Horan's five-point plan for Australian rugby
Yesterday at 8:55 AM Super Rugby
by RUGBY.com.au staff
Wallabies great Tim Horan has laid out a five-point plan for Australian rugby as it battles the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
Rugby Australia and the Rugby Union Players Association (RUPA) are still yet to agree on a pay deal for players in the coming months after a marathon meeting on Saturday.
Horan took to Twitter after news of the continued stalemate to detail the five key elements he believes will help Australian rugby turn the current situation around.
A pay deal agreed upon sooner rather than later was the first on his list, followed by the need for a loan from World Rugby or the Australian government.
Asked what he felt would be a fair deal for the players, Horan proposed a 65 percent cut for the current quarter for players earning more than $150,000 and then a shift to 50 per cent cuts should games still be unable to be played beyond June 30.
For players earning less than $150,000 a year, Horan proposed a 40 per cent salary cut.
Horan said on FOX Sports News earlier that World Rugby was considering offering loans of up to $100 million over four years to some tier one nations.
The international body has been open about its willingness to provide financial aid to rugby nations suffering financial challenges with rugby suspended for the near future.
A process for applying for that aid is still being finalised.
Horan's third step in the plan was a three-month Australian competition, bringing in the Force and the Sunwolves, to begin in July.
The fourth plank is the restarting of broadcast negotiations for 2021 and beyond.
Broadcast discussions were paused last month with the suspension of rugby for the short-term but plans for resuming those talks have not been finalised.
Since the shut down, both Rugby Australia and Foxtel have stood down a host of their staff and Fox Sports have laid off close to 200 staff, including their two rugby writers, Christy Doran and Sam Worthington.
Those redundancies came after calls to cut the broadcast team as well, with the sports broadcaster not offering long-time host Nick McArdle or commentator and former Wallaby Drew Mitchell new deals.
Looking further long-term, Horan also proposed changing Super Rugby to an Asia Pacific model, taking South Africa out of the mix.
“Super Rugby will look very different in the next five years,” he said on Fox Sports.
“I think it’s probably got to be an Asian-Pacific type model – Australia, New Zealand and allow Japan to stay in the model.
“Then you look at Fiji, Samoa, Tonga.”
https://www.rugby.com.au/news/2020/0...tim-horan-plan
