The letter that has brought rugby to a painful divide
The letter that has brought rugby to a painful divide
WAYNE SMITH
APRIL 22, 2020
In Napoleonic times, the invincible Old Guard’s entry onto the battlefield usually signalled the beginning of the end, so there is little doubt the arrival of a letter expressing the rage of 11 past Wallabies captains would have sent similar feelings of dread through the Rugby Australia ranks.
After months, years even, of a sustained saturation media barrage, the moment has arrived to send the crack troops ashore. There was nothing haphazard about this attack nor is the martial imagery out of place. It all has been planned with military precision. The softening up process has ended. It is time to go for the kill.
Two weeks ago, past Wallabies captains had been sounded out about the letter, mostly by Phil Kearns and Nick Farr-Jones. Some had baulked at it, believing that as bad as things were, it was not the way to bring about meaningful change. Apparently, the list dropped from 15 to 11.
There were a couple of staggering cases of a lack of self-awareness from a couple of signatories, men who had seen service as rugby officials in recent times and who had found out first-hand just how difficult the job really was.
It is also understood at least one signatory was taken aback to find his name being bandied around in public and late on Wednesday Michael Lynagh withdrew from the list of signatories. He reportedly had not expected the letter to be released to the media, which, curiously enough, was precisely how Rugby Australia chairman Paul McLean — another former Wallabies captain, incidentally — had felt when the story appeared online. He had met the dissidents’ deadline and hoped he had reached an agreement with them to discuss their grievances behind closed doors. He was mistaken.
There have been 83 Australian captains since Australia played its first Test in 1899 two years before it was officially a country. There are about three dozen captains still alive today and while it would have been inappropriate to approach current players or a man like Chris Whittaker, who has a brother working for Rugby Australia, the dissidents represented barely a third of the sample available.
Where was Andrew Slack or Tim Horan or James Horwill or David Pocock or Mark Loane or David Wilson or Will Genia or Tony Shaw or Rocky Elsom or David Codey or Ben Mowen? Notice the trend. All of those Australian captains raised not in conspiracy in Queensland.
The dissidents failed to recruit Mark Ella. He, like Slack and others, didn’t need to be reminded of Rugby Australia’s shortcomings. “I’m not going to say that Raelene (Castle) is a terrific CEO but she is doing the best she can in difficult circumstances.” Ella said. “I don’t think it’s all her fault. You can’t blame one person. I politely said to Nick Farr-Jones, thanks mate, but no. I didn’t want to be involved.”
And they probably never rated their chances of getting Phil Waugh on board, given that he too is a member of the Rugby Australia board.
But the prize scalp of them all, the alpha male of Wallabies captains, John Eales, eluded them. He had led the Wallabies through 55 of his 86 Tests and then, a decade or so later, he served on the board of Rugby Australia for eight years up until 2018. He was there during the difficult period in 2016 when the Western Force were axed from Super Rugby and he had braved the mob and ventured to Perth to try to explain why. It was probably the first time in Eales’ life that he had not been the most popular person in the room but he was determined not to hide from the problem.
Nor was he hiding now. “We all recognise that rugby is going through a difficult period,” he explained. “I did not sign the letter because I felt it better to act on concerns directly, as a group with the chairman, as he is already enacting considerable change.
“What I know is that there are good people across all levels of rugby working hard to solve complex problems. Paul McLean is at the front of making that change and renewal. Everyone wants what’s best for Australian rugby.”
Other sources have revealed Eales outlined his reasons for not signing in a letter to the 11 dissidents.
Still, 11 Australian captains is 11 Australian captains. They deserve our respect and attention. So, what do they want?
There was this in their manifesto: “We speak as one voice when we say Australian rugby needs new vision, leadership and a plan for the future. That plan must involve, as a priority, urgent steps to create a much-needed sustainable, commercial rugby business.”
That thumping sound you hear in the background is surely that of the eight Rugby Australia directors banging their heads on the boardroom table. “Damn! A sustainable, commercial rugby business? It’s pure genius! Why didn’t we think of that?”
Seriously, where is the detail?
In its purest form, what the men behind this attempted coup want is anarchy. They want to tear the entire structure down and then rebuild again. All contracts would be declared null and void, Australia could extricate itself from such complex arrangements as SANZAAR — but just the Super Rugby side, not money-spinning Rugby Championship — and be in a position where the likes of Andrew Forrest and US hedge funds would feel free to invest in the game.
There are just a couple of problems … for starters, sponsors would desert the code in droves. It would be just the opening they want in these days of coronavirus. International partners such as New Zealand and South Africa, which stand to lose a fortune in broadcast rights if Australia abandoned SANZAAR would probably never speak to us again. And suddenly the players — including Israel Folau — would find the agreements they had signed with Rugby Australia all but worthless.
The dissidents insist — genuinely in some cases — that their criticism isn’t directed at any one person but it is a fair bet that Raelene Castle won’t see it that way. She must have thought it hilarious the tweet that was posted on Wednesday by a rugby league fan: “Todd Greenberg exits the NRL after what can only be described as the most sustained attack on a sporting official/administrator in memory.” Greenberg has been through plenty, no denying, but it is nothing to what Castle has sustained since taking up the job in January 2017. Nothing.
Since then she has had to deal with one crisis after another — Folau mark I, Folau mark II, a rogue Wallabies coach and a broadcast deal that was hijacked by a COVID-19 pandemic that has shut down everything, rugby included. She has not been given a moment’s respite, her every move scrutinised and criticised.
Unquestionably she has made mistakes but isn’t it funny how it has taken the pandemic to bring down anything like the same media attention onto the failings of her chief executive counterparts in other Australian sports?
She is a fighter to the core but common sense suggests she cannot take much more and it may be that the long, lonely walk down a deserted corridor awaits.
The captains’ letter has brought Australian rugby to a classic and painful divide. There are some good men on that list of dissidents but this is a parting of the ways — anarchists to the right, those who favour evolutionary change to the left. And finally, everyone knows where everyone else stands.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...4bbe36e8ee6c99
