The business of Rugby

Edward Holden saw an opportunity. His father’s company, Holden and Frost, which started out as a saddlery, had begun producing car bodies and was starting to boom after the end of the first world war.

Having secured a contract as the exclusive supplier of car shells to General Motors in Australia, Holden now found himself with access to a wealth of knowledge from the American manufacturers who were leading the world with their mass production techniques and highly automated processes.

Working closely with GM, the Australians were able to improve their own manufacturing processes and in doing so raised their production from 12,000 to 34,000 units in the space of 6 years. This collaboration helped to establish Holden as the biggest car body builder in the British Empire in 1929.

Just when things seemed to be going so well, disaster struck in the form of the Great Depression. No matter how good the product was or how efficiently they could be made there simply wasn’t the market for them. People couldn’t afford new cars and production fell to a mere trickle. Eventually the company were forced to close their South Australian plant and the end seemed nigh.

Edward was faced with a difficult decision. The company was much more to him than the Australian icon it has gone on to become to his fellow countrymen. It was a family business. One that he and his father had worked hard to build up from scratch and even as it lay at his feet in near bankruptcy he was still proud of it and always would be.

The decision to go cap in hand to his American friends at GM must have been a hard one. Pride and prejudice to be weighed against sense and sensibility.* An Australian icon flogged off to the yanks and a family business whored to a corporate giant all in one fell swoop.

Was it greed or humility that let Holden overcome his pride? Either way General Motors were prepared to buy out the company for a reasonable sum and form General Motors Holden Ltd, an amalgamation that allowed the name, history and character of the Australian company not only to survive but to grow. American know how coupled with Australian ingenuity.

Looking back at Holden’s legacy – the FJ, the Kingswood, the Sandman (my personal favourite), the Monaro, the Commodore and the Torana – are Holdens somehow less Australian because of GM’s investment? Maybe, maybe not but perhaps the more important question is would Holden have survived without GM?

This abbreviated and roughly drawn history of Australia’s most famous car manufacturer is of course a thinly veiled reference to Australian rugby’s decision to appoint New Zealander Robbie Deans as head coach. Like GM once imported knowledge to Holden, Deans will bring the outstanding coaching qualities he developed in the strongest fort of international rugby.

The Wallabies, regardless of the nationality of their coach, will remain a representative group of young Australian men who’ve been coached by Australian coaches while playing with their Australian mates in their Australian clubs, Schools and backyards. The occasional Topo never hurt anyone, well not in a Wallaby jersey anyway.

The world’s of sport and business are now forever entangled and Australia’s rugby administrators have shown they are well aware of it. What’s important for the ARU and Australian rugby supporters is not to regret the necessity of the business side of rugby but to make sure that the business or rugby is done the right way.

Now that we have a great coach at the top end, we need a great competition for the boys on the brink of the big time and a great pathway for youngsters entering the game.

The death knell of the ARC, rung conveniently under cover of the last strands of Deans’ welcoming parade leaves Australian rugby just as top heavy as it was during the great rugby league experiment. As Wendell Sailor and Matt Rogers have moved on and Deans has moved in, John O’Neil has continued to adhere to a ‘top down’ approach hoping a strong Wallaby team means a healthy junior recruitment and rising club numbers.

I can’t help but wonder if this a model that GM would buy into.

* The incursion of Jane Austen into a rugby story springs from my wife’s recent assertion that the problem with Australian rugby is that there are no ‘Mr Darcys’ left in the game. I had never before considered this to be the cause but, after a good deal of consideration, have yet to find a good argument against it.

Free Email updates:

• Get Garth Hamilton's articles emailed to you
• Get a daily Rugby Union email

Our daily emails are only sent if there is content for the sport or that author. You can subscribe to multiple daily emails; or get the daily Roar email with all our content in it. We value privacy. More...