Embattled Rugby Australia Boss Resigns - report

Embattled Rugby Australia Boss Resigns - report

 Rugby Australia boss Raelene Castle has reportedly handed in her resignation.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Castle is said to have phoned interim chairman Paul McLean to resign.

According to journalist Wayne Keith Smith: “Raelene Castle has announced her resignation as Rugby Australia chief executive. She has telephoned RA chairman Paul McLean and given him the news. It brings to an end a tumultuous three-year reign in which she was dogged by the Israel Folau case.”

Castle and Rugby Australia have been under fire for some time due to perceived maladministration as the governing body has headed into financial dire straits, which have been further exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.


 

It’s reported that her resignation came after she was also excluded from an important meeting with the state chairmen to go over RA’s 2019 balance sheet and cash position.


 

This also follows four former Wallabies captains, including double World Cup-winner John Eales, speaking out against a call by their counterparts to overhaul the leadership of Rugby Australia.

 

A letter – reportedly signed by 11 Wallabies skippers, including Nick Farr-Jones, George Gregan and Phil Kearns – was circulated earlier this week saying the governing body was in crisis and the game had ‘lost its way’.

But on Thursday one signatory, Michael Lynagh, said told The Australian he had asked for his name to be removed from the letter as he had not been fully briefed on its contents.

 

‘This is not the way I do things and I have withdrawn from the whole thing,’ he told the newspaper.

‘It doesn’t mean I don’t support the change but I had quite a few questions about what they were proposing. RA now have a new chairman and three new board members. They have got to be allowed to implement change.’

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Wallabies great Eales, who won the Rugby World Cup in 1991 and led the side to a second win in 1999, joined with former Test captain Mark Loane and ex-Rugby Australia president Tony Shaw to support current interim chair Paul McLean.

‘We all recognise that rugby is going through a very difficult period,’ Eales told the newspaper.

‘I did not sign the letter because I felt it better to act on concerns directly, as a group, with the chairman, as he is already enacting considerable change. Why put it in public?

‘What I know is that there are good people across all levels of rugby working hard to solve complex problems.’

Shaw, who confirmed he had not been approached to sign the letter, said its release had left him ‘gobsmacked’.

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