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A tale of two rugby stories

Roar Rookie
2nd November, 2014
19

There was some interesting reading in The Australian last week as their rugby union correspondents produced starkly contrasting coverage of the continuing Kurtley Beale saga.

On Wednesday, Wayne Smith wrote a story which said Australian Rugby Union CEO Bill Pulver’s job was on the line if Beale was sacked.

“Essentially it comes down to this: if Bill Pulver sacks Kurtley Beale, he himself will be sacked,” Smith said.

“If Beale stays, Pulver will be spared. Perhaps that’s an oversimplification but I think not. Whatever fragile truce Pulver cobbled together with Michael Cheika to enable him to feel comfortable stepping into the Wallabies coaching job at desperately short notice almost certainly would not survive Beale’s contract being torn up.

“That’s not to imply Cheika made Beale’s retention a condition of accepting the job but he had made it amply apparent even before the Wallabies coaching position was on offer that he viewed his retention as vital to the Waratah’s chances of success next year.

“And that is what this whole ugly imbroglio is all about ensuring the success of the Waratahs in 2015. Virtually everything that has happened in Australian rugby since the incident on South African Airways flight 222 on September 28 has been driven by one overriding concern, to ensure Beale pulls on a sky blue jumper in 2015.

“Innocent people have been sacrificed to ensure it happens, reputations compromised, time-honoured principles abandoned. All to ensure that a player who has, if my information is correct, 11 major incidents on his Australian rugby union rap sheet including a number of off-field acts of physical violence is not lost to NSW.

“Now, whatever one might think of Beale the person, Beale the rugby player is quite exceptional. He made a key contribution to the Tah’s Super Rugby title win this year and Cheika, wearing his NSW coach’s cap, insisted a week ago that he was literally irreplaceable. In the event of Beale’s contract being torn up by the Code of Conduct tribunal, Cheika indicated, he wouldn’t even bother trying to find a like-for-like replacement because there simply isn’t one.”

Incredibly, in the very same newspaper the following day, Smith’s colleague Bret Harris had a story which refuted these claims.

“NSW Waratahs chairman Roger Davis has rejected suggestions there has been a concerted effort to ensure star Wallabies playmaker Kurtley Beale is cleared to play for the Super Rugby champions next year.

“Beale was fined $45,000 by an ARU tribunal last Friday night for sending an offensive text message to the then Wallabies business manager Di Patston in June but is still being investigated for an in-flight incident involving the former ARU staffer.

“Patston resigned on returning early to Australia from the tour to Argentina, while coach Ewen McKenzie, who employed her, also quit on the day of the Brisbane Test against the All Blacks on October 18.

“The Australian’s Wayne Smith yesterday wrote that this whole ugly imbroglio was about ensuring Beale was not lost to the Waratahs. Davis denied that yesterday.

“I was amazed at that this morning. I don’t know where that is coming from,” Davis told Harris.

Obviously, this is a case of The Australian’s two rugby scribes not being on the same page. What to make of this? I’m not sure.

To add to the confusion, The Australian’s chief sports writer Patrick Smith, more of an AFL man, said in an opinion piece:

“Rugby has imploded. That is not hyperbole but an accurate reflection of the trouble in which the sport finds itself. The issues that have undone rugby have been meticulously and regularly detailed by colleagues Wayne Smith and Bret Harris.”

Indeed.

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