THE OUTSIDER: My 10-point plan to save rugby from destruction

“It became necessary to destroy the town to save it!” The memorable quote, from an unnamed major in the US marines, referred to the destruction of the south Vietnamese city of Bến Tre on 7 February 1968.

This was done ostensibly to root out the communist insurgents or Vietcong freedom fighters, depending on your point of view.

It was recorded by the US Associated Press journalist Peter Arnett, a Kiwi, and went on to become the signature statement that encapsulated the total futility of America’s war in Vietnam.

A bloody conflict in South Asia might be a world away from the political subversion that plagues Australian rugby, yet perhaps within the American officer’s explanation lies the solution to many of the game’s ills in this country.

Do we need to ‘destroy’ Australian rugby – or at least its current culture and method of operation – in order to ‘save’ it?

To remove the emotion from the argument, let’s firstly look at the facts.

The game here is a niche sport, dominated by distinct socio-economic areas. Parents are now being forced by the national body to pay levies in order to allow their children to play a game that is already facing serious challenges to maintain its level of public engagement.

Likewise, national support for club level is all but gone, at a time when promotion of the amateur game couldn’t be more vulnerable due to the loss of its ABC coverage as a result of federal government funding cuts.

Then there’s the plight of the Australian Schools, who are being forced to trim the representative programme and go on bended knee into the public domain looking for funds due to a weakening of support from the ARU.

And this at a time when the ARU chairman is a former national schools rep, as was the son of the national body’s current CEO!

Of course, there’s also the game’s national flagship, the Wallabies, who have slipped to Australia’s lowest ever position of fifth (in terms of ranking points) on the IRB ratings after the compilation of a record that reads played 29, won 13, lost 15, drawn one over the last two years.

We don’t need to ‘destroy the town’, it’s destroying itself! So how do we ‘save’ it?

Here’s my 10-point plan.

1. Put all aspects of the Wallabies first!
There’s no doubt that the best marketing the game can have – both nationally and internationally – is a successful Test team.

That’s the engine that supplies the most positivity in the public and media domain, engaging the populace and mobilising sponsors.

To have the best chance of achieving that, we need to make sure then man in charge of the team has undivided support. Just because his predecessor got his staffing wrong, that isn’t a reason not to allow new coach Michael Cheika to put in place all of the requirements around him he feels he needs in order to be successful – including the right people.

He is going to be judged on his results so give him the support staff he wants. The manager should be an ARU appointment but this should be done in conjunction with the Wallaby coach both for practical and operational reasons.

The manager has to know what he is doing as the logistics around a professional rugby team are a specialised duty nowadays. Cheika also has to have a team manager with whom he gets along. Ultimately the coach is, and should be, head of the programme.

2. Place more emphasis on national development programmes and teams
What we see in the shop window is a manifestation of what has happened below.

Just as through the late 90s and early 2000s, the Wallabies benefited from a stellar national Under-21 side that dominated its SANZAR counterparts, what we are seeing now is at least in part a consequence of Australia’s patchy results at the next level down.

Australia has never won the world Under-20s since it started in 2008. The inaugural team, which featured David Pocock, Will Genia, Quade Cooper, Kurtley Beale, Rob Horne and Rob Simmons, could only finish fourth!

Australia has since only made the final once – beforegetting flogged by 60 by the All Blacks. This is proving a looking glass on now and our future.

I don’t see how cutting the national schools team adrift is a positive statement of intent around doing the best we can to develop our next generation of Wallabies.

3. Central contracting of players
A no brainer! Given the state funding comes to a large extent out of the national coffers, how is it that the players are contracted to their Super Rugby teams in the first instance?

As with so many other priorities, it’s the wrong way around. All Super Rugby players should be centrally contracted (given ARU dollars pay them anyway), with the top ups provided by the states.

This would create more accountability and puts the national team first. And it might actually help the states too, judged on the Kiwi model where it hasn’t hurt either the All Blacks or their Super Rugby teams.

Ironically their system was set up by an Australian, ex-CEO David Moffett.

4. Central contracting of state coaches and support staff
As with the players. Not only would it provide greater accountability, ensuring that national priorities are always factored in, it would also provide a proper development pathway for coaches and support staff.

By being in the ‘system’, personnel can be ‘groomed’ for national roles. At the moment, it’s all hit and miss, to the extent that the system is ultimately providing state personnel with the opportunity to subtly undermine the national programme, especially if they see it as being in their own personal interests.

