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Australian Rugby Union boss Bill Pulver hits back at latest senate inquiry claims
James Buckley
Outgoing ARU chief Bill Pulver has hit back at allegations raised in Monday night's final senate inquiry hearing, which suggested former Melbourne Rebels owner Andrew Cox siphoned millions of dollars of grant money into non-rugby interests.
It was ARU chairman Cameron Clyne's turn to defend the culling of the Western Force when he faced questions in Canberra from senator Linda Reynolds, who alleged up to $6 million of Rebels funding provided by the national body was funnelled into Cox's various companies.
The Force's drawn-out axing from the Super Rugby competition in August led to two failed court appeals and a senate inquiry, which is expected to deliver a report in mid-November.
Pulver fell on his sword following the announcement the Force would be removed from the competition and will leave his post as chief executive as soon as a replacement is found.
"My understanding is that's complete nonsense," Pulver said.
"The funding relationship between the Australian Rugby Union and the Rebels was a confidential document.
"We review all their financials. He also had a business partner, he owned a majority of the entity and there was a minority shareholder.
"I am not aware of him siphoning money off into other businesses. Where that's coming from I have no idea."
West Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest offered a reported $50 million to the ARU to keep the Western Force in the competition, but that was rejected.
Forrest announced in the aftermath of the Force's demise that he planned on starting a rebel rugby competition involving teams from the Indo-Pacific region.
The ARU has developed a working party headed by deputy chairman Dr Brett Robinson that has been working with World Rugby to help facilitate the implementation of the new competition, but Pulver said there was still much to be done if the rebel league was to get off the ground by 2018.
"It's a pretty rigorous process, Australian Rugby and World Rugby ultimately have to approve any international competition like that," Pulver said.
"It's a lot of work to set up an international competition like that so we're working very closely with them. They're also reaching out to other countries that might be involved and they're also having meetings with World Rugby, so there's a lot of engagement going on.
"It's their time frame not ours. Our understanding is [Forrest] is keen to get the first version of this competition up and running next year, in which case there's an awful lot to do."
The ARU has appointed a recruitment firm to seek a replacement for Pulver, who hopes to leave his post by Christmas, and an interview process will begin in the coming weeks.
Pulver plans to take the year off once a new chief executive is appointed.
Ireland president Michael Higgins was in Sydney on Wednesday to announce the first three-Test series to be played between Australia and their northern hemisphere rivals.
Brisbane will host the series opener on June 9, before games in Melbourne (June 16) and Sydney (June 23) as the Wallabies look to extend their unbeaten run against the Irish on Australian soil, which stretches back to 1979.
"There's been a wonderful rivalry between our two teams in recent years and, in particular, the Irish team has performed superbly in the last couple of years," Pulver said.
"We are neck and neck vying for that No.3 and No.4 position in the world. We're sincerely looking forward to having a sea of green up and down the eastern seaboard June next year."
Ireland have put together a submission to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup, up against France and South Africa. Australia is one of 39 voting bodies that will decide which bid is successful.
Thanks Jules. Lets see what others think. If there is enough interest, we can have a beer or coffee and share out the job of getting the email addresses etc
I see the Senate Inquiry is burning Bill Pulver's bum and he cannot wait for it to go away. We have to make sure it does not fade away too quickly.
Well I am sure their report is going to very critical of the ARU and their processes. Interesting to see the Senate recommendations.
Pulver's wrong about the "minority shareholder". ASIC records show only one shareholder.
That said, Imperium Sports Management was led by Cox AND Peter Sidwell (former Chairman of Melbourne Heart). Maybe that's what Pulver really meant. Or perhaps he is getting confused with the unit holders in the trust?
Interesting use of "my understanding is that..." and "I am not aware of". Not exactly categorical........
Proudly Western Australian; Proudly supporting Western Australian rugby
I think we just cool our hot heels until Senator Reynolds delivers her report. We should all be confident enough to believe that the findings will be nothing short of career ending and code damning.
The other Unions will use the Senate report to call an EGM of the ARU and the entire ARU Board will be rolled. An interim CEO/Board will be appointed and the first thing they will do (as I would do) would be to make all of the Board Meetings, reports and shonky dealing public information....a real 'clean the house', so that the new Board can blame everything on the old Board and we start afresh.
