Terms of Reference for a Senate Inquiry into the Future of Rugby Union in Australia

[sandgroperrugby]

Nothing I have read seems positive out of today or am I reading this wrong.

[travelling_gerry]

Wow! What an arrogant slimeball that man is!!!

And what about that bit about the breach of confidentiality of the AA - he sneered on the public record that someone on the RWA board had leaked its contents on "a public website" (presumably this one!) so it was therefore fine for the ARU to share it with anyone they pleased!!! That's like something a child would say when accused of something!!!

Discussing some details of the agreement on a public website is one thing. Giving a copy to the competing interest is rather different.

Smug bastard.

[UAUdiver1959]

Nothing I have read seems positive out of today or am I reading this wrong.

The MRRU contract had TWO 'put' clauses, one to the VRU and one to the ARU both for a $1 and the ARU have the decision which option was taken was a big point for me. Plus, the fact that Clyne bristled when Senator Reynolds mentioned the August 16, Ascenture Report and with it the instruction for Clark and French to 'go away and pick a team to cut', and then only 2 months later at the October Board meeting when the decision was made which team to cut were the big points for me.
Clyne was asked for those minutes to be produced.

[SPaRTAN]

Wow! Reynolds did a brilliant job. She held her nerve and had Clyne well and truely dancing on the ropes.. i think the QLD senator was there to play good cop whilst Reynolds went through her notes, she came out throwing punch after punch completly nailing Clyne, he was like a deer standing in a beam of headlights, he was not prepared after he let his guard down. There was some really well researched questions asked, surely we can all start saying the famous "C" word now and call this what it is "CORRUPTION". The put option was a really interesting revelation, and then the discussion around "management fees" and the huge sums (more than what the players earn) being poured into the Rebels to prop up Imperium who were "Insolvent" in New Zealand and have parties with connections to unit trusts which have connections to the VRU?. The money came without conditions.

The whole senate inquiry just throws up more and more questions because it feels like we are only skimming the surface of this very inept saga. This is surely Australian Rugby's darkest day. Where is the integrity of the ARU and the board when you hear that money was being swindled away to prop up creditors and an insolvent company which bought the super rugby franchise for $1 despite other deals being out there (some possibly better) some more than a $1 and some to companies and interested parties that actually know how to run a sporting franchise. The whole saga is ludicrous. Then dont get me started about the man that orchestrated the deal, who had a clear conflict of interest, Rob Clarke, who then conspired to end the Alliance agreement terminating the Force, meanwhile saving his former franchise, how this could be allowed to happen under any sporting body is beyond beleif. The Inquiry just got better and better.

Clyne blatently lied on record, stumbled and stuttered his words with zero conviction, he came off looking worse than Pulver. How dare he question the integrity of the senate to call an inquiry regardless of the amount of funding, who did he think he was, do NSW businessman truely see themselves above federal senators in the pecking order, what a reality check that was.

[SPaRTAN]

It was quite facinating just how many times the confidentiality card got thrown around regarding the money trail. I was shocked when Clyne made sure he had it in public record that Rugby WA breached the alliance agreement first, that was laughable, so that gave the ARU the right to conspire with the MRRU/Imperium and the VRU to end the Force, what a sick twisted reasoning. Clyne really was slime on stage. He showed just how distrustful he really is and he is now a laighing stock. How anyone could hire that puppet is a joke.

[UAUdiver1959]

The Senate findings will be very damning in how the ARU is being run. The whole board are not diligently and faithfully carrying out their duties, there is a lack of due diligence, financial accountability plus the very visible and unfair treatment of the WF from a basic funding perspective etc.

The Senate will definitely make a recommendation for follow up investigations by the ACCC/ASIC into the Cox/Imperium deal.

Senator Reynolds did two significant things today,
1. She flushed out the Ascenture/Clark report which directly lead to the WF downfall. Her main point in the ARU/RugbyWA 'good faith' negotiations was the ARU's failure to disclose to RugbyWA the fact that the ARU were actively seeking to down size from 5 to 4.

2. She solidified the depth of dodgy dealings with Cox and the MRRU, why did the ARU board sign off on the $1 deal of a life time? Her better question at the end was why wasn't an Alliance style agreement offered to the MRRU like it was with the WF during the recent sale back to the VRU?

I, like everyone else was hoping for the Perry Mason silver bullet and smoking gun........it was their, carefully concealed

[Bakkies]

Don't forget the Saltbush report and his comments about the heckling towards Pulver when he lied in front of the Committee.

[Bakkies]

NSW businessman truely see themselves above federal senators in the pecking order, what a reality check that was.

Pulver and de Clyne combined are a poor man's Kerry Packer.

[shasta]

Finally getting some traction in the ES Media.

