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There is one sure-fire certainty in Australian rugby: after the 12 months it has had this year, there is no way that 2018 can be as bad.
That’s not saying much, however. Even if 2017 was the game’s annus horribilis, many of rugby’s problems still survive and will make the carry-over journey from December 31 to January 1. The key difference is that they will be looked at with a fresh set of eyes.
Raelene Castle’s appointment as Rugby Australia chief executive officer offers a circuit-breaker to the uniformly rigid messages emanating from the national body.
And each time the message has been repeated, it has reinforced, even solidified the “we had no choice” orthodoxy. But, of course, Rugby Australia have always had choices. It had choices about axing a Super Rugby team; it had choices about singling out the Western Force for execution; and now it has choices about how it handles the fallout.
It is flawed logic to suggest that Rugby Australia, or the Australian Rugby Union as it then was, was forced to behave in the way that it did. And the longer it persists in refusing to acknowledge that any other course of action, any other viewpoint, had any legitimacy, the longer the healing process will take. That’s not to say the healing process has not already begun but the Sea of Blue, the Force’s support base, is still heaving and windswept and nothing less than the return of their team to the main event is likely to pacify it.
So Castle’s appointment to replace Bill Pulver is as timely as it is necessary.
One of her first problems will be to sort out how the Western Force’s playing roster has been divvied up. The Melbourne Rebels played a high-risk game (or was it, given the number of “hints” that have come to life regarding the fate of the Perth team?) by holding a swag of places open for refugees from the west. It was a gamble that paid off brilliantly, as Force player after Force player reluctantly *accepted the reality of the situation and followed their coach, Dave Wessels, to Melbourne.
But look at how it has played out. So great was the influx, all of it approved by Rugby Australia, that such Rebels stalwarts as former Test hooker James Hanson and current first grade captain Nic Stirzaker have had to be given virtual releases to ply their trade in Europe, just to ease the salary cap strain.
How did it come to this, that the culling of a club to provide extra depth to the four surviving Australian franchises would lead to quality players being released to play in Britain or France?
Rugby Australia did nothing to regulate the flow of players from the west to the eastern franchises. And, unsurprisingly, the Force players stuck together. Why was a cut-off not imposed? The first 10 players to put their hands up could play for the Rebels, the rest would have to go elsewhere.
Yes, yes, nothing is ever as simple as that and players’ wishes have to be respected where possible. But, financial imperatives aside, the main motivation behind the “five into four” campaign was to equalise the talent and bring the other clubs up to the standard being set by New Zealand.
Instead, look at what has been achieved. The Rebels have potentially been turned into a super-club but at the cost of a salary cap system which Rugby Australia has allowed to be blown out of the water. And while the Brumbies have picked up a couple of ex-Force recruits, the NSW Waratahs have gained only Curtis Rona and the Queensland Reds have not benefited in any way from the Force’s demise.
Some might say they have only themselves to blame for shutting down their roster so early and giving themselves no chance of picking up players from the west, but then it was an ARU employee who sent out the mid-season directive that the salary cap would be strictly enforced.
So the Reds sacrificed first Rob Simmons and later Will Genia. Why should they now be penalised for adhering to rules that RA might now wish to ignore? And how does Australian rugby benefit by having its two heartland states battling to make an impression while Melbourne goes from strength to strength? Where is the long-term strategy in that?
Perhaps Castle’s experiences as Canterbury-Bankstown boss in the NRL will give her some *insights into how a salary cap can be justly imposed. The outward appearance is that RA’s strategy is one of stalling for time and then, when the Super Rugby season is almost upon us, throwing its hands in the air and declaring that since the whole situation is without precedent, maybe the sensible thing is to let this season play itself out and over time the salary cap will return to normal.
Not good enough. During all those months of uncertainty, the one benefit was that RA had plenty of time to work out what the landscape would look like when only four teams remained. They now have no place to hide. This is a problem that must be solved, and before the season gets under way in Australia on February 23.
The competitiveness of the four Australian teams will be closely evaluated and already the first trans-Tasman match of the season, Rebels v Hurricanes, on March 30 in Melbourne is shaping up with perhaps more urgency than ever before.
RA officials will be desperate for a change of fortune. If reducing to four teams doesn’t work, where do they go? To three teams. Don’t laugh. It has been discussed.
Meanwhile, Andrew Forrest’s Indo Pacific Rugby Championship keeps ticking along. RA doesn’t want to antagonise him, especially because his Asia-based teams might well form the basis of life after Super Rugby, but equally it doesn’t want to give away the farm either. Thankfully, Brett Robinson is handling negotiations on behalf of RA so there is some hope of a diplomatic solution being reached.
Castle at least has one thing to be thankful for. Virtually Pulver’s last act for 2017 was to finalise the collective bargaining agreement with the Rugby Union Players Association. As cricket proved earlier this year revealed, CBA agreements can be hazardous and rugby *potentially had more reason than most to explode, given that RA had effectively cut RUPA’s membership by 20 per cent. Indications are, however, that the new deal, details of which have still to be released, has been negotiated with a minimum of bloodshed, which is a credit to both Pulver and RUPA boss Ross Xenos.
A New Year is a time for fresh beginnings, especially with a new person running the show. But no New Year ever comes without some leftover entanglements. How Castle navigates the next few months will set the tone for her *administration.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spor...36bbaa1a60a81a