Hope for rugby with new CEO and $17m package

Rugby Australia emerges with a new CEO, a future chairman in the wind and a $17 million rescue package on its way.

REA Group chairman Hamish McLennan shapes as the future chairman of Rugby Australia. Picture: John Feder

Rugby Australia has picked its way through the carnage to finally arrive at a position of hope, with Rob Clarke, one of the country’s leading rugby administrators, taking on the job of interim CEO, a future chairman in the wind and a $17 million rescue package from World Rugby on its way.

Wednesday began with a shuddering shock, with RA director Peter Wiggs quitting the organisation he looked set to lead during Monday’s board meeting until he had started listing his demands for taking the job. The flare-up resulted when he had demanded a close friend, AOC chief executive Matt Carroll, be made RA CEO, circumventing the process RA had begun to find a replacement for Raelene Castle.

Wiggs was challenged by four fellow directors and responded by threatening to resign, a threat he made good early on Wednesday morning. RA interim chair Paul McLean issued a respectful statement about Wiggs’ work and then set about finding a new chairman.

Almost certainly it will be Hamish McLennan, the 53-year-old chairman of the REA Group, a multi-billion global digital advertising real estate company operated by News Corp, publishers of The Australian.

McLennan had been slated to come onto the board whenever McLean stepped down but now, following Wiggs’ departure, he will have the luxury of coming onto the board during the final days of McLean’s tenure to get to know the business.

McLean was due to telephone McLennan on Wednesday but, when asked about his impending involvement, chose to keep his silence.

Given that McLean had written in one of his leaked emails that it would make sense for McLennan to meet with Carroll as soon as possible, there was considerable interest in whether the incoming chairman was kindly disposed to work with Carroll.

Ultimately it didn’t matter, because Carroll went on Twitter on Wednesday night to announce he would not be seeking the position. By then RA had long moved on to pursue the other leading candidate for the job, Clarke.

Peter Wiggs.

AOC Chief Executive Matt Carroll.

Perhaps the only other person in Australian rugby with a CV to match Carroll, Clarke has been chief executive of the Brumbies and the Melbourne Rebels, was twice the chief operations officer of the Australian Rugby Union and the man who, until his surprise resignation in May 2017, was seen as the logical successor to Bill Pulver as CEO.

It almost seems the one gap in Clarke’s career path will be filled in when he marches into his office at RA’s Moore Park headquarters today, though there will be no Aboriginal smoking ceremony to mark his arrival as there was when Castle took charge in January 2018. And he won’t be staying long.

“I will not be applying for the permanent role,” Clarke told The Australian. “I’ve told Paul McLean that I am not and will not be a candidate for the permanent role. My wife and I were planning on being overseas actually for the next six months but COVID put an end to that so my calendar really freed up and that will take us through to next year. But we plan on doing more travelling next year.”

Clarke is bracing himself for his first look at the financial statements of RA and the four Super Rugby unions. “I don’t want to guess what they are but I know they are not as healthy as they could be,” he said with dazzling understatement.

Still, he probably will arrive on the same day as the rescue cheque for around $17m, with re-elected chairman Bill Beaumont apologising for its delay because of the World Rugby elections.

Clark admits he has his own well-developed thoughts on what form the competition should take, although he is keen to hear what changes in the argument have come in over the three years he has been out of the game.

“But I do think there is no better time than now to re-look at everything and try and envision what a better outcome could look like as far as the structure goes,” he said.