Chairman Daniel Herbert has accused a group agitating for a Rugby Australia board cleanout of “hypocrisy” and issued a strong defence of his governance.
Australian rugby’s fondness of political feuds and letter writing has continued to bubble away in 2024 despite the exit of divisive duo Hamish McLennan and Eddie Jones.
A group named ‘Supporters Of Overdue Australian Rugby Reform’ last week wrote to the member unions, urging them to roll the current board at next week’s annual general meeting.
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The group includes former Wallabies Dick Marks and Russ Tulloch, former RA board member Geoff Stooke and convenor Paul Jonson.
The thrust of the call for change is that the board should be held accountable for last year’s disastrous Rugby World Cup campaign, the decision to sack Dave Rennie and appoint Jones and the expensive signing of NRL star Joseph Suaalii.
RA chief executive Phil Waugh was in March also forced to fess up to an embarrassing $2.6m World Cup budget blowout.
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“What I would say is you don’t always get your way,” Wallabies great Herbert told Nine’s Inside Line podcast.
“There are always divergent views on a board or in a selection committee and whatever decision is ultimately taken you have to move forward with that.
“There was certainly strong debate over a lot of those decisions but going back to the change that came about in November, what drove that and remembering what was said by the member unions: lost trust, the chair (McLennan) acting outside of his role with undue influence and judgement, and player poaching of players from another code, were things that I also agreed with.”
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Herbert was elected to replace McLennan in November and has been on the board since 2020.
He and Waugh have since made some key appointments including Joe Schmidt as Wallabies coach, Jo Yapp as Wallaroos coach and director of high performance Peter Horne.
RA on Monday announced Cadbury as the principal partner of the Wallaroos on a six year deal.
“I guess all I can say is we (Herbert and Waugh) have demonstrated over the last five months things are going to be different,” Herbert said.
“That change is easy to see, we have run some really good processes, got some really good people involved and there is already a lot of change that has occurred and will continue to occur. We have to build trust with people, no doubt, and that will take time.”
A SOARR public petition for ‘overdue Australian rugby reform’ had attracted 275 signatures as of Wednesday.
“We have gone through this bloodletting for a long, long time,” Herbert said.
“The article I read this morning I think I have probably read about 10 times over the last decade. There are always these little groups of agitators who tend to pop up in our game and this is no different.
“You understand they wait for the opportunity when things don’t pan out. They very rarely offer any viable solution but just want to throw a lot of mud. The overarching thing for me with any of these types of things that occur is: why, if you love a game and you support a game, would you go publicly and do something like that?
“That doesn’t serve to protect or enhance the reputation or the interests of the game.
“And then it’s just the hypocrisy, of some of the people involved, annoys me as well. Some of these people have been involved in the administration and made some of the mistakes, going back some way. It’s very easy now to sit on the outside and throw stones in…
“Sometimes people see themselves as the solution and if you don’t share that same point of view then sometimes they don’t like that.”
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Meanwhile, Super Rugby Pacific has appointed Australian Jack Mesley as its inaugural chief executive.
Mesley will start in July after finishing his current role as the A-Leagues chief commercial officer.
“What set Jack apart from a strong pool of candidates following a thorough search was his passion for rugby, his enthusiasm and a breadth of experience in both marketing and sports,” SRP chairman Kevin Malloy said.
“We were looking for someone who isn’t afraid to roll up their sleeves, given the joint venture is still relatively new. Jack sees the potential of the competition and wants to build on the success we’ve had to date. And he understands the need to form strong relationships with the broad range of stakeholders. We are really looking forward to having him onboard come July.”