Like it or not, professional rugby today is all about the media.
The ARU in the case of QC (Quade Cooper) have handled their media relations very poorly, and only see fit to have David Nucifora (despised by many, incl. ex Brumby/wallaby players), whilst living it up in Europe, finally make a form of explanation.
Even then, he is not sounding in any way conciliatory, more the 'what we did was right", and "the ignorant so-and-so won't even answer our calls".
This is the perception I am now seeing from the media, and it doesn't read well for the ARU.
I think, rather than half of the ARU swanning it around the chateaus of Europe, that they should realize there is a major bush fire in their home yard, about to damage their facade, and they should be doing what they can to minimize that damage.
Agree or disagree with QC (Quade Cooper)'s actions and treatment, there are 115 pages, 63,000 views, and approx. 2,300 posting for this thread. Nobody else has created such intense feeling in the code. If the ARU fail to regain any initiative, then the long term ramifications don't bear thinking about.