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Rugby Australia boss Raelene Castle has come under fire from the players' union over the governing body's handling of the sport amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Castle and RA chairman Paul McLean are expected to announce widespread pay cuts and staff layoffs at its annual general meeting today.
However, player pay cuts have been deferred to later this week after RA failed to hold any discussions with the Rugby Union Players' Association (RUPA).
The union claims there has been a lack of clarity on the financial future of the organisation for the country's 192 professional players, and says it has been "locked out" of the process after RA postponed a meeting and refused to answer multiple requests for information about the governing body's financial future.
"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 in a statement.
"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?"
Rugby Australia CEO Raelene Castle. Photo / Photosport
The current standoff also increases uncertainty for RA and its ability to survive the worldwide sporting shutdown.
Any announcement at the AGM will be overshadowed with player salaries still up in the air. Player pay accounts for $40 million – around 40 per cent – of RA's annual operating expenditure.
RA has also raised eyebrows over its failure to lodge its 2019 financial results with the corporate regulator, after not getting a sign-off from auditors KPMG.
McClean told Super Rugby chairs that RA needed more time to attest to its solvency, reports the Sydney Morning Herald's Georgina Robinson.
Robinson wrote: "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."
