Harvey Norman pulls pin on Super Rugby sponsorship

The naming rights sponsor for Super Rugby will not renew its deal with Rugby Australia following last weekend’s bloody boardroom battle.

The Queensland Reds celebrate winning Super Rugby AU in 2021 with the banner of naming rights sponsor Harvey Norman. The company on Thursday confirmed it will not renew its sponsorship after the QRU initiated a boardroom coup Picture: Getty Images

The board of Rugby Australia is counting the cost of its bloody boardroom battle that saw decorated businessman Hamish McLennan axed as its chairman.

The fallout of the coup has resulted in Harvey Norman opting not to renew its multimillion-dollar sponsorship of RA.

Harvey Norman, who are the naming rights sponsors of Super Rugby, confirmed to The Australian they will exit the game on December 31 and “not renew”.

The departure of Harvey Norman, who it is understood had already invested $5 million in the code, is set to plunge the code into further financial turmoil.

“The Harvey Norman contract with Rugby Australia expires at the end of December, the decision has been taken not to renew,” a Harvey Norman company spokesperson said.

The Australian has learnt the Wallabies key sponsor Cadbury are also deeply concerned by the recent events where a coup led by Queensland Rugby Union chair Brett Clark, backed by six member unions, slammed McLennan’s leadership and demanded he resign.

Clark had notably refused to cede to RA’s commercial centralisation plans which in part triggered the movement against McLennan. This is despite Rugby Australia previously financially rescuing the QRU between 2015 and 2017 with multimillion-dollar grants to keep the organisation afloat.

Three weeks ago Clark initiated formal plans with state member unions chairs to oust McLennan but admitted they had been discontented for “12-18 months” and the “final straw” was the Wallabies World Cup result.

In a press conference on Monday, Clark said that they’d “burn an effigy” of him “in the middle of Ballymore” before the QRU’s commercial assets were handed over to RA and said McLennan was not the right “cultural fit” for rugby.

“The chair at the time was not the person at the time who could effectively lead us into this next generation of rugby,” Clark said.

Axed Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan, right, with chief executive Phil Waugh in June Picture: AFP

“It was never meant to be a personal attack at Hamish, it was just around his cultural fit, his value and some of his decision making.”

McLennan had been accused of making ‘captain’s picks’ including appointing Wallabies coach Eddie Jones, although his appointment was signed off unanimously by the RA board and is recorded in the minutes.

On Tuesday, The Australian revealed Clark, the ringleader of the coup, was deep in talks with the code’s new boss Dan Herbert just days before he successfully moved to oust McLennan.

McLennan secured the key sponsorships of Harvey Norman and Cadbury in his time as chairman.

McLennan was on the cusp of securing a multimillion-dollar deal with Cadbury for the national women’s team, the Wallaroo, and in an interview three weeks ago warned that if he was to be “speared” the game could be left in a worse financial state.

“They might find they’ve got a bigger problem on their hands,” McLennan said at the time.

McLennan too was involved in high level negotiations to secure an $80m loan to shore up the future of the game.

The Rugby Australia board is made up of Herbert, Phil Waugh, Pip Marlow, Brett Godfrey, Dr Jane Wilson, Matthew Hanning, Karen Penrose and Joe Roff, who does not have a vote.

Following the chaotic events of the last week in the boardroom, Marlow is now understood to be standing aside after the next AGM.

After Clark sent the member union letter to the board last Friday, there was 48 hours of crisis meetings at RA with the board choosing to “unanimously” vote out McLennan late on Sunday.

On Tuesday text messages revealed Herbert was meeting with Clark in the hours before the QRU chair launched the scathing letter.

Clark too had refused to take a call from McLennan.