YAWNNNN,
Before you all go....
"SPECULATION was rife last night that the Australian Rugby Union is headhunting for a new chief executive as the fallout from the Kurtley Beale texting scandal looks set to claim its highest profile victim yet, Bill Pulver."
Mind you, it is a Wayne Smith story, so who knows...
"12 Years aSupporter" starring the #SeaOfBlue
unfortunatley the phone in question has gone missing from the ARUOriginally Posted by sandgroperrugby
funny that
can you post the whole article? aparently Ive "viewed my limit" of Australian stories.
According to whirlpool, this is it:
"SPECULATION was rife last night that the Australian Rugby Union is headhunting for a new chief executive as the fallout from the Kurtley Beale texting scandal looks set to claim its highest profile victim yet, Bill Pulver.
The scandal already has claimed four innocent victims, with former Wallabies business manager Di Patston, the woman Beale inadvertently sent an obscene text on June 9, the first to quit the ARU.
She was soon followed by disillusioned Australian coach Ewen McKenzie, whose departure cost two of his assistant coaches, Jim McKay and Nick Scrivener, their jobs.
Pulver seemingly will be the next to go, his position undermined by his failure to bring the Beale scandal, which first broke on October 1, to a speedy conclusion.
The matter was allowed to fester until last Friday’s Code of Conduct hearing. And while the independent tribunal found Beale guilty of sending one obscene message and fined him $45,000, mostly it succeeded only in giving rise to a host of new questions — none of which Pulver has been prepared to answer.
Given that the only thing that saved Beale from the sack was the inability of the tribunal to establish conclusively that he was the author of a second, even more *obscene text, the immediate question that needs answering is why the ARU is not investigating who might have sent the text, if not Beale. “If new, relevant information comes to light, we’ll investigate that information,” an ARU spokesperson said yesterday.
One would have thought the revelation in The Australian yesterday that six days before he accidentally keyed in Patston’s mobile number, Beale sent the same obscene text to an unspecified number of “Waratahs mates” would have fallen into the category of “new and relevant information”. Certainly Pulver knew nothing of it when asked about it on Sunday.
There is a prevailing mood for change at the top of Australian rugby and it might not be appeased solely by installing a new CEO. ARU chairman Michael Hawker has been all but invisible while the code has been rocked by scandal and instability in recent weeks and the failure of leadership ultimately rests with him. His position, too, warrants serious review.
Repeated attempts last night to contact both Hawker and Pulver were unsuccessful.
Compounding the ARU’s “toxic” image problem is a growing suspicion of a cover-up in the texting scandal following the revelation that Beale lost not one but two mobile phones since he texted Patston on June 9.
An ARU spokesperson confirmed yesterday that the loss of the two phones made a full forensic investigation of who sent the so-called second message almost impossible.
Compounding suspicions is the fact that the mobile phone on which Patston received the June 9 text Beale intended for Wallabies teammate James Hanson, but mistakenly sent to her instead, also has gone missing after allegedly being handed in to the ARU.
Wallabies sponsor Samsung provides regular phone upgrades to team players and staffers and it is understood that Patston up*graded hers but the ARU now claims to have no record of that happening.
Meanwhile, Beale still is facing a second investigation this week over the September 28 in-flight *incident that triggered this whole imbroglio.
Although the ARU is insisting this inquiry is “a normal ARU integrity investigation” and not a Code of Conduct hearing, it might yet have dire consequences for the 47-Test Wallaby if it emerges that he physically intimidated Patston on the South African Airways flight. It is understood that Beale, who was seated across the aisle from Patston, stood over her as the verbal altercation heated up.
Wallabies prop Ben Alexander, who was seated next to Beale, is believed to have attempted to pull him back into his seat while two other players, Will Genia and Christian Leali’ifano, rushed from three rows back in business class to intervene.
