ARU Responds to luminaries letter with stakeholders summit

[Tonkar]

It's like the Members of NSWRFU always say they are most successful union in Australia been here for 100 yrs and have the best of everything....( Have been having discussions on another forum over this NSWRFU) well if I was in business for 100 yrs and still broke it would be a record.. There past history show that they have never had the correct financial consultants to lead them into the future.. Would love to see how much money the ARU have pumped into NSWRFU over the past decade in prop ups and now they don't have a insider in The ARU they have been found out.. I agree with Allison and Valzc JON jumped a sinking ship and took all the god with him.. Then has the hide to reply to this an article that he was part of the making..

[shasta]

John O'Neil sent an email to Papworth that's been published on the Roar, which is a fascinating read. Suggesting that Papworth is right in the current administration getting it wrong, but not supporting that a lack of funding of state comps is the issue.




The article has the email from Papworth to former Wallabies and the draft letter to go to the board. An interesting insight into the whole mess.
/[/URL]

Thanks for putting that up. it's one of Spiro Zavos' better efforts and sets out the multiple issues running here. I have followed this shit fight since Papworth's first (of 3) articles on the Rugby News website. The comments that follow the Zavos piece have given me a little more hope that the Inner Sydney mafia will not win out here. There seems to be plenty of interested people who can see through the self-interested bleating coming from the Woodies' President. Lots of whining but scant evidence of a forward strategy.

[Alison]

A friend of mine sent me this today - piece by Wayne Smith from yesterday's Oz. Surest sign yet that one of the five is going to get the chop and that we're the front runner.

Anyone got the full article?

[Kalahard]

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RUGBY UNION
Western Force under threat if franchises cut to four

Force captain Matt Hodgson has re-signed with the club for a 12th and final season. Picture: Daniel Wilkins.
The Australian12:00AM October 21, 2016
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WAYNE SMITH
Senior sport writerBrisbane
@WayneKeithSmith

Australian Rugby Union boss Bill Pulver has given his commitment that if a decision is taken to reduce the number of Australian Super Rugby teams from five to four that all contracts signed by players from the affected club will be honoured in full.

But if, as seems likely, the Western Force are chosen to be cut from Super Rugby from the end of next season, their players would be scattered around the other four Australian franchises.

They will know their fate soon enough, though not as soon as promised.

SANZAAR’s strategic review — prompted by savage reviews of its clunky 18-team comp*etition introduced this year — was expected to be completed by next month but now looks like being pushed pack to December. “I expect we will have a decision pre-Christmas,” Pulver said.

The options being weighed up are remaining with the 18-team competition, scaling back to a 16-team competition which presumably would include all five Australian sides or, the most likely outcome, reverting to a 15-team, three-conference system. That was what was in place last year but it was dropped in response to pressure from the South African government to *introduce a predominantly black sixth South African side.

The Southern Kings were readmitted but in order to make the model work, Argentina and Japan were also added to Super Rugby. Scarcely anyone could explain the conference system.

The dysfunctional system was exacerbated by the brilliant form of the NZ teams, four of which qualified for the finals. Crazily, the third-placed Highlanders were forced to play their elimination semi-final against the *seventh-placed Brumbies in Canberra, while the Chiefs, who finished fourth, had to travel to Cape Town to play the Stormers, who finished fifth.

SANZAAR was forced to act but, as the rationalisation process gathers pace, the loser looks like being the Force. Already player agents are circling, *dangling northern hemisphere contracts that would come into effect from the end of next year’s Super Rugby competition.

“If the agents are doing that, that is very premature because a decision has not been made,” Pulver said. “Even if that was the outcome (to reduce the number of Australian teams to four), we’ve also got to run around a lot of broadcasters and get their agreement to change. This is a complex issue.”

But Pulver confirmed the ARU is prepared to abandon its cherished “national footprint” if SANZAAR decides to go back to a 15-team model.

“I’ve already told SANZAAR that Australia is comfortable with the idea of looking at *dropping from five teams to four teams if the competition structure will be a better competition structure,” he said.

While the four other Aust*ralian franchises are experiencing financial difficulties, the Force made it easier for the ARU to jettison them by agreeing to an ARU takeover at the start of the year when they could no longer pay their bills.

Pulver vowed that, in the event that the Perth team, or indeed any of the other four franchises, was forced to close, all its players would be taken care of.

“We’re not going to breach agreements here. Whatever contracts are in place, we will honour them,” he said.

Asked if the players would be spread around the other franchises, he replied: “If that was the case, yes. If there was a change from five teams to four, it would be an opportunity to upgrade the number and standards of the remaining four teams.”

