Cut Castle some slack – former Wallaby captain
Former Wallabies captain Andrew Slack says former Rugby Australian boss Raelene Castle was ‘‘an easy target’’ and says he ‘‘declined a seat on the Captains Bandwagon’’ with 10 former test captains.
Slack, a centre who led the Wallabies to a grand slam tour success in Britain and Ireland in 1984 and a series win over the All Blacks in New Zealand two years later, refused to sign the letter and said some signatories had done ‘‘absolutely zero for the code’’ since retiring.
In a column for Queensland’s Sunday Mail newspaper, Slack said some of the criticisms levelled by the 10 ex-skippers were ‘‘insulting, untrue and petty’’.
Castle telephoned Rugby Australia’s interim chairman Paul McLean to hand in her resignation on Thursday night, ending an almost two-and-a-half year stint in her groundbreaking role as the boss of the game across the Tasman.
Slack, who coached the
Queensland Reds in 2003, said he backed McLean’s comment that Castle was ‘‘always an easy target’’.
He said he had had some concerns about Rugby Australia’s handling of several issues, ‘‘most particularly the exit of the Western Force [before Castle’s time]’’ and a perceived ‘‘lack of transparency and a minimal amount of information being drip fed to the rugby public’’.
But Slack ‘‘declined to accept a seat on the bandwagon steered by Phil Kearns and Nick Farr-Jones’’.
His final communication to them stated: ‘‘I remain unsure of the wording of the letter, the timing of it and most importantly, any positive effect it might have. It is also not the way I work in trying to get things done. So, I think it would be hypocritical of me to be a signatory.’’
Slack wrote that some of the 10 skippers had ‘‘done absolutely zero’’ for rugby, ‘‘since they were the feted ones showing off their talents on the field and getting nicely recompensed for their effort.’’ That made it ‘‘less easy to accept their legitimacy for a ticket on this Captain’s Bandwagon’’.
Slack argued that the individuals running Rugby Australia had, ‘‘for the main part’’, been ‘‘well-intentioned’’ and to suggest they were ‘‘all about business class airfares and the best tickets to matches, is insulting, untrue and petty’’.