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Wayne Smith | July 08, 2009
Article from: The Australian
ALLEGATIONS that Australian Rugby Union officials would refuse to ratify a Victorian Rugby Union bid for a Super 15 expansion licence while Gary Gray remains VRU president are being investigated by ARU chairman Peter McGrath.
The investigation follows the wide circulation in Victorian rugby circles of an email written by Moorabbin Rugby Club president Steve Curnow in which he claims "members of the ARU" indicated to him they regarded Gray as a liability to any VRU involvement in a future Melbourne Super 15 franchise.
"At a recent meeting in ACT where I spoke with members of the ARU and others, it was made very clear to me that Victoria has a 'snowflakes (sic) chance in hell' of the ARU ratifying a VRU bid for a Super XV franchise licence while Gary Gray is the President of Victorian Rugby," Curnow wrote in the email. "We have become the laughing stock of Australian rugby and considered in the same vein as Tasmania and South Australia."
Curnow yesterday confirmed those comments but declined to identify which ARU officials had made them to him.
Gray last night said he and just about everyone else involved in Victorian rugby were aware of the contents of Curnow's email.
"In fact, they resulted in a special meeting of the Victorian club presidents last Friday night at which I received an overwhelming (18-0 with one abstention) vote of support, as did the VRU board, for our strategy in winning a Super 15 franchise," Gray said.
If Curnow's claim is true, it would not be the first time Gray has come in for criticism from the national body. When cost blow-outs killed the Australian Rugby Championship after its first and only season in 2008, accusing fingers were pointed at the Melbourne Rebels team, which ran up the heaviest bills, with Gray wearing most of the criticism.
Asked whether ARU heavyweights were attempting to destabilise his position, Gray replied: "That's a question for Steve Curnow. But the matter has been referred to the ARU chairman who is investigating Curnow's allegations." Repeated attempts by The Australian to contact McGrath for comment were unsuccessful.
Gray, who is spearheading Victoria's campaign for a team in the expanded 2011 competition, deplored the fact that Melbourne's new bid had degenerated into a no-holds-barred political contest.
"This sort of crap does no good service to the Victorian rugby community, to Curnow or his club or to Melbourne's fantastic prospects to be the home of the next team in the expanded Super rugby competition."
But Curnow insisted he was not opposed to Melbourne hosting a Super 15 team, merely to the fact that Gray was pursuing that objective to the detriment of the Victorian community rugby. "I'm being portrayed as the anti-Christ but the fact is any expansion Super rugby team will take away from the community game," Curnow said. "Clubs will suffer as will the junior game. And if the Super 15 franchise goes to a private equity group, they're not going to be interested in pouring money into community rugby.
"There needs to be some guarantee that community rugby does not suffer as a result of Melbourne having a Super rugby team. The expansion team will be great for six or so local kids. But I'd rather have 500 kids kept out of jail because they're playing rugby than half a dozen kids getting rich by playing Super rugby.
"Gray is passionate about getting a Super rugby team. Everyone's passionate about it. But Victorian rugby is a shambles at the moment. We're losing players. We (Moorabbin) have dropped two and a half teams this year. I don't know where those players are going. That is the single greatest problem Victorian rugby is facing, not winning a Super 15 team."
Curnow said he was circulating a resolution for a special general meeting to debate Gray's leadership. "We've already got the numbers. The resolution has been signed by the appropriate number of clubs."
Gray welcomed the challenge. "We've had one vote that went 18-0 in favour of the board and me. If Curnow wants a second vote, bring it on."
Gray is not the only state rugby boss who feels his position is being undermined.
Queensland Rugby Union chairman Peter Lewis also has told The Australian he was aware of a campaign to bring him down.
"It appears to come out of Sydney," Lewis said.
Asked whether he was implying it was being orchestrated by ARU officials, Lewis replied: "I don't know. But it all seems to have come at once. First, the Gary Gray thing and now this.
"If people weren't happy with me, I wouldn't be here. I've checked with a lot of key people in Queensland rugby, including (QRU) board members, and none of them has expressed any reservations about my performance as chairman."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html
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