ARU statement – Andrew Forrest meeting
Board representatives from the Australian Rugby Union today travelled to Adelaide to meet with Western Australian businessman Andrew Forrest AO and his representatives.
The meeting was held with the purpose of discussing the future of the Western Force and a way forward for Rugby in Western Australia.
ARU Chairman, Cameron Clyne said: “We had a long discussion with Andrew today and have provided in detail the position of the ARU and the factors that have led to our decision to discontinue the Western Force Super Rugby licence.
“While we fundamentally disagreed on the number of teams in Super Rugby, we had an extremely constructive session and have agreed to work together to ensure that Rugby has a strong future in Western Australia.
“Andrew brings a lot of innovative thinking to the table and we discussed a number of possibilities for the future of the game.
“Some of this discussion focus on competitions and the pathways for young players to the highest levels of the game, the community game and women’s Rugby.
“We look forward to engaging further with Andrew and RugbyWA and sharing the plans with WA’s passionate Rugby community.
“We were genuinely appreciative of Andrew’s generous offer to back the Western Force and Australian Rugby, however, given the position we are in we are unable to work towards retaining five teams in Super Rugby.
“We are at the final stages of this process and Australian Rugby’s constituents have voted to reduce Australia’s Super Rugby representation to four teams and we have made commitments to SANZAAR.
“We were asked about the possibilities of retaining the Western Force in a 16-team Super Rugby competition, however, a 16-team competition was eliminated by SANZAAR during its review process based on a number of factors. These factors included the extensive cost and limited appeal of a 16-team round-robin competition, player welfare issues due to extra travel requirements, and the loss of popular home and away ‘derbies’ in each country.
“Our decision to discontinue the Western Force Super Rugby licence is subject to appeal and we await the outcome of this process before making any further comment on the matter.”
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