The Force yesterday announced they had re-signed captain Matt Hodgson for 2017. It will be his 12th season of Super Rugby and his last for the club. Within the next two months, the Force players will know whether the same also applies to them.

[Kalahard]

Hmm a backflip by Pulver. Not good news as he was portraying a position of support for the national footprint only 6 weeks ago. Things are going to get messy and no one will be the winner. Rugby in Australia will once again find a way to be Rugby in Australias biggest nemesis.

Personally i don't want any teams to be cut. It will put back all the progress of the last 10 years to become a national sport, providing opportunity for more to participate at all levels. The conference structure is not the Forces fault so why should we be the scapegoat? SANZAAR, heavily driven by South Africa, wanted such a format, they should take the blame for any issues arising from competition structure and the timing of expansion. This is all before we take into account the millions being thrown at the Rebels just to stay afloat.
I don't believe the ARU will go down the path of cutting a team as it will create the biggest shitfight any sporting code in Australia will have ever seen and will do immense damage to the sport. Thousands of families will walk away. Thousands of volunteers will walk away. The ARU will be thrust into some very lengthy and costly legal disputes with the states and the broadcasters. Promises have been made, contracts are in place, to reverse all of that will be ugly. All because of a Super Rugby competition format was thrust upon us by SANZAAR or more accurately South African Rugby Union. What sort of look would it be for Rugby to see the Force playing in an empty stadium with nothing to play for? It would be a disgraceful way to end our franchise, especially after the concessions made by RugbyWA to help the financial position of the ARU, only for the ARU to turn around and shit on us as thanks.

A statement from Sinderberry confirming that the ARU has committed to the Force being apart of the broadcast agreement until 2020 would be nice.

[jargan83]

Sinderberry will do whatever his ARU masters tell him to do so I wouldn't hold my breath Kala.

[Kalahard]

Sinderberry has a dual role as General Manager of the Force and CEO of RugbyWA

[shasta]

If the competition format is causing big losses of TV ratings, the broadcasters will not be a problem.

[Tonkar]

If the Force are dropped Mungo's will start a team within 12 months.. The NRL are just sitting back awaiting the decision as it would be o easy and financially better for them.. Followers of Rugby Union would feel Crapped on and just walk.. So there would be spectators out there with time to consider the change to League.. Would be a sad day for Union in WA.. I for one would not even watch another upper level Union game.. ( Local rugby would still get my support)

[The Man]

Classy stuff Pappy , He has been on ABC Grandstand calling Bill Pulver a Liar! Great way to put your case

[volvo]

Lets all just calm down. These are the same rumors that have been floating around for months. Every time we believe every word in the media you give the media the power to control the rugby world. A lot of things said in this article is very much Wayne Smiths assumptions about what is going to happen rather then what is really going to happen. Nothing has been formally decided by SANZAR and it wont be for a while so there is not point reacting to the weekly Wayne Smith article about how he believes the force is going to go. As far as I know Wayne Smith is not on the SANZAR or the ARU board and will not be making these decisions. Thank goodness for that. The ARU would not have invested so much in the force the past few months and would not fund the future force either if they did not believe we could still be successful. I dont believe someone like Joe Barakat who had a safe job with ulster would leave his job early to come here to coach the force if the force did not have a good chance of carrying on in the super rugby competition. Robbie Coleman would not have asked to be released from his brumbies contract to come to the force if he did not think the force had a good chance of carrying on in the super comp. All these players like Sam Figgs would not be coming to train with the force if they knew the force were just going to be gone after next year. Remember we are always going to be attacked by the eastern states media even if we win the super rugby competition. As Hodgson said yesterday dont listen to all these rumors.Rather renew your membership and support the force because that is the strongest statement we can make. Hopefully the spirit can win today and show how strong Rugby WA is.

[Kalahard]

Well said Volvo. I just hope that theres no fire under the smoke.

[Alison]

I think that at the next Members' forum (22 Nov) we should ask Sinderberry what the latest is and whether it would make any difference if we had another rally like the one that got us into SuperRugby in 2005. RugbyWA could help us organise it if it came to that!

[wholetruth]

That's exactly what Peter O'Meara said in the story in The West recently.

O’Meara urged the WA rugby community to launch a campaign aimed at the ARU and SANZAAR as it did in the lead up to the original bid when more than 25,500 signed a petition and 7000 people turned up at a rally at Subiaco Oval.

“The community played a massive part in getting Super Rugby to WA. They have to raise their collective voices again and demand a fair go for the Force,” he said.

[Alison]

So let's do it!! Need to form an organising committee. Who's interested?