Melbourne Rebels demand access to secret RA files in $30m lawsuit

Melbourne Rebels are demanding access to a secret server that contains emails that threatens to blow up the competition with their $30 million lawsuit in the Federal Court.

Rebels captain Rob Leota after the club’s quarter-final loss, likely its last ever game.

The ousted Melbourne Rebels board members are demanding access to a Rugby Australia computer server containing sensitive financial emails that threaten to blow up the code.

The former Rebels board took their case to the Federal Court in Melbourne on Thursday in the opening round of their $30 million legal battle.

They have been seeking access to a RA computer server that hosted email accounts, calendars and Xero and MYOB accounting software.

Justice Stewart Anderson ordered RA to file a defence to the Rebels’ claims by late November following a short procedural hearing.

“By 4pm on 21 November 2024, the Defendant file and serve a Defence and Counterclaim, if any,” he ordered.

RA shut down the Rebels in May, with RA chair Daniel Herbert saying that the Melbourne-based club had failed to disclose its financial problems.

A PwC report into the club had found that it may have been trading while insolvent since 2018.

Rebels players form a huddle after they lost to the Hurricanes their final game as a team after being axed by Rugby Australia. Picture: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

The former Rebels board members, who include Georgia Widdup, daughter of former Qantas chair Leigh Clifford, businessman Paul Docherty, Lyndsey Cattermole and Tim North, KC, have been hit with Director Penalty Notices over their handling of the club.

They remain liable as “joint and several” directors of an Australian Taxation Office debt of almost $8 million.

Most of that debt was linked to unpaid PAYG tax, which the former Rebels board claims should be funded by RA as joint signatories on player contracts.

The legal case was likely to rest on RA’s alleged promises to the Rebels and other Super Rugby Pacific club members.

The former Rebels have been seeking internal emails to back up their claims that RA had promised to bail out the club, which collapsed in January with more than $20 million in debts.

The governing body had been seeking a private equity selloff to supercharge its finances, but was unable to seal a deal.

RA instead set up an $80 million loan with Pacific Equity Partners, most of which has now been drawn down.

The British and Irish Lions Tour of Australia in July next year - their first visit here in 12 years - was expected to be a cash cow for RA to clear some of its debts.

They were also holding out hope of major windfalls for the World Cups, with the mens’ tournament held here in 2027 and the womens’ in 2029.

However, the collapse of the Rebels and financial problems at the Waratahs have derailed RA’s plans.

Herbert said when shutting down the Rebels in May that the club had already received almost $14 million in bailouts in 2017, with the debts just getting worse.

“There’s been tens of millions of dollars that has been spent on this franchise over and above other Super Rugby clubs, and (now its) to be $23 million in debt again,” Herbert said during a press conference at Melbourne’s Rialto tower.

Clifford had floated an “$18 million plan” to move the Rebels from its costly home base at AAMI Stadium out to Tarneit, in Melbourne’s west, in a bid to save the team.

He has been behind the legal case against RA, which also includes a demand to reinstate a team in Melbourne.

The case was due back in the Federal Court on December 20.