Peter Wiggs resigns from Rugby Australia board

Rugby Australia board member Peter Wiggs has tendered his resignation after an email exchange with interim chair Paul McLean.

Peter Wiggs has tendered his resignation from the board of Rugby Australia.

Rugby Australia board member Peter Wiggs has tendered his resignation after an explosive email exchange with RA’s interim chair Paul McLean last night.

The Australian has obtained the email chain where McLean writes to Wiggs saying his “closeness” to Matt Carroll, the current Australian Olympic Committee CEO who has been suggested as the next Rugby Australia boss, “would be a concern for most Boards. So how do we apply separation”.

McLean suggests that Magellan executive and incoming board member Hamish McLennan would be a more suitable chairman. McLean proposes that Carroll and McLennan meet “immediately”.

The email from McLean reads: “What if we get Hamish and Matt together immediately, and if Hamish is comfortable (with Matt) and to come to the Board early, and as designate Chair, we could appoint Matt (Phil (Waugh), Dan (Herbert), Brett (Godfrey), and me would support). You remain a lead director, without the Chair title which was never your desire, anyway, Matt gets the role he would like, and we get a good CEO immediately.

“I can only presume you hate the politics as much as me, so I’m keen to get this resolved. I put Rob on hold, but that won’t last long. Maybe a chat in the morning.......... Rgds PM”

Wiggs then replied to McLean saying he would resign today.

“Hi Paul, This is a very disappointing email, what little regard I had for RA Board is now extinguished. I tried calling to discuss. I will resign tomorrow. Regards Peter.”

The Rugby Australia board remains fractured after Monday night’s meeting.

The board meeting became heated after Wiggs made clear the conditions on which he would take the chairmanship.

In the meeting, Wiggs said that considering the code’s dire financial state, the fact has more than $16m in debt and — as The Australian can reveal — KPMG still won’t sign off on the financials, he wanted to appoint the CEO.

With RA in such a perilous state, Wiggs expressed a desire to make a “captain’s pick”, suggesting to the board that Matt Carroll, his friend and Australian Olympic Committee boss, take the job immediately.

Former Australian Rugby Union CEO John O’Neill was also suggested to take a board position.

Longstanding board members including Pip Marlow, John Wilson and Hayden Rorke baulked at the idea of Wiggs installing his own CEO. One board member suggested they would look like “idiots”.

RA board member Daniel Herbert also disagreed with Wiggs implementing his own CEO.

The objecting board members were offended at a lack of “due process” and wanted a recruiting firm to be appointed.

In the heated meeting one board member suggested Wiggs, the Archer Capital and SuperCars boss who has been on the board for just over a month, had been “planting himself in the media”. Another criticism of Wiggs was that he was “too Mosman”.

Wiggs, who has been studying Rugby Australia’s financial books, working endless hours to make sense of the code’s state, has also confided to sources they are “much worse” than he expected.

Rugby Australia failed to submit the annual report to the Australian Securities Investment Commission by last Thursday’s deadline. They are awaiting a rescue cheque from World Rugby.

McLean confirmed Wiggs’ exit in a statement on Wednesday.