SPIRO: What is behind O'Neill's resignation from RWC Ltd?

The resignation of John O’Neill from the board of the Rugby World Cup Ltd, the organisation that actually organises the Rugby World Cup tournament, was big news in world rugby but hardly reported in Australia.

This is a pity because, I believe, there are serious implications for Australian rugby in what has happened.

The Guardian ran a detailed story with what seemed like inside information by people still on the board that linked O’Neill’s resignation with the naming of Alan Gilpin as the new head of Rugby World Cup.

Who is Alan Gilpin?

The Guardian describes him as lawyer who was the chief commercial officer for Rugby Travel and Hospitality Ltd. This company, which does a lot of Rugby World Cup travel business, is jointly owned by Sodexo and the former England forward and now successful businessman, Mike Burton.

Who are Rugby Travel and Hospitality Ltd?

I Googled them and the first item that came up previewed ‘official packages’ from the official corporate hospitality and travel programmes for the Rugby World Cup 2015 and 2019.

The Guardian further reported the “personal reasons” O’Neill gave for resignation “related to the appointment process that resulted in the hiring of Gilpin”.

Like most big organisations, the IRB tends towards a closed shop, secretive mentality. There needs to be a statement from the IRB that this appointment went through all the proper processes, including scrutiny by Rugby World Cup Ltd.

The fact that the IRB governance, especially in the last decade, has a commendable integrity is due to the fact that in many instances, O’Neill along with a group of like-minded officials from South Africa and New Zealand, have been forceful and fearless about this issue in the past.

Here are a couple of examples of this.

In 1996, Vernon Pugh, QC, who died in 2003, became the first elected chairman of the IRB. He retained his links with the Welsh Rugby Union as its chairman, into 1997. This was a calculated breach of the conflict of interest principle which, as a QC, he must have understood.

O’Neill was a leading voice in pointing out to Pugh he could not be the chairman of the IRB and retain an official interest with the Welsh Rugby Union.

While Pugh eventually cut off ties from the WRU, he still tended to act as chairman of the IRB in a manner that, too often, favoured the interests of northern hemisphere unions (and often the Welsh Rugby Union) and went against the interests of southern hemisphere rugby countries.

Example: one day at the Sydney Morning Herald I found a file in my online system which contained a series of emails that showed Pugh was thugging the SANZAR countries to ensure referees in the Super Rugby competition officiated in the strictest application of the black letter of rugby’s complex laws.

Pugh made it clear in his emails to SANZAR that he was totally opposed to the continuity and entertaining rugby game that teams like the Brumbies and the Crusaders were developing.

Instead of the try-fest rugby that Super Rugby was delivering, Pugh insisted on a rugby game that was dominated by set pieces and penalties.

The email correspondence made it clear Pugh was prepared to insist on IRB-appointed referees, devoted to the kicking/penalty game, if SANZAR did not buckle to his demands.

With ample quotes from the emails, both to and from SANZAR, I wrote a scathing column for the SMH criticising Pugh for trying to kill off a competition that was going to save rugby in the southern hemisphere. Extracts from the emails were published in this column.

The next day I was summoned by a distraught sports editor, Steve Meacham, who presented me with a long fax from Pugh accusing the paper of defaming him and demanding an instant apology, or else.

I pointed out to Meacham that you can hardly defame people by quoting them accurately. I said the SMH should reject the demand and see what happened.

Nothing happened, in fact. Some weeks later I wrote a follow-up column with details from Pugh about how he had withdrawn his threat to SANZAR.

As a postscript to all of this, Peter FitzSimons, in his excellent rugbiography of John Eales, revealed that during the Wales-Australia match in the 1999 Rugby World Cup, Pugh tried to have the Wallabies thrown out of the tournament because he reckoned they had brought a player back on the field after he had been substituted.

John O’Neill was sitting beside Pugh when he heard the IRB chairman (and former chairman of Wales!) make the accusation. O’Neill rushed out of his seat and went down to the referees area and confirmed the Wallaby had left the field for the blood bin.

