He'll love reading about the ARU financial results out tomorrow.
Redder than his bandana and his overly flushed and well bleed mug.
Rugby Australia will defer player pay cuts until later this week after failing to hold any discussions with the players' union amid the worsening coronavirus global pandemic and major concerns about the code's solvency.
RA chief executive Raelene Castle and chairman Paul McLean are expected to announce deep and widespread pay cuts and staff stand-downs at the organisation's annual general meeting on Monday, with Australia's four Super Rugby sides to follow suit.
But there will be no clarity on the status and future of the 192 professional players across the country, after RA postponed a meeting with the Rugby Union Players' Association until Tuesday and refused to answer RUPA's numerous requests for information about the governing body's financial position.
RUPA said it had been "locked out" of the process in a statement released late on Sunday.
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"Rugby Australia and the Rugby Union Players Association should be partners in this process to navigate their way together through this crisis," chief executive Justin Harrison said.
"RUPA members and the game’s stakeholders are frustrated. There is a vacuum of information. While our colleagues in the other major football codes across Australia have been meeting with their
governing bodies for weeks RA has refused to share any information about the future financial direction of the game.
"Are the players about to be presented with a fait accompli – the future of the game decided without any consultation?"
The stand-off also means uncertainty will linger over RA's capacity to survive the worldwide shutdown of professional and community sport. The organisation spends about $24 million on player salaries through the Super Rugby funding agreement, plus another $16 million a year on other "player payments and RUPA costs".
It will be impossible for Castle and McLean to give any assurances as to the effectiveness of planned cost-cutting when $40 million - or 40 per cent - of the business's annual operating expenditure has still not been addressed.
Player salaries are the largest components of RA's cost base. With them up in the air there, potentially for another week, there be little comfort in Castle's master plan.
Adding further heat to Monday's AGM will be the news that RA has not lodged its 2019 financial results with the corporate regulator after failing to get sign-off from auditors KPMG.
The news reverberated around the game on Sunday, with McLean telling Super Rugby chairs the organisation needed more time to attest to its solvency, given the unfolding circumstances.
In any audited financial report there is a clause covering "events subsequent to reporting date". In RA's case, the 2018 clause read: "In the interval between the end of the financial year [Dec 31 2019] and the date of this report [April 2020), no item, transaction or event of a material and unusual event or nature has arisen ... to affect significantly the operations of the company, the results of those operations, or the state of affairs of the company in future financial years."
This was clearly a clause that might have prevented the completion of KPMG's audit of RA's finances last year.
A spokesman said unaudited financials would be presented at the AGM, but no report would be lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
Nevertheless, RUPA and some of the Super Rugby chairs were incredulous that no financial information had been shared ahead of the meeting, particularly given the enormity of the problem facing the game.
It also gave rise to speculation Castle and McLean were set to dial into a hostile virtual environment with RA's members and stakeholders.
In addition to the delay on player salary cuts, there is no word yet on how much global governing body World Rugby will be able to lend a hand, if at all.
World Rugby has formed a working group of the top national chief executives, the international players' union, International Rugby Players and its own Executive Committee, to look into a lending program for the major unions.
With all the tier one nations apart from England and France considered to be in extremely vulnerable positions, any financial assistance from World Rugby is not likely to be substantial enough to be considered the decisive factor in RA's predicament.
But every bit helps, particularly when government assistance in the form of a sports-wide assistance package appears to be months off, if one comes at all.
With RA only able to cut its office, staff, administrative and marketing costs, it appears there will be no clear plan to articulate at Monday's meeting.
Also on Sunday, Sydney University rugby and NSW Health confirmed the coronavirus outbreak traced back to the Australian Club Championship match on March 14 had been confined to two cases.
"Today marks the 15th day after the [Championship], when players and supporters came in close contact with a member of our playing group, 24 hours prior to him becoming symptomatic with what was later confirmed to be COVID-19," the club said on Sunday.
"SUFC wishes to advise our community that approximately 140 players, volunteers, supporters and staff were advised by NSW Health to self-quarantine, with only one person subsequently testing positive. We are pleased to announce both players are now at full health."
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/rug...g-ahead-of-rugby-s-d-day-20200329-p54ezn.html
