ARU Decide to Maintain the Status Quo on Victoria - They're Doing Nothing?!

IT had shaped as the day Australian rugby would either sell or save its soul. In the end, it was passed in at auction.

Seemingly, there was no more wriggle room left for the Australian Rugby Union after the two rival contenders for the Melbourne Super rugby expansion licence, the Victorian Rugby Union-backed Melbourne Rebels and VicSuper15, both made presentations to the board yesterday.

With the September 25 deadline for submitting Australia's candidate to SANZAR looming large, the expectation was the ARU board would then decide which consortium, or what combination of the two bidding groups, would be nominated as the country's champion, going up against the Southern Kings of South Africa.

All through the day, the tension built ... until finally, nothing happened.

In the end, the game was precisely where it had been at the beginning of the day, with the ARU board and management issuing a face-saving communique in which they pledged to continue working with "all interested parties, including the Victorian government, on an appropriate ownership model".

As for the September 25 deadline, it was a case of "what deadline"?

According to an ARU press release, "a decision on the final ownership structure is not required before the Melbourne application is unveiled to the SANZAR executive committee in two weeks".

In other words, all that the ARU will be selling SANZAR will be the big picture - Melbourne - and presumably asking its indulgence while it sorts out the fine detail.

But precisely how it proceeds from here to find "an appropriate ownership model", given the ever-widening gulf between the two main bidders, hasn't been explained.

The Victorian rugby community, which overwhelmingly is supporting the Victorian Rugby Union, made it clear in a letter to ARU chairman Peter McGrath on the eve of yesterday's board meeting, that it would have nothing to do with VicSuper15.

In the letter, the presidents of 20 VRU affiliates - clubs, Victorian schools and the Victorian Rugby Referees Association - stated, "we do not support the VicSuper15 consortium in any capacity".

They also expressed concern about the actions of the three former VRU directors that are now in the VicSuper15 leadership group.

"For any Super 15 team to be successful in Melbourne, it must have the support of the Victorian Rugby Union and its community," the presidents wrote.

It is understood VicSuper15's presentation was made by one of the three former VRU directors, Craig Dunn, along with former Randwick identity Ray Evans, the founder and chief executive of Keystone Property, and media spokesman Travis Atkins.

The VRU was represented by its bid chairman Harold Mitchell, union president Gary Gray, former World Cup-winning Wallabies coach Rod Macqueen and Woolworths director Leon L'Huillier.

The VRU's main thrust, that it can deliver massive grassroots support for any new Super rugby team based in Melbourne, seemingly hit home, with the ARU noting in its press release that "support from the general rugby community in Melbourne ... has been obvious during the process".

Mostly the carefully crafted press release was instructive for what it did not say.

It did not say, for instance, that ARU management's recommendation of the VicSuper15 group had been endorsed.

Indeed, since The Australian broke the news that management was siding with the Kevin Moloney-backed VicSuper15 consortium, offering the VRU nothing more than a seat on the board, the ARU board appears to be edging further and further away from that recommendation.

Indeed, it even seemed for a time the ARU would abandon its position as a facilitator of the bid and instead take over the whole process as the sole bidder.

But, in one of the few unequivocal lines in the press release, the ARU stated categorically yesterday it has "no intention of owning the Melbourne team".

It is unclear what SANZAR will make of an Australian bid presentation that does not go into the specifics of ownership, albeit a presentation that will be state of the art, courtesy of assistance promised by Victorian Major Events.

But, even without the fine print, the Melbourne bid still should be overwhelming, given both the VRU and VicSuper15 plan to base their team at the nearly completed, rugby-friendly Rectangular Stadium.

No matter how impressive the South African bid, it still should be crippled by the fact SANZAR has already decided the new expansion team will play in the Australian conference.

In the unlikely event of SANZAR voting for South Africa's candidate, the Southern Kings would need to be based in Australia for the conference round, playing home and away against the Waratahs, Reds, Brumbies and Western Force.

Not even South African Rugby Union president Oregon Hoskins was able to explain how such a convoluted logistical arrangement would work. SANZAR is expected to make the decision on the licence on October 21.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...-32102,00.html