RAELENE Castle will become the first woman to run a football code in Australia when she is formally announced as the ARU’s new chief executive on Tuesday.
The former NRL Bulldogs boss beat out former Wallabies captain Phil Kearns for the top job, one of the toughest roles in Australia’s sporting landscape.
Castle will break ground as Australian rugby’s first chief executive and will be tasked with turning the struggling code around after a disastrous 2017 that saw the ARU plunged into crisis after their decision to axe Western Force from Super Rugby, and poor performances by the Wallabies and Australian Super teams.
Castle resigned from the Bulldogs in May, and was first linked to the ARU’s top job by the Daily Telegraph in June.
She will replace outgoing boss Bill Pulver, who announced he would step down following the formal axing of the Force after two court challenges.
A New Zealander, Castle will also become Australian rugby’s first foreign chief executive, although she was born in the NSW town of Wagga Wagga.
It was evident a fortnight ago that the race for the top job was between Castle and Kearns, though at that stage Kearns was favourite.
However, there was a shift in the days since then, and the under-fire ARU board has decided to go with the outsider.
Among the challenges for Castle will be to unify the several warring parties in the game, from Super Rugby level down to club and suburban organisations.
Pulver was unable to achieve unity during his tenure, and in fact the game has never been as divided as it is now with Sydney club rugby heavily critical of the ARU’s lack of support, and Force supporters fuming over the loss of their team.
The ARU remains in negotiations with billionaire mining magnate Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest about his proposed 2019 Indo-Pacific Rugby Championship, and this will be another tricky issue for Castle to negotiate
The ARU was forced to axe the Perth Super Rugby franchise due to serious financial issues. They released figures recently saying they would have been insolvent by 2019 had they retained five Super Rugby teams.
Forrest has blasted the ARU over their handling of the process and is growing increasingly frustrated in talks with the board over his planned tournament.
The sub-par performances of Australia’s teams in last year’s Super Rugby competition — they finished with 29 defeats from as many games against Kiwi teams — has led to serious financial bleeding among the franchises.
That was also compounded by the Wallabies’ 15th successive Bledisloe Cup failure against the All Blacks, resulting in poor crowds and ratings.
A poor finish to the international season, that included back-to-back losses against England and Scotland, has not left the Australian rugby public with much optimism for 2018.
Castle, who ran New Zealand Netball before taking the Bulldogs job, must ensure the various fractured elements within the code can unite and produce stronger performances.
This is essential if the ARU is to have any bargaining power when the next round of broadcast rights are negotiated for 2021.
Hahaha !
Like rugby in this country isn't fucked enough ?
What are they thinking ?
