The governing body of rugby union in Australia has been accused of abandoning one of its former clubs because it did not represent the code’s heartland.
The now-defunct Melbourne Rebels claimed in the Federal Court on Monday Rugby Australia (RA) drafted a secret plan to bolster teams in rugby’s traditional homes of NSW, Queensland and the ACT.
The club is seeking more than $30 million from the governing body in damages and to cover its debts after the club was axed from Super Rugby in May 2024.
The Rebels were “superfluous” to RA’s needs after the plan, known as “Winning Rugby”, was adopted by its board in July 2023, the Rebels’ barrister submitted in his opening address.
“(RA) prioritised and preferenced the interest of the clubs in the heartlands of rugby in Australia … and let the Rebels descend into voluntary administration,” Bernard Quinn KC said.
“(Winning Rugby) was not disclosed to any of the clubs, no one at the Rebels knew what it was until after this case commenced.”
Mr Quinn said the Rebels were so blindsided by the betrayal of the governing body because there had been a genuine unity to rebuild the game after the struggles suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The parties who find themselves now facing each other in court … weren’t at loggerheads, they were for most part collaborating to achieve elite sporting objectives,” he said.
“(The Rebels’ directors) assumed RA shared the desire to see rugby prosper in Victoria but that proved not to be the case.”
RA claimed when the case was launched it was misled about the dire state of the club’s finances from as early as 2018.
It said in a statement it would never have allowed the club to play in Super Rugby if it had a full picture of the position of the balance sheets.
However, Mr Quinn said RA’s decision to provide extra funding to save heartland clubs the NSW Waratahs and ACT Brumbies from insolvency but not the Rebels showed a clear preference for the future of the domestic game.
“(The Rebels) assumed they would be on the same page … not to look behind what was being said and assume there was another intention,” the barrister said.
Opening addresses will continue on Tuesday.
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