Happy Thursday, everyone. I’m touching on the pitfalls of private equity, Australia A, The Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys and Nemani Nadolo. Let’s hook in.
Rugbynomics and the Pitfalls of Private Equity
The state of the English game is a big warning to Australia about the pitfalls of private equity. While the big injection of capital can be alluring the devil is often in the detail. Private equity is after a return on investment on the equity that they put into any business and much like the corporate raiders of the 80s and 90s they rightly want a superior return to that of the safe havens. The English clubs are in a very tight situation and I think much of it is down to the sugar hit they got from a company called CVC. They bought a stake in Premiership Rugby for 200 million pounds. However, that stake was for a share of a future revenue stream, now the clubs have to deal with a fall in revenue of 27% which is tough for any business to carry.
CityAM article Here
The sales pitch is that the CVC partners will grow the business and make the pie larger to offset the equity position and English rugby clubs will benefit. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been the case. Guardian article Here.
The two clubs involved are in entirely different positions. Worcester were always going to fail with the new owners not having the required funding to carry the club forward. Wasps, on the other hand, have invested: they own their own ground together with a hotel next door. Unfortunately, primarily due to Covid they have been unable to service their debt. There’s a real feeling that the English Premiership may not survive, or that another one or two clubs may fail.
It just shows that RA should be very wary of partnering with private equity.
France 2023 statement: The sacking of CEO Claude Atcher
How very French! From Rugbypass Hopefully it won’t affect the French national team for next year. Basically the guy was a workplace psychopath.
Claude Atcher has been sacked as CEO for the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France after a French labour investigation concluded that he oversaw an environment where bullied employees were reportedly suffering panic attacks and burnout. The administrator was suspended in August and a France 2023 ethics committee report has now resulted in the termination of his contract with immediate effect.
A statement read: “The France 2023 organising committee’s board of directors met in an extraordinary session on Monday, 10 October. Its President, Jacques Rivoal, shared with the board the conclusions from the French Labour Inspectorate investigation, which was launched after an article published on 22 June mentioned the social climate within the organising committee and the management of its CEO, Claude Atcher.
“The report brought forward by the French Labour Inspectorate corroborates and complements the report produced by the France 2023 ethics committee, submitted at the end of August and reviewed on 2 September by the France 2023 board of directors.
Tuttle to skipper Australia A in final Japan XV match
From Pravda
Melbourne Rebels scrumhalf James Tuttle has been named to lead Australia A in their final match against the Japan XV in Osaka on Friday night.
The is a great Story considering he has come back from two Achilles injuries to reach this point.
Australia A team to play Japan XV at Yodoko Sakura Stadium in Osaka on Friday, 14 October, 6:30pm JST/8:30pm AEDT
- Tom Robertson (Western Force)
- Lachlan Lonergan (ACT Brumbies)
- Pone Fa’amausili (Melbourne Rebels)
- Ned Hanigan (NSW Waratahs)
- Ryan Smith (Queensland Reds)
- Rory Scott (ACT Brumbies)
- Brad Wilkin (Melbourne Rebels)
- Seru Uru (Queensland Reds)
- James Tuttle (c) (Melbourne Rebels)
- Ben Donaldson (NSW Waratahs)
- Mark Nawaqanitawase (NSW Waratahs)
- Hamish Stewart (Western Force)
- Isaac Henry (Queensland Reds)
- Suliasi Vunivalu (Queensland Reds)
- Tom Banks (ACT Brumbies) Replacements
- Billy Pollard (ACT Brumbies)
- Richie Asiata (Queensland Reds)
- Archer Holz (NSW Waratahs)
- Cadeyrn Neville (ACT Brumbies)
- Ollie Callan (Western Force)
- Ryan Lonergan (ACT Brumbies)
- Tane Edmed (NSW Waratahs)
- Dylan Pietsch (NSW Waratahs)
Personally I hope for a big game from Seru Uru to get on the plane to Europe as he is the type of dynamic player we could use in the back row.
‘Brutally honest’: Nadolo on World Cup 2023 and quitting Leicester
From Rugbypass. IMHO probably the best Australian player that Australian rugby has missed in the last 15 years. At his peak probably in the top 5 players in the world.
Nemani Nadolo has finally shed light on why he has quit the title-winning Leicester with less than a year to go before potentially representing Fiji at the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France. It was early August when the 34 year old was confirmed as a new Waratahs signing for the upcoming Super RugbyPacific season and he has now explained the reason behind his switch nine weeks later.
“I’ll be brutally honest with you, it was moving home to Australia,” said Nadolo about leaving Leicester, a decision he revealed was originally taken with Tigers boss Steve Borthwick in the latter stages of the 2021/22 season without having a club lined up to go to. That uncertainty even left him contemplating retirement before the Waratahs came in with their one year offer.
“I went to Steve and told him my situation. It was my family first and in a normal world you would have something lined up to go and I didn’t have a club. I had a few conversations with my wife about potentially maybe retiring, so it wasn’t until five months down the track that I was fortunate enough to sign for the club in Australia.
“You can imagine at the time we were doing really well at Leicester and on our way to potentially playing in a semi-final (last June). It was nerve-wracking times and I was weighing up either retirement or finding something in Australia. There were opportunities to go to other countries but I’d rather just stay at Leicester if I was going to do that. There was no point in me going to another country.
“The whole purpose of moving back to Australia was for my wife and to be close to my family. It was daunting then (the uncertainty). I look back on it and there was a stretch for about five months where I was looking at retiring because there were no clubs. We all know with the current situations going on, clubs are hard to come by.
“I was very, very lucky that the Tahs took me in. I’m from Brisbane so my wife and son will be moving back home to Brisbane. I’ll be living in Sydney and trying to commute back and forth. That was the first and foremost reason. People think I left because of another club. No, it was to get home and I’m lucky, I’m counting the stars that I managed to get a club.”
