubs in France and England happy, the Beaumont-Laporte coalition are likely to also push for a club World Cup that will give the big European clubs like Toulon fixtures against the big southern-hemisphere teams like the Crusaders. It’s a clever political play and most people would love to see these contests. But what’s it all mean for Australian Rugby?

I can assure you that if our bailout money comes from CVC, via World Rugby, there will be strings attached. They will devour the blazer brigade who have been pretending to run our game and we have no ammunition with which to fight.

Peter Wiggs has departed when he looked like the only bloke on the new RA board who understands a balance sheet. He accepted the position of acting chairman, then asked for a captain’s call on the appointment of his CEO, Matt Carroll.

Wiggs and Carroll made good sense. They are both gone.

Enter, it seems, Hamish McLennan.

McLennan is a good bloke and rugby man. He has outstanding commercial credentials. He negotiated the Big Bash rights for Channel 10 when he was executive chairman of the network. He knows sport and rugby.

But what lead is there in the rugby saddle bag?

Paul McLean, Pip Marlow, John Wilson and Hayden Rorke are out of their depth in my opinion. They’re longstanding RA board members and have presided over the sinking of the Australian rugby ship. They opposed the speedy appointment of Carroll, perhaps because it would make them look useless. Funny that, many already thought they were.

Poor Raelene Castle was pushed out to face the music while Cameron Clyne and McLean were too timid to step up.

Australian rugby is at rock bottom. We are a laughing stock domestically and internationally.

Politics is everywhere in our game. It is run on the same principles as the branch stacking of political parties. Few charged with running the game have talents that could overtly grow the game and prosper its appeal. We have to start again to be respected, domestically and internationally.

Under the current governance structure the very people we need are locked out of the rugby tent.

Back to Aristotle.

“Excellence is never an accident. It’s always the result of high intention, sincere effort and intelligent execution. It represents the wise choice of many alternatives — choice, not chance determines your destiny.”

What choices should we make?

Start with Hamish McLennan. Then pick up the phone to Matt Carroll. Forget the niceties.