ARU already in talks to axe team when Force licence taken over - Wayne Smith, the Oz.


The Australian Rugby Union had discussed cutting the number of Australian Super Rugby teams from five teams to four in August last year, eight days before entering into the Alliance agreement with the Western Force at which the Perth club voluntarily handed over their licence, a Senate Inquiry was told last night.

It was this decision to hand over their licence to the ARU, in what it thought was part of a national plan to centralise the game and its administration, that ultimately enabled the ARU to axe the Force in September this year.

The question was asked of ARU chairman Cameron Clyne, giving evidence to the Senate Inquiry on the Future of Australian Rugby, why the ARU had not informed the Force that it was discussing axing a side — even if a formal decision to remove one of the teams was not made until April this year — at the time it was negotiating to buy their licence.

Initially Clyne took exception to Senator Linda Reynolds’ question, querying how she had come into possession of confidential board documents.

“That’s interesting,” Clyne said.

“I’d be very disappointed if you’ve been given some information because all current and former directors have given an undertaking that they are adhering to the directors’ duty, so if you have received a board document — which I’d be surprised if you had given those undertaking — that you (Senator Reynolds) and I need to refer something to ASIC (the Australian Securities and Investments Commission) because that’s very concerning.

“I guess what I assume it is you’re driving towards is that there was a secret agenda or something to perhaps ...”

Senator Reynolds at that point cut him off. “Mr Clyne, I’m not suggesting that at all. I’m just saying that given that the (ARU) board … the ARU management will conduct a review noted above in order to recommend the Super Rugby team to be reduced by the next board meetings … that’s a pretty definitive statement.


“My question to you is: should that have been disclosed to the Western Force before the Alliance agreement was signed?” Clyne: “Not until the board makes a decision. We’re always exploring strategic options.

“The board had not made a decision. Our desire was to maintain five teams if we could. Why would we spend $4 million bailing them out?”

Senator Reynolds persisted, however, insisting that the ARU for some months was actively considering cutting a team and by not disclosing this fact to the Western Force as part of these negotiations, the club made a decision they have regretted to this day. “My point is that I believe the Western Force had a right to know because what the Alliance agreement did, by accident or design, was give you an opportunity to cut them. Because there was nobody else.”

Clyne rebutted this claim, insisting that the Melbourne Rebels were also in contention for the axe.

However, there is no question that because the ARU owned the Force’s licence and was allowing them to compete in Super Rugby on that condition, they were always the club most vulnerable in the entire culling process.

[Alison]

Discussing some details of the agreement on a public website is one thing. Giving a copy to the competing interest is rather different.

Smug bastard.

Note too that the ARU gave a copy to North on 12 April. Nothing was mentioned on here until months later!!

[BLR]

It's a pity they ran out of time when Clyne remarked about Clarke's various conflict of interests not being a factor as he was an ARU employee at the time.

Then why did Clyne push to get Geoff Stooke barred from the conversation for presumably this very reason?

Was it simply because Clarke's conflict was more in line with what the ARU wanted to achieve?

[shasta]

Was (1) Minding 1yo grandson and (2) driving all through Clyne, then the stream cut out when Sen Reynolds was hammering re nondisclosure so need to read the transcript. For now still not that confident they have enough to see a prosecutions. Really hope I'm wrong.

The biggest question I have (because I know nothing about this stuff) is around this whole secrecy stuff. In public companies where competition and corporate snooping is rife, I get it. But this is, at the end of the day, a sport's governing body and custodian. Yet here we have a gigantic egomaniac railing like a jilted lover at a parliamentary committee about the outrage that somebody representing a whole state full of stakeholders may have told the truth. Surely this subterfuge can not be how a sport is governed. FFS.

[JSJ]

[QUOTE=UAUdiver1959;443460]Clyne bristled when Senator Reynolds mentioned the August 16, Ascenture Report and with it the instruction for Clark and French to 'go away and pick a team to cut'

It was public knowledge
26/8/2016
https://www.enca.com/sport/rugby/saa...2%80%93-report
Fairfax Media reports “the Australian Rugby Union board spent time at its meeting last week discussing the possibility that the preferred structure would require Australia to surrender one of its Super Rugby licences in time for the 2018 season

[Alison]

Hmmmm if it was public knowledge, that scuppers our 'bad faith' argument somewhat.

[JSJ]

Hmmmm if it was public knowledge, that scuppers our 'bad faith' argument somewhat.

Alison,
Clyne was upset that supposedly a director or former director had leaked confidential minutes of the 16th August 2016 ARU board meeting to the senate inquiry recently. I am just pointing out that it was reported in Fairfax media at the time. I was probably one of many that put that fact in to submissions to the senators.