Doing a mail out would be potentially counter productive and may cloud any of the Inquiries findings. 4 weeks and there will be blood on the board room table.
Last edited by UAUdiver1959; 18-10-17 at 18:28.
I found the journo’s use of language interesting, as in “Senator Reynolds alleged”
Um...isn’t she the investigator? Isn’t she just following the evidence trail and asking questions arising from what’s in front of her?
Definitely a pro-ARU piece and puts bias against the committee.
'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne
Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca
https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board
In all of this the fans are left flat on their face.
WA is once again left isolated from the rest of Australia. We are denied freedoms the others take for granted just through the tyranny of distance and cost of this factor. A cost that should never have been counted as a negative by the ARU, but was mentioned by Pulver as one of the financial knives that killed the Force. If their manta is to grow the game. This one point fails completely as the cost of distance should also be looked at how much it saves individuals the fans to have a pro team in their locality.
Time zones also means in WA to grow the game there has to be viewing times that suit supporters in this state. A local game achieves this more than any other factor.
These factors are left out of the ARU’s reasoning and therefore they have let down the purpose and mantra for the game at the professional level which in turn lets down the second objective as they are uniquely linked which is the growth of grassroots sports.
Without the heroes to follow and hero worship in their back yard due to ‘tyranny of distance’ only the truely diehard rugby fans will participate. To grow the game you need to go beyond the diehards amd capture the marked of the interested but not committed.
This again is a factor which is not experienced in the east. A Melbourne grassroots player and or supporter is a cheaper flight away or a few hours drive away from a professional team. This is a reasonable substitute. Considering I myself use to drive 6 hour round trips to watch Home games in perth consistently to watch the Force. Others did the same thing further out from places like Albany.
The privileged supporter of Melbourne can affordably go to most games on the east coast via several transport methods at a relatively cheaper rate than the only one way that a Perth supporter can achieve the same goal.
I feel not enough factors have been mentioned about the key ingredient to growing the game and that’s the affordability of a fan actually seeing a game. That’s why federal money is kicked into sports. A fan must first enjoy the game, see the game, then think I would like to emulate this and participate myself or get my kids involved as this looks like fun. As I said before they already have the diehards! Growing the game in Melbourne will not be as easy as they are already saturated with many other professional teams and sports reguardless of population. This is where Clyne has shown his true colours with his links to Victoria over WA- arguing with senator Reynolds that Victoria produced a player first, ‘so what’! That wasn’t the point, Rugby faces a very tight market in Victoria for the supporter who is not a diehard and hence growth can be in my opinion fickel at best, but in reality very competitive with other games which are already in the market. A Victorian can attend all sports weekly without leaving their state. 10 AFL teams, a league team a couple of soccer teams several cricket teams etc. there is so much competition for the fickle fan that I can’t see the rebels ever been as successful as what the Force already had been.
Our fan base had endure quite a few poor season yet we kept a dedicated base of fans which still embarrassed the other more successful teams in the east who struggled with support even when winning.
The force had to tolerate in their years a shonky sponsor, an AFL ground not really suited to viewing rugby as a spectator. A move to different facilities etc. Yet the rebels and correct me if i’m wrong were already set up with a quality viewing arena for rugby, sponsor deals that were not pulled from under them due to matters outside of their control.
Despite all of those woes the Force have grown the game and financially been less supported than its Melbourne rival.
Therefore I see it that factors have been ignored by the ARU in their assessment of which team would cost the growth of the game more and hence they have let down Australia, it’s supporters and the players as well as all those who work to make the game great.
Its more than 'tyranny of distance'. Its 'tyranny of administrators'.
"12 Years aSupporter" starring the #SeaOfBlue
'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne
Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca
https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board
Bakkies just put a thought in my head in another thread.
Do you think Linda is planning to use the fact that they released a confidential document to a competitor but not to the inquiry as evidence of contempt?
That would be the one way she could get at these arseholes directly.
Everything else, she would just be handing over evidence to ASIC, ATO, AFP, ACC.
I think that she is keen to nail them to the mast and she deserves to do it personally.
C'mon the![]()
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A lot more submissions are up on the Inquiry website will look at them later
https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary...on/Submissions
'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne
Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca
https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board