After a cracking Super Round and before we get stuck into round 3 predictions, it’s time to deal with the weeds the easy way and not be a sook about carcinogens.
Rebels give RA 5:00pm Wednesday deadline…
…and also require wheelbarrows in which to carry their enormous testicles.
The SMH reports that the board of the Melbourne Rebels has set a deadline of 5:00pm Wednesday 6 March for Rugby Australia to express its willingness to meet to resolve financial differences and the future of the besieged rugby club. The Rebels board informed RA of the proposed course of action in a 10-page letter late last week. Two contentious issues form the keys to the impasse.
Legal action in the Federal Court appears inevitable if RA does not express an intention to meet. The Rebels are currently in administration with reported debts of $20m and face liquidation if a rescue package is not forthcoming. The Federal Court last month awarded the Rebels a 60-day stay of execution, yet there has been no recent communication between the club and its parent body.
Firstly, the Rebels assert their primary liability, a debt to the ATO of $11m, is the responsibility of RA because the governing body and the club are a partnership. The Rebels contend this fealty to each other is demonstrated by RA, the club and its players all being parties to the same employment contract. RA has already demonstrated its obligation to the partnership by making “step in” payments to players as required under the code’s Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Furthermore, the Rebels’ only asset is a licence which gives them the right to participate in a Super Rugby competition. With no other commercial activities, the Rebels argue their sole purpose is to assist the governing body in meeting its broadcast and media rights obligations together with their responsibilities under the Joint Venture Agreement with New Zealand.
The Rebels letter also asserts RA received this broadcast and media income and, while obliged to share it with the five Super Rugby clubs, was aware that each of them were underfunded and in significant financial difficulty.
Secondly, the directors of the Rebels have identified a range of other causes of action they propose to bring against RA. Chief among these are allegations of misleading and deceptive conduct by RA and its directors in relation to ongoing funding that was promised to the Super Rugby clubs as they engaged in a “joint enterprise” of each fielding a team for the Super Rugby Pacific Championships.
The Rebels have endured a reduction in funding for five successive seasons. The Rebels also cite promises of funding that would arise on completion of a private equity transaction of $150m – $250m.
The situation is rife with suspicion that not all five Super Rugby clubs are being treated equally (you heard it here first) with the Waratahs no longer facing an existential threat, despite earlier reports of a similar realistic debt level as the Rebels.
With $6m of the Rebels debt owed to its own supporters (is there a price on disappointment?), and the possibility of negotiating a deal with the vultures at the ATO, there’s still a possibility of the Melbourne club finding a financial saviour to meet an effective debt as low as $5m.
UK Schools trial “Third Game” low-collision style rugby
With concussion and CTE concerns of the modern professional collision-orientated game affecting school age participation, The Guardian reports that some UK schools are working on blueprint for an alternative rugby format with a greater emphasis on safety and skill.
Last term Tonbridge, King’s Wimbledon and Hampton schools joined St Paul’s in trialling the “Third Game” concept, so called as it was originally imagined as a Third Game after non-contact touch rugby and the full contact version.
“As it has turned out the game is still full contact,” said Glenn Harrison a deputy head teacher St Paul’s and former Harlequins and Wharfdale three-quarter . “It was designed to keep the main elements of scrum, lineout, full-contact tackle, but to reduce the number of collisions and reward hitting space, offloading and passing earlier.”
With less emphasis on physical size, Harrison’s Third Game has a number of new laws with the jackal contest over the ball outlawed while the ball carrier is also penalised for unnecessarily colliding with a static defender.
To encourage more width to be put on the ball, seven points are awarded for a try scored in a shaded red eight-metre square “try zone” while No 8s were also not allowed to pick up from the base of the scrum.
Each ruck counted as a “phase” with each team permitted four phases of play before being penalised and a scrum being awarded to the defending team with the absence of the jackal also reducing head-to-head collisions and speeding up play.
In four hours of round-robin play, watched by the RFU’s long-serving head of medicine, Simon Kemp, and John Lawn, the RFU’s game development director, not a single injury was reported.
Although still in its pilot stage, Harrison is optimistic his Third Game trial, which appears to have the full support of the RFU, will be rolled out at under 14 level from next season in a bid to end to scenes which one director of sport recently said saw “some Saturday afternoons with ambulances all over the school grounds full of children”.
A spokesperson for the RFU said “…we recognise that contact sport does not appeal to everyone and we are undertaking pilots with a group of schools to introduce rules that keep the ball in hand, encourage try-scoring out wide and eliminating jackling to create a faster, lower contact version of the game. These trials will continue to be evaluated with the aim of providing players and schools with new choices and different game offerings for the next generation of players.”
Cecilia Smith named Queensland Reds Super W captain
The Reds Ministry of Propaganda reports that experienced Wallaroo Cecilia Smith has been honoured with the captaincy of the Queensland Reds for the 2024 Super W campaign.
If we rightly disregard the Force, Rebels, Tahs and Brumbies, the Super W season starts properly with Reds v Fijian Drua at Ballymore Stadium on March 17. The Reds have been one of the standard-setting teams since Super W’s launch in 2018 yet five runner-up finishes have left an obvious goal for 2024.
“Cecilia commands a lot of respect from the entire group,” Reds head coach Grant Anderson said. “She brings the experience of playing for the Wallaroos and her seasons in Super W. She has a really calming influence on the team. She leads by her actions on the field and at training.”
Smith, 29, made her Reds debut in 2019 and has been a regular in Wallaroos squads since making her Test debut against New Zealand in 2022 and playing at the Rugby World Cup in NZ later that year. The captaincy is a new dimension to the excitement Smith feels about a new campaign which will blend experienced campaigners with youngsters like 16-year-old Ipswich State High School centre Shalom Sauaso.
“I’m really honoured, the captaincy is a massive role to take on,” Smith said. Taking over the captaincy from Shannon Parry doesn’t mean she has lost that support because the retired Wallaroos and sevens legend is also based at Ballymore for her coaching duties with Rugby Australia.
“I see Shannon around a bit. I did have a yarn to her about this and she said, ‘You need to use your big girl voice now’,” Smith said with a grin. “Anyone who knows me knows I’m a pretty quiet person. I like to let my actions to the talking. Shannon is a legend of the game. She’ll only be a phone call away if I need her. We have a pretty good mix of experienced girls and teenagers who bring a lot of energy and girls from overseas as well,” Smith said.
Jordie Barrett cited after high tackle on Petaia
Nathan “I called the Tahs win on the podcast f*ck ya!” Williamson reports that Hurricanes and All Blacks centre Jordie Barrett has been cited after his high tackle on Jordan Petaia during the Canes’ desperate win over the heroic Queensland Reds. Barrett left Petaia dazed on the ground after a high shot in the 56th minute of the cracking close game at AAMI Park. The incident was quickly upgraded to a red, souring Barrett’s 100th game for the club.
“Jordie Barrett of the Hurricanes has been issued a Red Card for alleged foul play during a Super Rugby Pacific match at the weekend,” the judicial committee said in a statement. Moana Pasifika winger Nigel Ah Wong and Chiefs prop Jared Proffit were also cited for their high tackles. (In different games obviously. Grow up.) Ah Wong collected Fijian Drua centre Iosefo Masi in the head with a “Farrell special” no-arms tackle in the MP win, their first over their Fijian counterpart. Proffit collided heads with Brumbies lock Cadeyrn Neville in the final minutes of the Chiefs’ win on Sunday.
