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It’s paywalled but this is the text, Bakkies:
“Rugby Australia has descended into more chaos, with powerbroker Peter Wiggs on the cusp of walking away from the board.
A frustrated Wiggs has confided to friends he could resign as early as tomorrow, after he was backed in by the board to be the next Rugby Australia chairman on Monday night.
But the board meeting became heated after Wiggs made clear the conditions on which he would take the chairmanship.
In the meeting, Wiggs said that considering the code’s dire financial state, the fact has more than $16m in debt and — as The Australian can reveal — KPMG still won’t sign off on the financials, he wanted to appoint the CEO.
With RA in such a perilous state, Wiggs expressed a desire to make a “captain’s pick”, suggesting to the board that Matt Carroll, his friend and Australian Olympic Committee boss, take the job immediately.
Former Australian Rugby Union CEO John O’Neill was also suggested to take a board position.
Longstanding board members including Pip Marlow, John Wilson and Hayden Rorke baulked at the idea of Wiggs installing his own CEO. One board member suggested they would look like “idiots”.
RA board member Daniel Herbert also disagreed with Wiggs implementing his own CEO.
The objecting board members were offended at a lack of “due process” and wanted a recruiting firm to be appointed.
In the heated meeting one board member suggested Wiggs, the Archer Capital and SuperCars boss who has been on the board for just over a month, had been “planting himself in the media”. Another criticism of Wiggs was that he was “too Mosman”.
Wiggs, who has been studying Rugby Australia’s financial books, working endless hours to make sense of the code’s state, has also confided to sources they are “much worse” than he expected.
Rugby Australia failed to submit the annual report to the Australian Securities Investment Commission by last Thursday’s deadline. They are awaiting a rescue cheque from World Rugby.
If Wiggs walk away, the code’s broadcast negotiations will be in limbo once again. Wiggs has close ties with Fox Sports — owned by News Corp, publisher of The Australian — and was expected be crucial in the TV rights negotiations.
Wiggs has strong state backing to be chair from NSWRU boss Roger Davis and Queensland rugby’s Jeff Miller. Former Rebels boss Rob Clarke is expected to be announced as interim CEO shortly.