Wallabies’ World Cup review set for release – but without budget blow-out figure

The findings of a long-awaited review of the Wallabies’ disastrous Rugby World Cup campaign are expected to be made public by Rugby Australia next week, almost two months after recommendations in the document were presented to the RA board.

But despite Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh alluding to a “larger spend than budgeted” on the Wallabies program last year, interested parties keen to learn the exact size of the budget blow-out will be left disappointed, with a deep dive into Wallabies finances not in the scope of the external review.

Rugby Australia announced on November 2 it had commissioned an external review into the Wallabies’ season in 2023, with former Wallabies captain Andrew Slack, ex-Wallaby and RUPA boss Justin Harrison and AIS high-performance expert Darlene Harrison making up the panel.

The panel interviewed departing coach Eddie Jones, coaching staff and Wallabies players, and after RA initially forecast the review would be completed before Christmas, the findings and recommendations were presented to Rugby Australia’s board in early January.

After declaring they would publish a summary of the review, RA has delayed the release several times, most recently a plan to get it out before round one of Super Rugby Pacific.

Waugh said the delays had come due to a desire to have new Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt, and high-performance heads Peter Horne and David Nucifora, go through the report and formulate plans in response. Schmidt and Horne officially start with RA on March 1, he added.

RA CEO Phil Waugh, Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt and RA director of high performance Peter Horne.Credit: Brook Mitchell

“What’s really important here is how we get our best resources in place so we can best implement the recommendations of that review,” Waugh said. “Next steps are for us to finalise the summary of the paper, and then engage with our Super Rugby clubs, CEOs and the players and other stakeholders, and then ensure we publish it in a digestable manner, so people understand well here are the recommendations, and here are the actions we are going to take to implement the recommendations.

“A big piece of this is timing, because I know everyone wants to get this review out and the findings of that widely socialised, but it is important from my end that we have the right people with right capability in the right seats to actually execute some of those recommendations.”

With Jones’ resignation meaning the controversial coach, and most of his staff, are no longer part of the Wallabies system, the value of a forensic review is likely to be found in what steps are recommended to ensure a similar train wreck isn’t allowed to happen again.

But many in Australian rugby, particularly among cash-strapped state unions and community rugby groups, were eager for the review to also reveal how much money had been spent on the Wallabies’ pursuit of success at the Rugby World Cup. There has been speculation the budget blew out by over $4 million.

Eddie Jones and his coaching staff during the failed World Cup campaign.Credit: Getty

But an RA spokesman confirmed the review’s terms of reference had been focussed on the Wallabies’ high-performance structures and strategy, and not a forensic accounting of the program’s spending. Informed sources with knowledge of the review panel’s work did cover the governance and processes behind the Wallabies’ spending, however.

A clearer picture of the total amount spent on the Wallabies in 2023 will only emerge when Rugby Australia publishes its annual report in April, and even then may require detective work to piece together.

At a time when state unions are struggling, several Super Rugby officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said they’d been told about wasteful spending on travel, accommodation and a 23-strong backroom staff, which included expensive external consultants.

In a recent interview, Waugh explained why the Wallabies’ budget had blown out.

“We can go through it in more granular detail but obviously, there was a lot of change in assistant coaches through that period … you would have seen the number of people travelling within the environment, which again has been well socialised,” Waugh said.

“And the preparation into the World Cup, which, if you think about how the economics and how the system works, when 80-85% of our revenue comes from the men’s 15-a-side game, the importance to give every opportunity to a successful World Cup campaign with a new coach and a new coaching team, and a team that was not overly set, it lent to a larger spend than was budgeted. That will come out over time.”

Waugh became chief executive shortly before the Rugby World Cup but he has been on the RA board from 2020, and will face questions for his decisions about Wallabies spending in that role.

The former banker has also painted a clear picture he intends to run Rugby Australia with fiscal restraint, however, and six Rugby Australia staff were made redundant last week.

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