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Reading Wayne Smith’s article in today’s Australian – where his sources tell him that the Force being ditched from Super Rugby is a forgone conclusion – gave me a bad taste in my mouth.
This was the similar sort of bad taste in my mouth that I felt at the way Ewen McKenzie and Di Patston were treated a few years back. You cannot tell me that the leaking of this right at the time when the Western Force has been trying to raise funds through it’s ‘Own the Force’ share scheme was entirely coincidental.
It comes across as the sort of dirty, grubby trick that puts me off wanting to associate with rugby in this country.
Admittedly the ARU did refute it the first time Smith broke the news, but apart from that it has done nothing to assure Force or for that matter Rebels or Brumbies fans, that their team will not be dropped.
Bill Pulver’s response to very apt criticism by his predecessor John O’Neill, that the ARU should have fought harder in the interests of all Aussie teams to prevent the current Super Rugby schemozzle, was that “We don’t always make decisions exclusively for the good of Australian rugby. On occasion you make decisions for the good of all rugby.”
Pulver’s statement sums up the dismissive attitude to Force, Rebels and Brumbies players and fans, with the ARU offering no comfort whatsoever that it has their backs. In the case of the Force, the ARU’s attitude has taken the shine off a season where things are looking up on the field for that franchise and it has cast a shadow over the entire Aussie conference.
Moreover, had the ARU let it be known early that it was going to fight for all the Australian franchises, the sort of toxic leaking that Smith has published would get no traction.
What this all tells me is that for all the vacuous virtue signalling that it has engaged in since the 2014 fiasco – by appointing a former sex discrimination commissioner to the ARU Board – the ARU has learned nought about how to treat people when the going gets tough. The organisation has zero authenticity and that is not an organisation that I feel the need to financially contribute to, unless it pulls it’s socks up – and quick smart.
This year my planned rugby consumption was a Fox Sports subscription, a three-game Reds membership, the Brisbane Wallabies Tests and to try to get along to a game or two of Brisbane City in the NRC.
I have recently dropped Fox, the Super Rugby is such a shambles that I am not enjoying it, so I just follow the Reds games that I don’t attend at the pub, and plan to attend an extra game or two with what I save on pay TV.
Now, if an Aussie team is dropped I will not be attending the Wallabies Tests this year, instead I will spend the money I save on extra Reds and NRC games. I would sooner see my dollars going directly into Queensland rugby than into the ARU’s pockets.
I am sorry that this would mean that I wouldn’t be able to support the Wallabies in person, but those players are good enough not to suffer financially. Moreover, I am sure that they would understand the fans making a statement about the ARU throwing their mates and the supporters in one of our Super Rugby teams under a bus.
And I hope that other fans make the same statement, like they did at the Brisbane Bledisloe in 2014, when the debacle at that time cost the ARU 7,000 odd bums on seats compared to the same Test match two years earlier.
Frankly right now I wouldn’t care if the ARU went so broke that they had to beg an unheated demountable out the back of the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra to hold Board Meetings, because to me it has all the hallmarks of an organisation which has forgotten who it works for.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.