Captains’ recipe for rugby rescue

The 10 Wallabies captains have proposed the formation of a board to unite Australian rugby and rescue the game.

Former Wallabies skipper Simon Poidevin says the proposed new board is designed to bring rugby together at all levels. Picture: John Appleyard

Ten Wallabies captains have proposed the formation of a board to unite Australian rugby and rescue the game as it faces a $120m revenue black hole.

The captains, including Nick Farr-Jones, Simon Poidevin, Nathan Sharpe and Stephen Moore, have been the drivers behind the formation of the Australian Rugby Review Board (ARRB), which will devise solutions to revive the ailing code.

Fortescue boss Andrew Forrest is set to be consulted not only to repair the relationship with Western Australia (the Western Force were ousted several years ago) but to encourage him to put his ideas on the table to help fix rugby.

GRAPHIC: Proposed Australian Rugby Review Board

The ARRB is a proposal currently being considered by Rugby Australia board members.

Poidevin — who was a co-signatory of the Wallabies captains’ letter that rocked Australian rugby earlier this week — said the ARRB is designed to unite the Australian rugby community as it faces its biggest battle to date due to previous financial mismanagement and COVID-19.

“The ARRB will not answer to Rugby Australia it will answer to all of Australian rugby,” Poidevin said.

The 10 Wallabies captains propose the ARRB have an independent chairman, one Rugby Australia representative, two people appointed by Rugby Australia (who will have an appropriate gender and geographic balance), at least four state union representatives, a RUPA representative and four independents. It will be a 13-person board that will include at least three women.

Moore, who signed the letter and was consulted on the design of the board, said it was important for the ARRB to be formed and said the 10 captains remained strong in their push for transformation of the game.

He said he hopes the new board will create trust within the rugby community and generate change.

“There’s been a build-up of issues over a fairly long period of time and people have had faith that those issues would be dealt with but that hasn’t happened,” Moore said. “The issues we face today are quite similar to the issues faced over the last decade. I do think that. Governance even longer. The governance structure of Australian rugby is problematic, it is a federated model, that doesn’t always lend itself to an agile and nimble organisation. You need trust at the top, if that’s not there then the whole thing falls apart.”

The Weekend Australian can reveal that following the departure of chief executive Raelene Castle, the bloodletting in the Rugby Australia hierarchy is not over with powerful board member Peter Wiggs likely to appoint a ‘trusted Adviser’ as an interim chief executive undertaking a review of head office’s budget.

The greatest challenges remain off the field, including a breakdown in the relationship with Rugby Australia and member ­unions.

“Part of the problem has been a very poor relationship between the member unions and Rugby Australia,” Poidevin said.

“We see ourselves as a healing agent to bring all parties together with a really strong aim to connect professional rugby in Australia back with the amateur part of the code which is so important.

“We are one game. The connection to grassroots is central to the success of the game going forward. As former captains of the Wallabies, we understand what the success of that game means to so many diverse people across the country. That’s the people we want to have with us going forward.

“We think the way the game has gone towards that professional model, the grassroots have been left behind.”

The captains are calling each other twice daily and remain united in fixing the game. One of their requests is that the findings of the 11 reviews be laid bare.

“There is a lot of great work that hasn’t seen the light of day,” Poidevin said. “One of the frustrations of this movement is there has been a lot of great IP produced but it has just been buried.

“That’s why we believe that Rugby Australia is not the right body to do this review, but an independent body which can bring everything to the table.

“That’s to put all competition structures on the table. We don’t pretend we know all we are prescribing and the answer to that. We know there is a lot of good ideas out there, that need to be put on that table. We also understand it is an international game … but until you have a position to take back to those international bodies, you can’t get there. The business model has got to change. We are very, very clear that Western Australian rugby is a big part of this and the ideas of Andrew Forrest should be put on the table.”