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It’s been happening more and more frequently in rugby these days, when someone says or does something that makes you shake your head and wonder.Originally Posted by Jules
Michael Cheika came out with a comment this week that made me question how in touch he is with Wallabies fans. “I’m not sure why you would be angry, because it’s your national team,” he said. “You’d be disappointed, 100 per cent.”
I have tremendous respect for Cheika and when he opened up to me about his family’s roots in *Lebanon, I gained a new sense of wonder that this man had risen through rugby — which, let’s be frank, didn’t always embrace *inclusiveness — to become Wallabies coach. But I found myself thinking, “I’m sorry but that’s just wrong.”
Be angry! No one ever started a revolution because they were *“disappointed”. And nothing less than a revolution can turn the ship around before it is dashed to *pieces on those rocks, dead ahead. Be angry that a magnificent *Wallabies history is being devalued. Be angry that a team that won two of the eight World Cups decided and played in another two finals is being made to look a laughing stock. Be angry that every one of those gold jerseys is a hand-me down and frankly the current team is struggling to fill out those precious pieces of cloth.
That’s not to suggest you should harass people on their *private number or email, or even give them a gobful at the rugby. But if a team puts in a defensive *effort that leaks 40-odd tackles by halftime, when the All Blacks have two men against six Wallabies *defenders and they still score, that’s not cause for disappointment. That’s white-hot anger *bubbling over. Justifiable anger.
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And when the Australian Rugby Union rejects the offer of tens of millions of dollars from Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest because it has given its word to SANZAAR that it will cut a Super Rugby team — when the entire rationale was that the reason for doing this was a lack of money — that, too, is cause for anger.
The ARU will say it is too late for such generosity and will ask where was Forrest when the Western Force really needed him. Well, at a guess, he was minding his own business, confident that justice would prevail and his team would be spared. Only when he realised he had presumed too much did he reluctantly enter the fray.
By any means, it is a stretch *accepting the ARU’s rationale, particularly when they will be compelled to keep the Force if the appeal judgment goes against them, but let’s just go through it one more time.
If they lose the appeal, in their minds they can go to SANZAAR clean of heart, having done their best to honour their commitment but unfortunately the legal system wasn’t having any of it. But had they accepted the money and rescinded their own decision to “discontinue” the Perth club, then that would have been dishonourable.
OK, have you got that? *Because there are a few things that need to be said in reply.
What about the fact that the West Australian government is suing the ARU for not acting “honourably” when it inferred the Force and Super Rugby were there to stay and so needed a headquarters?
Perhaps the ARU can legally justify its actions by arguing that no promises, written or oral, were ever made. They’ve become very good, after all, at exploiting fine points of law. But a state government, moreover one from an AFL state, made a commitment to devote more than $100 million of taxpayers’ money to rugby on the understanding that the Force had a guaranteed future. How honourable will that fight be?
And the ARU also have reportedly discounted the threat of a senate inquiry into the whole process. They happened to mention this fact to Forrest, former ARU director Geoff Stooke and former Wallaby John Welborn during the meeting in Adelaide where they were discussing money or the lack thereof. In passing, they may have mentioned that the federal Sports Minister Greg Hunt was not in favour of a Senate inquiry. In fact, while Hunt hasn’t specifically backed a Senate inquiry and has no power to arrange for one, he has stated that he believes that “any external review that charted a path to this outcome would be welcome”.
Both sides appear to be doing some selective editing of his *comments, quoting Hunt where it is convenient to do so. But the *reality is that the West Australians seated across the table were not the ARU’s friends. Perhaps at one time they were and hopefully some personal friendships will *remain once this is all over, but from a corporate sense, you have made them your enemies — and they were quick to spread the word *afterwards.
One interested listener was West Australian senator Linda Reynolds, the person who first raised the possibility of an inquiry. The ARU’s comments have now caused her to redouble her efforts to bring it about.
But just think for a moment how isolated and out of touch the ARU has become. The nation’s primary law-making body, federal parliament, has turned its attention to how rugby is behaving and threatening to bring all the powers of a Senate inquiry to bear, and yet the ARU is unconcerned.
One senses there must be something the ARU won’t or can’t tell us to explain their behaviour, but they are staying silent. We all know the game is in dire financial strife, but both the Force and the Melbourne Rebels have moved to shore up their positions.
Yet even if Queensland and NSW are about to go under, where is the sense of “we’re all in this *together”? Why were the professional players not sounded out about taking a pay cut? They have taken a hit before for the good of the game and their solidarity *behind the “Stronger As Five” campaigns suggested they would have done so again.
If the situation became so *drastic that Australia had to withdraw from SANZAAR and organise its own domestic competition — hopefully with some assistance from Fox Sports — then the rugby community would have accepted that, perhaps even welcomed it. And if some senior Wallabies left for overseas, well, perhaps the day has arrived when we start selecting the Australian team from abroad. It’s going to happen at some point, regardless.
This could all have been done as a community.
And the ARU would not find *itself now — having been warned from within not to go down this path — totally isolated from the game and its people.
It’s never too late to make the right decision.
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