Assured that everything was in order, he then went back to his seat and told the somewhat disenchanted Pugh his worries had been fixed up, everything was in order. And so the Wallabies proceeded to win the 1999 Rugby World Cup tournament.

During the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, I received a phone call from Pugh. Would I like to have lunch with him to discuss rugby matters? Where would I like to dine?

As I’d never had lunch at Otto’s, I made this my choice. We chatted for about four hours with fine wines and good food replenishing our spirits, under a dazzling Sydney sky.

I told Pugh I was getting increasingly annoyed with the way the IRB refused to do the proper thing and put out statements about its decisions and instead gave continuing exclusives to journalistic mates like Stephen Jones, who supported the southern hemisphere-bashing that Pugh was indulging in.

Pugh said he had an offer for me. If I would be more positive in my columns about him, he would put me on the exclusives list. But I had to totally supportive of his actions and decisions.

I rejected the offer.

The UK Daily Telegraph‘s obituary of Pugh, after listing his early achievements, made this comment about his later years as chairman of the IRB: “At times he was guilty of corralling too much power. Everything had to pass his scrutiny and he made enemies.”

Those enemies, including the RFU after he booted England out of the Five Nations tournament, had the common pattern of being in competition with the Welsh Rugby Union.

The obituary went on: “There was an acrimonious falling-out with the New Zealand Rugby Union last year (2002) when Pugh stripped them of their co-host status, alongside Australia, for this year’s World Cup after they failed to comply with certain strictures.”

The context of this act of bastardry was Pugh wanted French support to remain as the IRB chairman. France had run a successful Football World Cup tournament and wanted to run Rugby World Cup 2003.

Somehow, though, Pugh was unable to deliver this tournament to France. The lobbying by John O’Neill was an essential part in determining Pugh’s failure and Australasia’s success.

Pugh had a cunning plan to win France the 2003 Rugby World Cup tournament, however, knowing France could set up a splendid Rugby World Cup tournament in virtually a moment’s notice with the stadiums already in place from the Football World Cup success.

So Pugh encouraged the New Zealand Rugby Union to believe they didn’t have to produce ‘clean stadiums’ – stadiums where only the IRB’s advertising would run – for Rugby World Cup 2003.

There was a meeting in Hong Kong between Pugh and the New Zealand Rugby Union, only months before the final document had to be signed, where Pugh confirmed once again to the nervous New Zealand Rugby Union officials the clean stadiums requirement was no issue.

When the New Zealand Rugby Union signed the final Rugby World Cup 2003 document, they wrote in pencil(!) they couldn’t and wouldn’t provide clean stadiums.

Pugh immediately told them that as they had not signed the document properly they had forfeited their rights to run the tournament. He then gave the ARU seven days to come up with a completely new schedule for the tournament.

This dictate was predicated on the grounds the ARU couldn’t possibly do this. In turn, this meant the 2003 Rugby World Cup tournament would be held in France.

Unfortunately for Pugh, O’Neill had worked out well in advance the deceitful game Pugh was playing. The ARU had about 40 people working on the clean stadiums project. An Australian-only Rugby World Cup 2003 schedule had been prepared.

When told about having to present an Australian schedule, fully detailed and costed, within seven days, O’Neill nonplussed Pugh by saying, “Vernon, I don’t need seven days. You can have the schedule now.”

It is history now that this foresight by the O’Neill-led ARU led to one of the best ever Rugby World Cup tournaments, and an over $40 million windfall to the ARU.

Having O’Neill, even though he was no longer with the ARU, on the Rugby World Cup Ltd board was a great advantage to Australian rugby. Which brings me to an important point: Why has there been no comment about all this from the ARU?

Forget even the value of having someone with some sympathy for Australian rugby on the most important Rugby World Cup board, what about the implication that can be drawn from O’Neill’s resignation that “points of principle” (The Guardian‘s words) have emerged as an explanation for his abrupt departure?