Australian sport has long had a history of cannibalising itself, from World Series Cricket to Super League to Nick Kyrgios, but the current dramas ripping apart rugby union and cricket in the country take the art of self-destruction to a whole new low.
The issue in cricket is well-known, a pay dispute between Cricket Australia and the player’s union, Australian Cricketer’s Association, over a new MOU has seen the sport come to a grinding halt with the upcoming Australia A tour to South Africa set to be cancelled.
For now the upcoming Bangladesh tour, one-day series against India and, most importantly, Ashes tour are set to go ahead but there is a lot of bodies to float under the bridge first.
The split in rugby union has got so bad former Wallaby Jeremy Paul has labelled Australian Rugby Uion CEO Bill Pulver a “cockroach.”
“I look at Bill Pulver as the cockroach — he’s survived a nuclear war, like seriously,” Paul said.
The former hooker’s ire is due to the fact one of Australia’s five Super Rugby franchises is set to be axed at the end of this season, which is just over a week away.
There can be no question that the ARU could have handled the situation better but they were placed in an impossible situation by SANZAAR, the tournament’s governing body, who made the decision to cut the number of teams from 18 teams to 15.
South Africa, who have lost two teams already, had their exit strategy in place, with the axed clubs now set to join the PRO12 in Europe. There has been barely a murmur of dissent about this in South Africa with the players and fans of the Cheetahs and the Southern Kings excited to test themselves against the best from Wales, Ireland, Scotland and Italy next season and the move opening new revenue streams for the sport in the republic.
It also means there will be summer rugby in South Africa, giving the sport an audience year around.
In Australia there is no easy, or even hard, alternative playground and either the Western Force or Melbourne Rebels will cease to be on July 15.
For rugby in Australia, it is impossible to overstate the damage this does to the code. In personal terms it means that as many as one hundred players, coaches, administration and support staff will be out of work while in commercial terms the sport will no longer have a foothold in one of Australia’s major cities.
Not even to begin to talk about the millions and millions of dollars lost in investment setting up the two teams.
Union’s major competitors – rugby league, Australian rules and football – are laughing all the way to the bank, with higher ratings, greater playing numbers and more sponsorship revenues.
Australians love a winner and nothing stinks more than rugby union. The Wallabies are on the nose in terms of results and the Super Rugby teams, almost in sympathy for their soon to be departed brethren, have had their worse season in history.
So what is the answer?
In terms of cricket it’s relatively simple – CA and ACA simply need to get into a room, the same room, leave their egos at the door and nut out a solution. The ego-leaving might be hard for some, like CA CEO James Sutherland (below), but a way out is in their hands.
For rugby it’s a tougher question as the decision to axe a team is (supposedly) out of their hands. Apart from SANZAAR doing an about face and giving the Aussie teams a stay of execution the only palatable solution is for the Brumbies and Rebels to merge and play half their games in Canberra and the other half in Melbourne.
This solution actually works, preserving Rugby’s presence in Australia’s No1 sporting marketplace and also giving the Melbourne sporting public what they most crave – a winning team.
Perhaps this is what the ARU has been thinking all along – for the sake of rugby in Australia, let’s hope so.