5. More genuine cooperation between ARU and the states at all levels
Whether it is with regards to the management of players’ physical preparation, playing workload and performance, the overall marketing of the game, sponsorship drive or the development at amateur level, the national body and the states need to start working together using a fully coordinated approach.

After all, it’s a tough sporting market and the competition for dollars, hearts and minds is fierce. It’s important in this, though, to remember that ‘genuine’ cooperation is a two-way street.

6. A truly independent (and accountable) ARU board
Question: how many members of the ARU board can you name? What are their backgrounds and how did they come to their positions?

If the number of names you can come up with is as low as mine, then you will understand why it’s a problem. It’s not about being bigheaded or trying to be in the limelight – in fact that’s the last thing the game needs from its board members – but true ‘independence’, along with a bit more accountability.

The game and its public need to be able to have confidence in its leaders. Knowing who they are would be a start! A more visible leader to inspire the troops also wouldn’t hurt.

7. Stop trying to be rugby league!
Our obsession with trying to compete with rugby league means that the game is paying massive dollars to ‘hired guns’ at the same time as less is being spent to grow player numbers and grass roots fans.

This is not a go at Israel Folau or any who have come before him. Good on them for maximising the opportunity, but it is a fundamental flaw in promotion that we are pinching identities from other sports to be the ‘face’ of our game – whether it is Israel, or Lote Tuqiri, Mat Rogers and Wendell Sailor.

What signal does it send the marketplace when rugby union is reliant on code-hopping leaguies to be the face of the game, yet allows a rugby ‘grown’ personality like Nick Cummins to leave without so much as a yelp?

In the cases of Rogers and Sailor, they had no real ‘stake’ in rugby union and left as soon as the financial tap ran dry. So too ultimately will Israel, albeit he may stay in rugby, just offshore.

And the Australian game only has itself to blame. Athlete managers should not be given the opportunity to dictate policy/strategy and hold rugby to financial ransom as is happening now.

8. Stress the difference: We are the game they play in heaven!
Further to the above, shouldn’t all marketing and PR stress the game’s differences to its competitors?

Rugby union is the only winter code other than soccer that has a genuinely international profile and ours is much more consistent and regular than the diet of friendly matches, with the odd international tournament thrown in, that is the realm of the Socceroos.

We should celebrate that.

9. Don’t chase lost causes
With apologies to the devoted fans in Victoria, there are simply not enough of you. If the Melbourne Rebels are not going to work – and financially they are now almost entirely being bankrolled by a near broke ARU – it’s time to cut our losses.

It was a nice try but it hasn’t worked, either competitively or financially. Accept that we only have the depth for four teams and focus on their success rather than spreading the playing strength across five, some of whom are just making up the numbers.

Maintain an NRC side for Melbourne, which can still act as a Super Rugby feeder club.

Similarly the NRC must pay its way. It’s a nice idea but if we can’t afford it and it’s going to run at a loss, then the investment is better being made elsewhere, most notably in the schools and out in club land.

And finally…

10. Get serious about the indigenous game
Have you read a story about indigenous rugby in the professional era that doesn’t mention Kurtley Beale? Thought not.

The pedestal does him no favours. Nor does it speak well of rugby’s efforts to develop the game among the Aboriginal community that we’ve no other identifiable Aboriginal players making it into the professional ranks.

Matt Hodgson, whose father was a Torres Strait islander, is proud of his heritage and does a wonderful job as a ‘Lloydies’ graduate, but he again is an oasis in what is a desert. I’ve seen the team that runs the Lloyd McDermott indigenous programme.

Tom Evans and his sidekicks work their butts off but get scant support apart from plenty of hot air from big wigs looking for a cheap pat on the back. Give the ‘Lloydies’ programme real teeth.

Get into the schools and the indigenous communities and set up some proper career pathways that include both social and tertiary education for young indigenous players while targeting home areas of the Aboriginal populace.

The AFL regularly showcases the athletic prowess the indigenous population can provide. Rugby needs to harness more of that talent.

So there we have it. These 10 points that would hopefully rebuild the town rather than further destroying it. I’m trying to be constructive because anyone can be negative and tear things down as the Americans and their allies proved, ultimately unsuccessfully, in a Vietnam that has thrived since they left.

I’m sure the above will spark plenty of debate and Roarers will all have their own ideas on this subject matter. I look forward to reading them.