Rugby Australia waits on World Rugby’s loan decision

World Rugby will decide on Friday what level of financial support Rugby Australia will receive under its COVID-19 bailout package.

Rugby Australia chair Paul McLean. Picture: John Pryke

World Rugby will decide on Friday what level of financial support Rugby Australia will receive under its COVID-19 bailout package, even as RA begins the awkward task of negotiating with Fox Sports over what manner of Super Rugby-style competition will resume this year, most likely in July.

Even though all its numbers are being vetted by an independent assessor, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, RA chairman Paul McLean said he was confident the loan would be approved within a fortnight and that funding would come through immediately at that point.

Brett Robinson, the former deputy chairman of RA and a member of the seven-man World Rugby executive committee, has a meeting in Dublin later on Friday but McLean is expecting no late surprises.

“After that (the meeting) we will know a little bit more but all the discussions up till now have been very positive,” McLean told The Australian

World Rugby has given no indication what percentage of its $156m it will make available to its Tier One nations but it is well aware that the situation in the southern hemisphere is more desperate than for northern hemisphere members for the simple reason that the south is in-season whereas the north is not. And they also are aware of the unique problems of RA, which is facing a $120m hole if the 2020 season generates no more broadcast or spectator revenue.

So it may well be that RA, whose current debt has grown to $16m, could be in for a slightly bigger than average allocation if World Rugby views its position sympathetically.

“I’m very optimistic that we will do as well as we can out of the distribution,” McLean said.

Although the NRL is hoping to resume the rugby league season in Australia by May 28, McLean does not believe the provincial rugby season can start up again before July.

RA has already, as McLean put it, “opened the batting” with Fox Sports on what the resumed season will look like, but the real work will start on Friday once the RA board has studied a range of options.

RA and Fox had a painful parting of the ways at the very first meeting to discuss the 2021-25 broadcast deal, when RA chief executive Raelene Castle rejected Fox’s initial offer and said she would be taking the broadcast rights to the market. Fox instantly made clear that its first offer would be its only offer, and although it is still fair to say that RA still hopes its broadcast partner of the past 25 years will return to the table, it would take a miracle for that to occur now.

Still, there is still the 2020 season – or what’s left of it – to negotiate and as strained as the pleasantries might be, it would seem to be in the interests of both parties for Fox to approve what scaled-down version of Super Rugby government restrictions might make possible.

Even though the coronavirus situation is looking increasingly positive on both sides of the ­Tasman, it may well be that Australia and New Zealand will not have removed barriers to international travel before it might be possible for a competition to resume.

The common-sense approach would be for each country to start off with a purely domestic ­competition that potentially could be broadened to a full trans-Tasman series if that becomes a possibility.

“We need to know what they (the broadcasters) want. What is going to work for them and where is it going to fit into their programs.

“So that piece is high on the agenda at the minute,” McLean said.