Rugby Australia is disappointed by the Melbourne Rebels Rugby Union Pty Ltd’s inaccurate and misleading comments in the media and rejects the MRRU directors’ ambit claims and attempts to shift blame for their financial mismanagement.
RA reiterates that it has complied with all its contractual obligations to MRRU.
RA is preparing a counterclaim against MRRU and its directors for misleading and deceptive conduct concerning the financial position of MRRU dating back to 2018. Based on that misleading and deceptive conduct, RA granted MRRU a participation licence for the Super Rugby competition and provided associated funding and payments to MRRU.
Had RA not been misled or deceived, it would not have provided MRRU with a participation licence and thus not lost in excess of $35 million that was paid to MRRU since at least 1 July 2018.
RA believes that the MRRU directors were knowingly concerned in and/or aided and abetted MRRU’s misleading and deceptive conduct.
Given the insolvency of MRRU, its directors placed it into voluntary administration on January 29, 2024.
The Administrator reported that MRRU had accumulated almost $23 million in debt prior to entering voluntary administration and noted that MRRU’s directors may have traded while insolvent from 31 December 2018, which is a breach of the Corporations Act.
The Administrator also stated that the reasons for the company’s financial challenges were a history of trading losses, lack of readily available alternative funding sources, an excessive cost structure compared to the underlying revenue base, and insufficient revenue generated from non-RA sources including membership, sponsorship and game day receipts.
RA was notified by the Administrator that the directors of MRRU had received ATO Director Penalty Notices. RA received a garnishee order from the ATO in December 2023. MRRU never informed RA of the Director Penalty Notices.
After MRRU was placed into administration, RA stepped in to fund all operations of the Melbourne Rebels in 2024, paying player and staff wages, and meeting all associated statutory obligations connected with those payments for the entirety of the 2024 Super Rugby Pacific season.
As the national governing body, RA will continue to do what is in the best interests of the game nationally and remains focussed on protecting and promoting rugby across Australia.
