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Pandaram as usual is only reporting half the story. Cox can refuse to sell all he wants. The fact is ARU/RWA have a legally binding contract for the western force to remain in super rugby and Western Australia until 2020. So they're not the only option at all.
If they continue to go down the path of cutting a team. One of the other three are very quickly going to be this so called "path of least resistance"
Alison "I really do wonder if they genuinely thought we were a bunch of halfwits over here who wouldn't get what the ARU bag carriers were telling us and would roll over after bowing to their obviously superior intelligence! 🙄
Fingertips "Does anyone else get the feeling that the East Coast franchises and their media mouth-pieces are totally bewildered by the Western Force's unwillingness to "take one for the team"?
I suspect there is some truth to both these statements. It is disgraceful and very worrying the game we love is suffering because of this, however what we are doing is defending our contractual rights, a time-honoured process in any decent democracy. The blame for this complete and utter stuff up rests with the ARU and will do so no matter how long we hold the line.
Last edited by Macattack; 21-04-17 at 20:06.
I am surprised the CEO has not resigned yet. It's hard to believe that SANZAAR did not have any idea of an agreement that was stated publically..
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spor...3f0df1a1069fee
This is the cut and paste:
"The Australian Rugby Union could be damned if it does move to sack a Super Rugby team, and damned if it doesn’t, with SANZAAR potentially in line to sue the ARU if it does not deliver on the promises made at the crisis meeting in London in March.
SANZAAR emerged from that meeting with a clear understanding that its member nations would reduce the Super Rugby competition in 2018 from 18 teams to 15, with Australia promising to cut one of its five existing teams and South Africa two of its six franchises.
But sources have told The Weekend Australian that SANZAAR was caught completely unawares by the fact that the team the ARU had specifically targeted for the axe, the Western Force, had signed an agreement with the ARU last August that guaranteed there would be a Super Rugby team in Perth at least until the end of 2020.
The revelation that the Force may have a watertight legal case to stay alive now has SANZAAR official looking sceptically at ARU promises. Where the southern hemisphere joint venture organisation has confidence that South Africa has a fair and open process in place to drop down to four teams, there is a very real belief that the ARU is making it up as it goes.
But it also means that the ARU is now caught between a rock and a hard place …. either it drops the Force or the Melbourne Rebels, both of which have legal grounds for believing they are untouchable, or it abandons the process entirely, in which case SANZAAR could sue.
Certainly there would be a strong case to be argued that the ARU would be in breach of its agreement to help deliver a 15-strong competition if it now abandons the process.
As manoeuvring room narrows on all sides, ARU directors must seriously be asking themselves how they have been drawn into these turbulent waters by an apparent lack of due diligence by ARU management.
A week after the Melbourne Rebels released a media statement in which it said it denied the ARU the right to “cut or chop” the Rebels from the competition, the Western Force yesterday issued a similar press release.
In it the Force said the position of RugbyWA was clear. “Under the current arrangements, the Western Force is entitled to participate in the Super Rugby competition until December 30, 2020.
“There is no basis on which the ARU can purport to remove the Western Force from the competition. The ARU must work to ensure that the Western Force remains based in Perth for many seasons to come.
“Put simply, RugbyWA is not required to state a business (or any) case for the Force to remain in the competition.”
The Force have retained the former governor of Western Australia, Malcolm McCusker, to head their legal team, while Tim North, senior counsel, is well-placed to aid the Rebels given that he is president of the Victorian Rugby Union.
It is not known what, if any, legal advice the ARU has received but it is clear that management can expect to be subjected to a thorough grilling from its board in the very near future. In particular, they will be asked about assurances given to the SANZAAR meeting in London, and about why the Brumbies were removed from the endangered list.
The rumour is that the Brumbies were absolved from the process because they had a superior football program, but such things are cyclical. In recent times both Queensland and NSW could have claimed to have the best coaching program but on current indications, that no longer applies. It is fair to assume that the Brumbies eventually will strike hard times as well.
The only way out of this mess seems to be through negotiation, with the obvious merger candidates being the Melbourne Rebel — if owner Andrew Cox is prepared to talk — and the Brumbies.
But the ARU has backed itself into a corner and either humiliatingly backtracks to reinvolve the Brumbies in the process or face a perilous journey through the courts. Both courses are certain to anger directors."
Last edited by Alison; 23-04-17 at 04:04.
Proudly Western Australian; Proudly supporting Western Australian rugby
I can see a scapegoat or two walking the plank very soon. Bout time. But it seems the chairman and the board are in it up to their necks on what has come out to date. Heads need to roll there too.
SANZAAR votes to sue the ARU, ARU vetoes it.
How does this all work again?![]()
Japan and the Pacific Islands for Aussie Super 9's!
Let's have one of these in WA! Click this link: Saitama Super Arena - New Perth Stadium?
ARU goes to SANZAAR cap-in-hand with a strategic proposal to sue the ARU
Japan and the Pacific Islands for Aussie Super 9's!
Let's have one of these in WA! Click this link: Saitama Super Arena - New Perth Stadium?
Just merge the Reds and the 'tahs and call them the wallabies ...
Dear Lord, if you give us back Johnny Cash, we'll give you Justin Bieber.
That's gold.
The ARU facing legal action on 3 fronts. Tell you what if we do eventually get killed off I hope we burn it down on the way out.
Scorched earth.
I'm OK with that concept Jargs.
Already preparing my brain to put the kiss of death on some unlucky mungo team, It certainly won't be the Storm, I want them to be the mot successful team in NRL history if the Rebels survive and we don't.
I guess that means the raiders are out, and Broncos as well, can anybody think of an NRL team in a location that isn't served by an AustraliaN SUPER RUGBY FRANCHISE? i'M GUESSING SOMETHING IN wESTERN sYDNEY WILL BE WHAT i'M LOOKING FOR.
C'mon the![]()
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