Andy Marinos arrives as Rugby Australia’s offer aims to avoid breaking the Lions cycle

Rugby Australia’s new chief executive Andy Marinos took over the reins of the embattled code on Monday at a unique moment.

Andy Marinos on his first day in the job as CEO of Rugby Australia

Rugby Australia’s new chief executive Andy Marinos took over the reins of the embattled code on Monday at a unique moment in the game’s history, with Australia poised to play an extraordinary role in ensuring that the British and Irish Lions touring cycle is not broken.

The Lions have toured the southern hemisphere regularly since 1888, when they visited Australia and New Zealand, and in recent years have toured to South Africa, NZ and Australia on a 12-year cycle, travelling to each of the multiple World Cup winners every four years in turn. But the cycle is in jeopardy this year because of the global coronavirus pandemic and the only real likelihood of Tests going ahead in front of packed stadiums could be if this year’s designated hosts, South Africa, and the Lions organisation accept an offer from Australia to stage the series.

As the former CEO of SANZAAR and a past general manager of South African Rugby, Marinos is ideally placed to ensure that the idea – the brainchild of RA chairman Hamish McLennan – is given every consideration. But, as he stressed, the decision is not Australia’s.

“That is a decision for South Africa and the Lions as to where is best,” Marinos told The Australian. “We have heard they are considering a tour of South Africa or a tour of the United Kingdom … is there an option somewhere else in the world?”

The important thing though is that international rugby – which Marinos is convinced feeds the soul of rugby as well as filling its coffers – is in a position to continue.

“We’ve got a French series coming here and that remains our absolute priority to get the French series under way and to deliver that,” Marinos said. “When you look at the magnitude of a Lions tour in any year, it is one of those tentpole moments in the rugby calendar … South Africa is struggling a bit with the containment of the virus, as is Europe, and Hamish is only extending the rugby hand of friendship. If we can help in any way to get the Lions tour under way and help make sure that international rugby continues, we are more than willing to help and play our part in that picture.”

It is in everyone’s interest that a backlog of tours is not created. Certainly if the Lions series against the Springboks does not go ahead this year or next, it will then run up against the 2023 World Cup and the next scheduled Lions venture, to Australia in 2025, could be compromised.

“Absolutely,” he said. “And postponing it doesn’t help. Selfishly, I look at our calendar and it could impact. What we have got to try to do is be flexible and we’ve got to be able to pivot in probably what is going to be a slightly disrupted year in 2021. If there is another way that we can get international rugby up and running, no matter where it is, then we’ve got to do it.”

As an outsider — admittedly one who was very much attuned to Australia’s rugby fortunes as boss of the Sydney-based SANZAAR organisation — Marinos saw for himself right from the start of the Dave Rennie era just how attuned average Australians are to the fortunes of the Wallabies.

Initially, they watched out of the corner of their eye as Australia took on the All Blacks in Wellington on October 11 but as the Wallabies answered every New Zealand challenge, they were crowding around television sets and, in the end, bemoaning the injustice of the eventual 16-all draw.

“If you want to be successful at Wallabies level, we have to have strongly performing Super Rugby clubs and a strong pathway of players coming through the system to feed into that,” he said. “We have to re-engage and unite the community game and create clear pathways. If we have successful sevens teams, successful women’s team, successful under-20s and a successful Wallabies, it certainly does make your job a lot easier from a broadcast and a commercial perspective because that is what people desperately want to get behind.

“We have to appreciate that each different area plays a specific role in making sure that we perform well and the Wallabies and the Wallaroos and the sevens teams are dominant on the international stage.”

In his previous role with South African Rugby, Marinos had an oversight role over the then Springboks coach, Jake White, and shared in his success when the Boks won the 2007 World Cup. He certainly is hoping he can achieve something similar with Rennie, who was one of the first to telephone him yesterday to welcome him to the new job.

“At the end of the day, we are all part of the same team,” he said. “If he wins on the field, we win off the field – and vice versa.”