Senate up for game of political football over Force fate

THE besieged Australian Rugby Union will be forced to reveal full documentation and potentially sensitive email trails over the messy culling of the Western Force after a decision yesterday to launch a Senate inquiry into the future of the code in this country.

Western Australian senator Linda Reynolds had her motion for an inquiry carried after joining criticism of the ARU’s decision-making processes and lack of transparency when removing the Force from Super Rugby.

The ARU has already taken a big step itself by revealing late on Tuesday that the sport’s governing body would have been broke by late 2019 and potentially in worse-case debt of $26 million by the end of 2020 if five Super Rugby clubs had been retained.

The document revealed some modelling used to scrap the Force, instead of the Melbourne Rebels, for an $18 million saving after the ARU had been restricted from doing so since April because of court action taken by RugbyWA.

The terms of reference for the Senate inquiry mean far more than simply the ARU’s actions in the Force case will be examined by the Community Affairs References Committee with a report due by November 13.

Senator Reynolds has called it a “Senate Inquiry into the Future of Rugby Union in Australia” and expects a wartsand-all report after RugbyWA lost its appeal to keep the Force alive in the Supreme Court of NSW on Tuesday.

The inquiry will examine the deliberations of ARU chairman Cameron Clyne and his board which led to the decision to reduce Australian Super Rugby teams from five to four, whether a national rugby footprint still exists and the role of national and statebased bodies in encouraging greater participation in the code.

In addition, the microscope will be turned on a long-time maze within rugby … the corporate governance arrangements and composition of national and state-based rugby bodies, including community representation.