ARU chief operating officer Rob Clarke has resigned.

[shasta]

Super cull fiasco claims top ARU scalp - Wayne Smith The Australian

While the process of culling an Australian team from Super Rugby is building towards a climax, the Australian Rugby Union has been rocked by the resignation of its chief operating officer, Rob Clarke.

A former Brumbies and Melbourne Rebels CEO, Clarke had been a pivotal figure in the move to reduce Australia’s Super Rugby presence from five teams to four. It’s an exercise that has spun out of control and looks destined to be resolved in the courts.

There had been reports last month that the ARU directors were unhappy with some of the advice they had been given by management. But while Clarke was heavily involved in the procedure of identifying franchises that ended up on the endangered list, it is not known how significant this criticism was in bringing about his departure.

In particular, the board wanted to know which members of management had reassured Melbourne Rebels owner Andrew Cox — erroneously as it happened — that his club was not to be axed.



The fact that Clarke has chosen to make no comment on his resignation “until the ongoing Super Rugby process has concluded”, strongly points to it being a major factor in his decision. Certainly rumours that he intended to resign to take up a position as CEO of Australian Sailing were completely overtaken when John Lee, a former director of the Australian Sports Commission, was appointed to the role. Clarke, who addressed ARU staffers yesterday to advise them he would leave next month, has given no public indication of what he intends to move on to.

More here...........

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spor...d97569975400c3

[sandgroperrugby]

I'd say you're right and he'll never coach professionally again

Which is a shame. One of the best coaches we have had in Australia.

[WFDom]

So within one month the ARU's axe man visits WA, gets spanked & sent home.... 3 weeks later resigns from his job!

Did they really think we were gonna bend over and take it?!?!?!

Who's next.... #bringiton

[Alison]

That first highlighted para is very interesting Shasta - suggests the Board (or some of them at least) are feeling very let down by their executive staff. Maybe Clarke thought he could pull the wool over their eyes as well as those of the RugbyWA Board and CEO?!

Good riddance to bad rubbish I say!

[GIGS20]

That first highlighted para is very interesting Shasta - suggests the Board (or some of them at least) are feeling very let down by their executive staff. Maybe Clarke thought he could pull the wool over their eyes as well as those of the RugbyWA Board and CEO?!

Good riddance to bad rubbish I say!

I really think that Clarke was the man who said the Rebels were safe, and I also believe that he believed what he said at the time.

It was only after he came to realize that Transparency is more than a word and Process must involve more than telling a team who you have a signed agreement to protect that you essentially aren't interested in doing anything to protect them that he possibly came to realize that he had put the organisation into an untenable position through his massive conflict of interest. I suspect that this realization has come after him being told that his resignation is the only way he can save face out of this debacle.

My only concern now is that he will be the scapegoat for the whole sorry mess, when it's clear that the entire board of (mis)management has been intimately involved.

The only way the ARU board can maintain any integrity out of this process is to remove every executive manager from their office and then spin the story that they were mislead into thinking that what was being planned by the executive was above board. The fact that Geoff Stooke saw through it instantly will make that tale very hard to sell.

[valzc]

If we're hopefully going to be seeing a few scalps taken at the ARU in the near future, is it possible to add The Hoff's name to the list? Pretty sure he's been in the ARU's back pocket against the Force as well!

[StimpsonJCat]

If we're hopefully going to be seeing a few scalps taken at the ARU in the near future, is it possible to add The Hoff's name to the list? Pretty sure he's been in the ARU's back pocket against the Force as well!

Your obsession with Hoffman borders on stalker like behaviour.

[Petalz]

If we're hopefully going to be seeing a few scalps taken at the ARU in the near future, is it possible to add The Hoff's name to the list? Pretty sure he's been in the ARU's back pocket against the Force as well!

Your obsession with Hoffman borders on stalker like behaviour.

Agreed.

It's reached the point where Petalz is now genuinley concerned for your welfare. So here, please take this therapy doll and show us all where Hoffman has hurt you in this or a past life (I can also provide images of canine, feline or avian ones if they suit better). So, as the TWF.com.au community, we can all band together to help you finally find the strength to get over these deep seated issues.

Attachment 4771

[valzc]

Agreed.

It's reached the point where Petalz is now genuinley concerned for your welfare. So here, please take this therapy doll and show us all where Hoffman has hurt you in this or a past life (I can also provide images of canine, feline or avian ones if they suit better). So, as the TWF.com.au community, we can all band together to help you finally find the strength to get over these deep seated issues.

Attachment 4771

Please do - you're quite welcome.

[travelling_gerry]

The biggest sads about the loss of Clarke seems to come from The Daily Telegraphs Payten and Pandaram.......so the big finger of where they got the "secret" ARU document seems to be pointing to them.

[Political BS]

Hello Gerry
Rob Clarke has been my sources big suspect as "leaker in chief" since Pandaram got the scoop on Foley's sacking at The Force. My source says.... Nothing leaked from the Force and suddenly Pandaram seemed very well informed following the direct involvement of the ARU generally and Rob Clarke particularly in the Force rugby program... Hmmm!
In February Clarke gave assurances to the Brumbies about their future being secure despite them having lost $1m in both 2014 &15 and a further $870k in 2016. Reported in the Canberra Times and SMH.
The Brums governance was clearly impeccable notwithstanding the police investigation into what happened to the $11m from the land sale.

