The Breakdown: Australian Rugby nearly went back to amateurism
Cash-strapped Rugby Australia seriously contemplated retreat from the professional era, new chair Hamish McLennan reveals.
Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan has opened up on how the game nearly “collapsed” in Australia and was almost forced to become amateur again.
McLennan said rugby was in dire straits and the code, which has been professional since 1995, nearly died.
Footballers were facing the prospect of playing in an amateur domestic competition with Super Rugby all but gone.
McLennan said the game was in a financial “mess” when he took up the chair last year.
“There are a couple of moments there, where I was very concerned that if we didn‘t pull out, or [do what] we had to do, the whole game would have collapsed,” McLennan told Episode 6 of The Australian’s podcast The Breakdown, which is live in the Podcasts section of our app now.
“And (then-acting CEO) Rob Clarke and I were talking about with the board, one scenario is that the game devolves to being amateur again. And that was a real possibility.”
“So it was a little bit like a video game where the canyons behind you collapse every step that you take. And so thankfully, we’re able to just sort of shore it up and then navigate a pathway through it. But it really did feel like Indiana Jones at one point. And history will prove that was the case for those who know the detail. It was it was pretty tricky.”
McLennan has overseen $30m cut out of the business’ cost base since his arrival.
Early last month Rugby Australia confirmed Wallabies players will have match payments slashed by around 50 per cent in 2021, to roughly $6000 per Test. That is part of $2.5 million of savings in a new CBA that will see fewer national contracts handed out.
But Rugby Australia is still not out of the woods. It is yet to name a major sponsor and players wages have been cut.
John O’Neill, the game’s longest serving administrator, said the code has myriad challenges at the moment. With reduced revenue, union players can no longer expect the enormous salaries of years past.
“It‘s got shrinking, shrinking revenues and it has I mean, we’re talking about a post-COVID environment where you’ve still got the threat that you’re going to lose players to the northern hemisphere, you know, France, England or Japan,” O’Neill said.
“And great truism in all sport, particularly in rugby: whoever owns the players owns the game. And the players will go where the money is. And we’ve just got to be careful — (I’m) not telling anyone how to suck eggs — but we may run the risk of ending up like soccer, like football, where all the best players play in the centre of the soccer universe, which is the UK and Europe.”
Today’s final episode of The Breakdown examines the fight for the hearts and minds of the next generation of rugby stars, with the AFL and rugby league both aggressively pursuing junior talent.
McLennan also speaks about what he thinks has been Australian rugby’s greatest flaw.
“I think the culture of rugby is really interesting, I think it‘s created a culture of entitlement over the years,” he said.
“And I wouldn‘t say snobbery by any stretch of the imagination, but probably complacency and it’s a hard thing to articulate. But whilst it’s broadly played in country areas and suburban stadiums, there’s also that sort of private school element. And I don’t think successive management regimes were aggressive enough or fully understood what was happening out there with rugby league and AFL and it was all a bit slow.
“Lovely people who’ve been involved in rugby, you know, you know, people who are high quality — but I just think they lost, lost sight of what it takes to compete and win and I think took for granted the heritage that we had. So for planning resources, investment in the game didn‘t happen adequately.
“And look, history does prove that. Look at where we’re at at the moment. So it took us many years to get into this situation, will take us many years to get out.”
McLennan observed the game had been on decline ever since the 2003 World Cup loss in Sydney.
“There was this long slide, as I would call it, from 03, where even though we lost in the final and I was there and heartbroken when Jonny Wilkinson did that kick, the game was still in great shape,” McLennan said. “And I think John O‘Neill left it financially strong. He did leave it financially strong. And so there was a lot of momentum in the game. But I think history would prove that we didn’t execute that well. We didn’t focus on grassroots as much as we should. And, you know, the truth of the matter is we didn’t manage what we have.”
In today’s episode Nick Farr-Jones, former ARU board member Ann Sherry and Andrew Forrest call for a constitutional overhaul.
Former Wallabies captain Farr-Jones said: “One of the biggest problems is we‘ve got a federated model.
“And again, it comes down to power and there’s perhaps one or two chairmen of some of the major member unions that aren’t prepared to give up that power. But what you need is a corporate type constitution or a commission like the AFL has.
“There’s no doubt about that. It will come. But some of the, you know, current leaders of player unions have got votes.
“And I think you need 75 per cent of the voting members to change the constitution. And so maybe one or two of those people need to move on and we’ll get a refreshment of the corporate structure of the game.”
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