‘Boneheads’: McLennan slams board as Harvey Norman quits rugby

Former Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan has called the directors who ousted him “boneheads” after Harvey Norman pulled its multimillion-dollar sponsorship of the code.

Harvey Norman chair Gerry Harvey on Thursday confirmed the retail giant would not renew its three-year deal with RA next year but denied the sponsorship was being dropped because of the move against McLennan.

Hamish McLennan said the directors who ousted him were “arrogant and dopey”.Credit: Kate Geraghty

“Look at what the boneheads have done,” McLennan told this masthead. “They are arrogant and dopey.”

The collapse of the Harvey Norman deal is a major blow for RA as it deals with the fallout from the axing of McLennan and the Wallabies’ dire Rugby World Cup campaign. It also leaves it looking for a financial backer for next year’s Super Rugby season, for which Harvey Norman has been the naming-rights sponsor since 2021.

Harvey said the company was pursuing other sponsorship opportunities in other sports.

“What we do is, we do whatever sport for a while; we don’t necessarily hang on to it forever,” Harvey said. “So we move around on different sports so we’re very heavy into sport advertising that we don’t necessarily stay with the one sport forever.

“You know we think, ‘Oh we’ve given that a good go, then we’ll go on to the next one’. In all cases, we stop at some stage.”

When asked whether the sponsorship was being dropped because of the move against McLennan, Harvey replied: “No, no, no, no. It’s just the sport itself. So we do that for a while then move on to the next one.

“And you know, at some stage – like we’re doing basketball at the moment, we’ve never done that before. At some stage, we’ll drop off that and go back and do something else.”

An RA spokesman said the code was already speaking to potential new partners.

“Rugby Australia wishes to thank Harvey Norman for its enthusiastic support of Rugby over the last three years,” he said. “RA is currently in market and actively involved in discussions for a replacement.”

Harvey Norman has ended its partnership with rugby.Credit: Getty

The news that Harvey Norman is dropping its sponsorship comes after another major RA partner, investment platform eToro, announced it would not be renewing its deal.

“After a rewarding three-year partnership, we are not renewing our sponsorship with Rugby Australia as we have decided to focus on new opportunities,” a spokesperson said.

The company initially sponsored RA in October 2020 during the then Tri Nations series between Australia, Argentina and New Zealand, following South Africa’s withdrawal.

Seven months later, eToro extended its partnership with RA through a three-year agreement running until the end of 2023.

Major partner Santos signed an extension to its existing deal with RA in 2021, which is due to expire in 2024.

A spokesperson for major sponsor Cadbury said on Thursday there was no change to the company’s commercial partnership with RA.

“We remain committed to Rugby Australia and our partnerships with the Wallabies and Wallaroos.”

Cadbury signed in 2021 as the new principal partner of the Wallabies and major partner of the Wallaroos in a five year deal, replacing RA’s former long-term backer Qantas.

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