Can Phil Waugh save Australian rugby?

Phil Waugh has often found himself in uncomfortable positions in his life. Throughout school, he was told he was too small to play breakaway and decided to prove his coaches wrong by placing his body where others wouldn’t dare.

His uncompromising style of play eventually earned him 79 caps for the Wallabies and a reputation for relentlessness at the breakdown, regardless of the size and strength of his opponent.

The challenges continue to follow him into the boardroom long after his boots have been hung up.

Waugh is only six months into his tenure as chief executive of Rugby Australia and has faced a disastrous World Cup campaign, the resignation of Wallabies coach Eddie Jones and the ousting of chairman Hamish McLennan.

Is this the toughest job he has ever faced?

“It’s funny you say that because I got entrusted with running the COVID-19 response for Westpac’s business division,” Waugh says. “At the time, COVID was this afterthought in Asia, and a week later, I was running the full response for one of the ‘big four’ banks and that was intense, but also a wonderful experience in hindsight.

“I look back at that period and go actually, they [the two jobs] are very similar in terms of commentary, turmoil and to a certain extent crisis management.

“I would never have envisaged us being where we are today. In saying that, I do think it’s a really good opportunity, to reset and go forward.”

After the boardroom battle that eventually resulted in McLennan’s departure, Waugh is joined at the top table of RA with former international teammate Daniel Herbert as the new chairman. What does he believe Herbert can bring to the role?

Phil Waugh has been through a tumultuous six months as Rugby Australia CEO. Credit: Nick Moir

“He was uncompromising in the way he played the game,” Waugh says. “He’s also very thoughtful, very considered, but he’s also got a deep knowledge of the rugby system in Australia, having played from the amateur into the professional years being very successful in winning the World Cup, winning a Lions tour, and then going into the administration, going on to carve out a successful CEO role outside of rugby.

“I think it’s an exciting time for the game to have someone with such intimate knowledge of the system, when that is probably one of the highest priorities that we have.”

Waugh eventually voted against McLennan in the RA boardroom but remains in contact with him and said that his contribution to Australian rugby was significant.

“There’s no doubt that when Hamish came into the chair role, it was a tough period,” Waugh says. “Then we hit COVID and we’ve managed to navigate our way through a very difficult period, with a very united board under Hamish’s leadership.”

RA’s boardroom battles and coaching chaos made international headlines, ahead of an eagerly awaited Lions tour in 2025 and hosting the 2027 World Cup, does Waugh believe that the Australian rugby brand is damaged?

“I think between Daniel and myself we’ve got a lot of really strong relationships internationally,” Waugh says. “I think most importantly now is settling down and embedding those relationships around the country from our own member unions and Super Rugby clubs and ensuring that they’ve got they’ve got trust, and confidence in the direction we’re taking the game.

Waugh played 79 times for the Wallabies and was known for his uncompromising style of play.Credit: Getty

“I genuinely believe that the game is really united in the fact that we need to come together and solve the high-performance challenges we’ve had.”

Waugh talks a lot about the “system” that exists at RA and his strong wish to enhance it. He believes that there is a chasm between the community and professional game that needs to be closed urgently.

Waugh spends most nights and weekends talking to local rugby figures across Australia by phone, email and in person, listening to their thoughts on the game.

“My strong view is that whether it’s the Rugby Australia board, me as a CEO, the organisation, we don’t own the game of rugby - the community do,” Waugh says.

“I think professional rugby has become, I wouldn’t say too elitist, but it’s become too disconnected from what the game is all about. And so my view is, the more we can get our professional players back into the community playing club rugby as frequently as possible.

“And the same with academies and in development, the more we can have our young boys and girls developing within the club system, whilst getting all the support and resources they need to develop physically and mentally, the better connected we’re going to be.”