The Australian understands serious consideration was given to sending Beale back to Australia but when McKenzie was per*suaded by captain Michael *Hooper and vice-captains Adam Ashley-Cooper and James Slipper to let him remain with the touring party in Buenos Aires, Patston then decided that she would return to Australia instead.
The ARU integrity commission has to establish whether there was an element of physical intimidation about the incident. Witnesses have confirmed Patston cried for two hours afterwards.
If the rugby blog sites are to be taken seriously, there is a groundswell of opinion that Wallabies supporters no longer want Beale wearing their country’s colours.
"
"12 Years a
Tin foil hat time for me but.....
I still think the NSW power brokers are after Pulver for setting up the NRC at a level above NSW club games.
Think about it
no more super rugby players for NSW clubs
means lower quality rugby means less cash
having to pay your NRC players from club rugby means less cash for clubs
NSW is seen as just another club rugby comp rather than 'the premier club rugby comp in Aus.'
and now they can't even field any NSW club players (or clubs) in the NRC finals which shows how rubbish they were in the first place.
This undermines their requirement to have 'special privileges' for NSW as rugby becomes (finally) an Australian wide sport.
My biggest concern is that if Pulver goes then so does the NRC.
Well I was thinking about the way he brought down a Wallaby coach in the weeks after O'Connor was arsed.....it appears that you're OK to do what you want in Aussie rugby as long as you have the ability to f@$k the coach over in the process!
C'mon the
Man, that's a bigger conclusion jump than even I could make!
You have some skills!
The best I could come up with is that the NSW power brokers wanted his head because it was a NSW player who'd caused all the trouble and it wasn't covered up adequately.
C'mon the
Pulver, Patston, Mckenzie all gone in a month
Total clean out
We can thank Beale for this. This was what was required to get our nation back to the top of world rugby
Kurtley isn't the messiah but he is a very naughty boy.
New management, new coaching staff, new head coach, new CEO
It is always darkest before the dawn
Like the Phoenix from the ashes, we will rise again to the top.
This was the recession we had to have
Read my lips, no more texts
It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up." - Vince Lombardi
Controversy corner
and this
Controversy corner
NSW killed the ARC after their prefered model (turn the Sydney club comp into the ARC) was rejected.
They were very unhappy with the current configuration of the NRC to the point that it was boycotted by a couple of the teams.
It really does reduce the Sydney club comp to the same level as every other club comp in Australia.
They really won't like that.
So if an opportunity comes along like this rubbish they, in my opinion, will take it and try and get rid of Pulver and 'his' NRC.
and I mean seriously..
Pulver pulled off getting the entire NRC up and running in under 6 months and that included enough money to make it self sufficient.
Was JON so useless that he couldn't do the same thing in 12 or more months?
Paying the ABC to telecast games when Fox was willing to pay to do it?
Tying it into future broadcast rights?
Not exactly rocket science is it?
OK, I'm trying hard as is can not to take the bait, but you can't seriously think that Kurtley did this for 'the good of Australian rugby' can you?
Of course if you do, it probably explains some of your other posts.........forget I said anything
C'mon the
serendipity Gigs ........ a fortunate accident
The house was made of cards and an overreaction to an immature and tasteless text made it collapse.
The future looks bright now though don't you think...........commeth the hour, commeth the man. M.Cheika will sort this mess out
Controversy corner
deadset
that will just about do me!
No, not really. While I agree that China might be the only possible candidate who might be able to stand up to the obvious self serving are holes in the aru. We're far from out of the woods here. The loss of a head coach, a senior staffer and possibly a CEO all because they don't want to sack a bloke when anybody else on the planet would have been shafted after one derogatory text at the expense of a manager.
Beale is a stupid, juvenile that with limited skills and an ego the size of mother Russia and you seem to think that he is the saviour of the world simply because the victim of his serial harassment was guilty of her own misdeeds.
Nothing excuses Beale's actions and until the aru stand up and say that the game is fucked in this country
My 2c
C'mon the
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