RA’s turmoil over captain’s pick

Peter Wiggs failed his first test as presumptive Rugby Australia chair by threatening to resign.

Peter Wiggs was stymied in his bid to appoint Matt Carroll chief executive of Rugby Australia

Peter Wiggs failed his first test as presumptive Rugby Australia chair by threatening to resign if he does not get his way with his pick of Matt Carroll as chief executive although he still is attracting fierce support from backers in NSW.

The Australian has learnt that Wiggs considered resigning after Monday night’s heated board meeting where his fellow directors backed him to become the new RA chair but then challenged his demand that they appoint Carroll, a close friend and the Australian Olympic Committee’s CEO, as chief executive. By doing so, some of the directors argued, they would be abandoning due process from the outset.

But what is understood to have most concerned powerbrokers in the game is that Wiggs went straight to threats of resignation if he did not get his way.

Key NSW and Queensland Rugby Union leaders have “wholeheartedly” backed the combination of Wiggs and Carroll to become RA’s new chairman and CEO – and are “angry and disappointed” with the board who opposed the combination during a Monday night meeting.

NSWRU chair Roger Davis is understood to be frustrated by the board’s lack of support for Wiggs’ conditions and is even looking at lobbying for an extraordinary general meeting to remove the “recalcitrant” directors.

While Queensland is supportive of Carroll and, to a lesser extent, the largely unknown Wiggs, they believe that Paul McLean, who emerged from Monday’s meeting still as the RA interim chair, needs time to unify his board. With RA in a perilous financial state, Wiggs’ supporters believe he needs the power to move quickly and decisively and if he wants to make Carroll his “captain’s pick” as Raelene Castle’s successor as CEO, then he should be given the board’s full blessing.

The Australian can reveal a $16 million loan to save Rugby Australia from potential bankruptcy is under threat with auditors still refusing to sign the beleaguered body’s 2019 financials.

World Rugby has agreed to provide lifesaving funds to RA, but only on the condition that they provide audited results for 2019.

The Australian understands the perilous state of RA’s financial situation has auditors, in turn, currently refusing to sign the financial accounts until the loan has been confirmed.

It is a Catch-22 for the national body that has no broadcasting agreement beyond this year and is increasingly reliant on the financial acumen of Wiggs and the man who will eventually take McLean’s place on the board, Hamish McLennan.

Wiggs is an experienced private equity specialist and Supercars chairman, who has been charged with conducting a deep dive into RA accounts.

Wiggs is understood to be “fully aware” that lost time could bring the game to its knees.

Without the World Rugby loan, there are major concerns RA will be insolvent, which could also have a disastrous impact on the viability of the code’s two traditional provincial powerhouses – NSW and Queensland.

In Monday night’s meeting Wiggs also pushed for former RA boss John O’Neill to take a board position as well as Carroll.

The suggestions upset longstanding board members including Pip Marlow, John Wilson and Hayden Rorke who had baulked at the idea of Wiggs installing his own CEO. One board member suggested they would look like “idiots”. Another board member Daniel Herbert also disagreed with Wiggs’ plan to install Carroll.

The objecting board members were offended at a lack of “due process” and want to stick with a recruiting firm which will cost RA a six-figure sum.

On Tuesday The Australian understands NSWRU chair Davis was “ropeable” that “common sense has not prevailed” with RA under immense financial duress. It is understood Davis has told his advisers that this is not a time for “due process, it is a time for action”.

Rugby Australia was supposed to submit their annual report to ASIC (Australian Securities Investment Commission) last Thursday but didn’t as they await a bailout from World Rugby.

Rob Clarke, a former RA deputy CEO, and Tony Dempsey, the original boss of the players association, have been pencilled in a possible interim CEOs if the impasse with Wiggs is not resolved with Carroll’s appointment.