[Ham105]

Canno calls for the ARU cleanout

The ARU executives are responsible for the biggest crisis in the code’s history and they must face the music

Brendan Cannon, The Daily Telegraph
May 5, 2017 10:21pm

WHEN a football team is not performing, the coach gets shot. When a code is not performing, the captain of the ship needs to be held accountable. Bill Pulver is captaining a sinking ship, and I’m afraid enough is enough.

I’ve met Bill, I genuinely like the guy and his energy, but he has presided over the worst crisis in Australian rugby and it’s unthinkable that he can see out the remainder of his contract that expires next February.

It breaks my heart to write an article so damning of the game I love, a game I still contribute to watching my boys playing rugby on the weekends, but change needs to start now.

Everywhere I go, I’m stopped by people asking me, ‘What’s going on in rugby?’, and ‘How did they let it get to this?’

If you are on the ARU board, you are an influencer and a guardian of the game, from the professional level down to the grassroots. And if you are happy with your contribution to what the code is now enduring, then seek re-election. But I can’t see how any one of them could.

Every metric tells you the game has never been in worse shape. The process undertaken to cut an Australian Super Rugby franchise has been an absolute shambles.

Who was the ARU’s crisis manager who failed to see this coming? It’s like they’ve been taken by surprise at all the impending legal action against them, whether it be from the Western Force, Melbourne Rebels or SANZAAR.

When they decided to take this course, you’d think the first thing the ARU would have done is sat down and worked out the likely outcomes if they did A, B or C.

Apparently not, because it’s been nearly a month since they held a press conference saying a team would be cut within 72 hours and we’re no clearer on what’s going on. In fact, the issues have become more confused and complex with each passing day.

And Pulver has been invisible throughout. On the rare occasion he’s been sighted and publicly addressed this crisis, he has been protected by chairman Cameron Clyne. It’s like big brother protecting little brother because no one is sure what little brother might say. There is a dynamic between Clyne and Pulver that reminds me of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito in the movie Twins.

Amid the dire performances of Australia’s Super Rugby teams, for which the ARU’s high performance department must be held accountable, this group of administrators has presided over the most damaging period in Australian rugby’s history. At every level, there is disaffection; from schools to volunteers, professional players, coaches, broadcasters and clubs.

Rugby people are passionate and they will defend their patch. Right now, there are a whole heap of fortresses around, they’ve raised the gates and armed themselves and they don’t want the ARU anywhere near them.

With the ARU’s chief operating officer Rob Clarke resigning on Thursday, questions remain over whether he jumped before the whole ship sank. Who holds the board accountable? They’ve all got to take a long hard look at themselves.

[Macattack]

Yep, sums it up pretty well, the worst place Australian rugby has been in and the ARU needs to be held accountable for making a bad situation far worse - the exact opposite of their mandate!

[travelling_gerry]

CHRISTY DORAN@christypdoran
Source: FOX SPORTS

FORMER Wallabies captain and respected rugby pundit Michael Lynagh has taken aim at Super Rugby’s governing body SANZAAR for announcing structural changes to the competition mid-season.

It’s now been a month since SANZAAR announced that Super Rugby would be cutting three of its franchises — two South African and one Australian — for 2018 and returning to a 15-team competition.

But the changes have proved more complicated than anticipated with the Rebels and Force — the two Australian franchises on the chopping block — digging their heels in and threatening legal action against the ARU.

SANZAAR officials will meet in Tokyo on Friday and the ARU will be asked to report on their culling progress.

The messy state of affairs has harmed the credibility of both Super Rugby and the ARU while the domination of New Zealand teams has exacerbated the competition’s problems.

In an interview with foxsports.com.au, London-based Lynagh — who with former All Blacks captain Sean Fitzpatrick analyses Super Rugby for Sky Sports each week — slammed SANZAAR for its lack of foresight and leadership in expanding to 18 teams in 2016.

“It was just wrong from the start,” said Lynagh, a 1991 Rugby World Cup winner and Australia’s all-time leading Test pointscorer.

“We’re all for expansion, but it just wasn’t ready and it was ill-thought out from the start.

“I get asked continually in the streets: ‘which team is going to be cut?’

“Nobody’s talking about how the competition is going except: ‘aren’t the New Zealand games great?’

“What we used to have with the Super 12 and Super 15 was a great competition.

“You’d play a home and away on a yearly basis.

“You’d play all the games very quick, a very good standard, you’d have a playoff and then a final and it was done in one go.

“Now you have a break for the international tour, and who knows what happens when you come back, and you’ve got this convoluted points scoring system — that nobody understands — where you don’t get the best teams in the finals.

“It’s just craziness.

“Then you have Japan, who couldn’t decide whether to give it to Tokyo or Singapore, so they (Sunwolves) play in both so their home games are spread across the two countries.

“It’s just ludicrous.

“How are they supposed to get home support going when they’re travelling every week?

“Then you have one South African conference that doesn’t play a New Zealand team and you have the Blues, who are last in the New Zealand conference, that play half their matches against New Zealand teams.

“I just find it bizarre that they’ve got to this stage.

“And now mid-season they’re deciding: ‘let’s change it.’

“They’ve sort of procrastinated over this decision when they could have made a decision in the off-season and done it then.

“I don’t understand it at all — it’s just such a mess that it’s been allowed to get to this.”

While Super Rugby is struggling — particularly in Australia and South Africa — the English Premiership is going from strength to strength.

Attendance numbers have increased by 10 per cent and TV audiences by 13 per cent, according to statistics revealed by Premiership Rugby this year.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/wa...67d268745602dd

[fulvio sammut]

You been on the sauce again Gerry?