Phil Waugh faces the media after Eddie Jones resigned as Wallabies coach.Credit: James Bricklewood

Waugh’s wish to create strong connections across the game was undoubtedly stunted by the brief and tumultuous tenure of Jones as Wallabies coach. Waugh is eagerly waiting on a review on the 2023 season where players and staff are being interviewed on their experience of the Wallabies’ annus horribilis.

“The players have been great and they’ve been open,” Waugh says. “I think that we definitely need to build trust back with the playing group. But I think that goes back to the fact that previous reviews have been done and recommendations that have come out of it that haven’t actually been implemented.”

Until his departure in late November, Jones was a regular figure at RA’s headquarters at Moore Park, giving his feedback for the 2023 review. Waugh believes that Jones’ thoughts will form a crucial part of the game’s plan to move forward from this year.

“Eddie’s been involved in the review,” Waugh says. “Sometimes I think people underestimate the personal nature of Eddie and the fact that he does genuinely care about the game and rugby in Australia.

“We should never take that for granted, we should leverage whatever expertise and insights that he has, given his long connection to the game here from juniors right through to coaching the national team.”

Waugh understands that he is operating in one of the most competitive sporting markets in the world with a relatively small talent pool being farmed relentlessly across more sports than ever. Rugby is increasingly complex as a game, making it a challenging spectacle even for seasoned fans, never mind prospective ones.

Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh and chairman Dan Herbert have plenty of work ahead of them.Credit: Getty

“We’re in a market with the AFL and with rugby league and we need to be more attractive [as a game],” Waugh says. “I sympathise with that view, but my strong belief is that when rugby is played well, and the laws are executed, it’s a beautiful game to watch.

“When rugby is played well and it’s connected with the community, the community will engage and I think that what’s happened is that there’s a disconnect that now instead of going to watch Warringah [in the Shute Shield], and then going to watch the Waratahs, people are making a choice and we need people to get to both.”

Super Rugby in Australia is long past its heyday that Waugh once enjoyed as a player with the Waratahs, playing fast, running rugby to packed crowds in New Zealand and South Africa in the early 2000s.

Does Waugh think Super Rugby is working today?

“The very simple answer is no,” Waugh says. ” We’ve created a Super Rugby commission, which is going to look at specifically at Super Rugby and how we actually elevate it because it is it’s not the attractive rugby that it used to be and it’s certainly not driving the high-performance outcomes for all of us that we’d like it to.

“What I will say, though, is I haven’t given up on Super Rugby, I think that we can execute better than we have historically.”

Rugby union’s talent pool for Super Rugby and the Wallabies continues to be largely powered by Brisbane and Sydney private schools. Waugh, an alumnus of Shore, believes that the game has to do a far better job of engaging beyond its historically narrow parameters.

‘There’s no doubt that we have been viewed as an elitist sport’

Phil Waugh

“Western Sydney will become a bigger and bigger part of the sporting ecosystem in Australia and we’re already seeing it,” Waugh says.

“There’s no doubt that we have been viewed as an elitist sport and when you look at the players coming through now and the challenges that some players have because of that perception, we have a lot of work to do in terms of actually that expansion into Western Sydney and into different regions within Brisbane.”

Does he believe that the elitist label of rugby union in Australia is a fair one?

“It’s probably historical and I think the perception is there, but I don’t necessarily think we’re as far away from engaging and capturing those athletes in those (non-traditional) markets,” Waugh says.

“But again, a lot of it comes down to the ability to fund it, and get into some of those regions at mass because you need to be really embedded within those communities. And in a lot of those communities, parents had grown up playing rugby and watching rugby. So there’s definitely an affiliation with the code.”

Waugh and Herbert have a daunting list new year’s resolutions for rugby to map out. They aim to progress talks with Super Rugby and deliver a more centralised model, bring further financial stability to the code and hire a coach who can restore the Wallabies to winning ways.

“You know it’s been challenging period,” Waugh says. “But you’re never as far away from winning as what it seems when you’re losing, and you’re never miles ahead of the opposition when you’re when you’re winning.”

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