Rugby Australia remains fully prepared to walk away from their Super Rugby partnership after New Zealand reportedly went back on the promise of financial parity.
According to Fox Sports Australia, representatives from Rugby Australia and New Zealand Rugby met in Adelaide ahead of the Rugby Championship clash between the Wallabies and Springboks.
The purpose of the meeting was to secure a domestic partnership between the two unions which would cement Super Rugby through until 2030 and make the competition the envy of the world once again.
During the meeting, NZR chief executive Mark Robinson reportedly agreed to Rugby Australia’s 50-50 split in broadcasting revenue, but since then New Zealand have presented an alternative proposal.
“They’ve been naughty boys,” RA chair Hamish McLennan told foxsports.com.au.
Brumbies chairman Matt Nobbs, who was present at the meeting, explained that the new proposal favoured New Zealand.
“The idea of that meeting in Adelaide was to get everyone together and try and ink a deal,” Nobbs said. “And they had done a body of work, but it seemed that they had done the body of work before consulting with their members.
“It seems once they presented to us, they’ve then gone back to their members and said this is our proposal to RA and I think their members have obviously gone, hold on, ‘I think you probably need to try a little bit harder and let’s see if we can screw a bit more out of RA’.
“I think if you’re going to have a fair and equitable partnership, which is what RA is striving to do, you don’t want a situation where you’ve got a dominant partner.”
Photo: Phil Walter/Getty Images
