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Sam Bruce, Deputy Editor, espn.com.au
Rugby Australia is currently in market for a head of high performance that will be charged with overseeing its “reset” of the professional game in what is a move towards centralization and the pursuit of better outcomes for both men’s and women’s rugby.
Wednesday’s “historic” announcement has been a long time coming in Australian rugby, with review after review recommending a more centralized approach that is run out of head office, and the streamlining of resources to drive better cohesion across the professional programs and to help cut costs along the way.
In short, there it still much to be ironed out, while the overhaul will not be a one-size-fits-all approach across Australia’s five Super Rugby franchises, with some member unions more actively engaged than others. But for the first time in the game’s history, it appears that all key stakeholders are aligned on the desire to drive better professional and community outcomes in a game that is fast approaching, if it has not already reached, its eleventh hour.
“This has been talked about for a long time, we’ve had a whole lot of independent reviews, every review in some shape or form has recommended this structure,” RA boss Phil Waugh told reporters on Wednesday.
“In terms of timing, we’re going into a World Cup at [8th] in the world, we haven’t had a team in the Super Rugby final other than Super Rugby AU, we haven’t had a champion since 2014, and there’s been an overall decline in performances.
“So I think the time is right to say; well actually, there’s no secret that we’re under pressure financially, the best way to alleviate that pressure financially is to remove the duplication across the system and get our professional teams performing at the highest possible level to drive broadcast interest, commercial interest, attendance and crowds at grounds.
“So I think it’s a combination across all our member unions and looking at performance and the decline in performance and saying that things need to change.”
While Scott Johnson was hired and then let go as a director of rugby, also serving as a Wallabies selector alongside coach Michael Cheika, between 2019 and 2022, there was no formal agreement between the franchises when it came to high performance, the recruitment or contracting of players, how strength and conditioning programs were managed, or then how that could be utilized to drive greater outcomes at Wallabies level.
Having closely examined the Ireland setup, where former Brumbies coach and Australian Rugby Union high performance manager David Nucifora has made such an impact, among other international models, Waugh said the plan now was to build a model that fits Australia’s unique individual setting.
“We’ve looked at all different models, I think the Scottish model is a more centralized model now and they’re getting great benefit through their national team as well as Edinburgh and Glasgow, so we’ve pretty much looked at all models,” Waugh said.
“And then you want your own Australian models but you also need to learn from those that have been successful for a long period of time, so it’s part of the design as we go through.
“The reality is that pretty much all contracted players are contracted for 2024, but there’s still a lot of work in terms of the detail; what does it look like through each Super Rugby club to maximise the performance, but obviously on the back of that, how does it work around the commercials as well so that we can be sure that we can fund it.”
Waugh confirmed that RA was well underway with its recruitment of a high performance director, but Nucifora was not, at this stage anyway, a part of those interviews.
“We’re in market at the moment for a director of high performance, so we’re going through an interview process.. we’ve spoken to him [Nucifora] because he’s sort of a friend of Australian rugby, in terms of whether he has an appetite for that role, that is a question for David.
“But he’s been in the system in Ireland for a long time and I think he’s enjoying being back with less pressure, and less work time and travel. As I said he’s a friend of Australian rugby, he’s happy to help us, but currently not in the mix.”
It is understood that if Nucifora did show an interest in leading the high-performance program, RA would consider him a strong candidate to the role he filled under a vastly different set of circumstances more than a decade ago.
In a recent interview with The Roar, however, Nucifora said it would be unlikely he would return for a second crack.
“I don’t think it’d be wise to revisit. I think that you have a go at something once, you do your best and then if it’s not good enough or it didn’t work you move on, do something else,” Nucifora said.
“(Question is) What’s changed back there….and what can I offer to change what they’re doing still?
“I’ll always love rugby. I’ll always love Australian rugby. Could I see myself working in Australia again? I doubt it.”
One of the key cogs in RA’s strategic “reset” is how the new high performance program, so too the community and grassroots levels of the game, will be funded.
That will come from third-party investment, either private equity [PE] – a path New Zealand Rugby last year went down with Silver Lake – or debt, the two options currently both being investigated by RA under its capital raise conversations.
“We’re going through a capital raising at the moment, we’re running a dual-track process of private equity and debt, by the end of this month we will have a position on whether it’s going to be the PE path or the debt path, and then we’ll explore the different partners that we take through to the next phase of the capital raise,” Waugh revealed.
While there is still much to be sorted – including conversations with a disgruntled Wallaroos group whom Waugh is to meet with in the coming days – the RA chief executive cited the recent recruitment of Les Kiss as Queensland Reds coach as a situation where head office and one of its member unions had worked collaboratively to secure the best possible outcome.
In terms of the contracting of players, Waugh said there were situations where all of one franchise’s squad could be centrally contracted but then that might not extend to the next, while RA strength and conditioning staff could oversee programs at another franchise whereas others might look after that facet of the game on their own. Waugh also said that while a player would never be sent to a franchise he or she didn’t want to play for, there was an understanding amongst all parties that cohesion at Test level could be enhanced through player combinations at provincial level.
RA is also “absolutely committed” to five Super Rugby teams, but Waugh said that the governing body was keen to explore cross-border eligibility and opportunities for marquee players, citing the recent example of New Zealand props Alex Hodgman and Jeffery Toomaga-Allen, players who might not align with the high-performance outcome of producing Test-ready Wallabies, as how foreign recruits could still positively influence the overall program.
“There’s no doubt that we are challenged on the dilution of talent across our system, and I think it’s really important for our players to be playing with the best players so that they play better. And so if we need to bring in high-quality players into to our system for our players to develop quicker and better, then very comfortable with that.”