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Rebels, Force remain in limbo as Super Rugby saga drags on
By Christopher Devine
A decision on which Australian team will be cut from Super Rugby is no closer to being reached following an Australian Rugby Union (ARU) extraordinary general meeting on Tuesday.
Seventy one days have passed since the ARU said it would announce within "48 to 72 hours" whether the Western Force or Melbourne Rebels would lose their place in the competition.
However, while the majority of ARU members on Tuesday voted in favour of condensing from five Australian Super Rugby teams to four, there is still no clarity on which franchise will be cut.
"We've got teams obviously that are looking to stay in the competition so we can't really control that time frame," said ARU chairman Cameron Clyne.
"People were saying [in April], if you make a decision, make it quickly and move on. We were very happy to do that and that's why we put out a time frame of 48-72 hours.
"When you're making a difficult change, I accept there is criticism that it's taken time.
"Had I come out on April 10 and said we're going to exit a team and it's going to take four months, there'd be equal criticism coming back."
Bill Pulver, the CEO of the ARU, had said he would resign with immediate effect if everyone in Tuesday's meeting felt he was no longer the right man for the job.
However, Clyne said Pulver's position was not discussed during a "civil" gathering.
"The meeting was actually conducted in a very respectful and civil way," Clyne added.
"It was actually a very constructive and civil discussion, there were no discussions of leadership changes or anything like that.
"He [Pulver] was just making the obvious point that these are difficult changes to drive through and that to drive them through you need support ideally of all the stakeholders."
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Latest Comments
Were you shocked by Sexton trying to rip Barrett's head off when he scored that final try in that return game?
Sexton once again the beneficiary of incredible double standards. Some of the rules simply didn't apply to him. The referee even watched that replay about 5 times in slow motion to see if he grounded the ball. If an NZ player had made that tackle it would have been a yellow card.
Ireland led by Sexton were the biggest bunch of whingers to ever play the game. NZ's dislike of Ireland was not caused by losing to them, it was caused by the Irish players, commentators and media being such giant crybabies.
I genuinely think Ireland are the best team in the world, and I think they will beat the ABs on Friday, but they are by some distance the team I like the least, and I know many people, not just from NZ, who feel the same.
Go to commentsThanks for the analysis Nick, thought provoking as usual. Couple of queries though, in the pic where you've circled Williams bind , I'm pretty sure it shows Stuart's knee on the ground, surely that's a NZ penalty? Also having had the chance to watch it again the All Black scrum seeems to improve after halftime, but before either England or the All Blacks replace their props. Not sure if that was the result of Tuipolutu coming on or some halftime tips. Either way this is only Williams second international season, so he'll be better for the experience.
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