'That's not acceptable': Unauthorised millions spent on Wallabies' World Cup disaster
Rugby Australia boss Phil Waugh has revealed $2.6 million in unapproved expenses were invested in Eddie Jones' disastrous 2023 World Cup campaign.
While declining to single out Jones for blame, Waugh on Thursday said the over-spend was "unacceptable" and would not happen again.
"The over-investment that was unapproved was $2.6 million, which covered three main elements, being team costs, staff travel and then player benefits," Waugh said, adding that RA only found out the extent of the excess spending "retrospectively".
"So a lot of that came through post-World Cup ... You want to set the team up for success.
"I mean, the reality is that 86 per cent of our revenue comes through the men's fifteens program for Rugby Australia, and a successful World Cup program is critical to that.
"And I guess, yeah, there was lenience given in the hope that we would succeed at the World Cup and make it deep into the tournament.
"Clearly that didn't happen, but the circumstances were quite unique.''
Asked how the over-spend could reach such a vast sum, Waugh said: "Delegation of authority is important and clearly there were breaches in that area and we've made personnel changes on the back of some of those breaches.
"That over-investment, that's not acceptable and it won't happen going forward."
Waugh refused to single out Jones or the Wallabies' World Cup manager Chris Webb for blame.
"I'm not going to point the finger at one individual," he said.
"I think it was a cultural deficiency that we need to rectify."
The revelation came as Waugh also reported broken trust as being among the strongest feedback coming from players who participated in RA's external review into the Wallabies' year from hell under Jones.
After quitting just 10 months into his five-year deal, Jones has since signed on as Japan's national coach, despite denying he was interviewed for the Brave Blossoms position before presiding over the Wallabies' worst-ever World Cup campaign.
"The lack of trust certainly comes through and we talk through elements of culture as well as governance there," Waugh said.
"The actual specifics of Eddie and the linkages to Japan, not so much.
"But I think that's the broader lack of trust across the system."
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After a fairly simple Pac4, the BFs will find out a lot about themselves in September when they face the rampaging RedRoses at Twickenham in front of a record crowd. After that they will face them again in Canada in WXV1. They also have France to contend with. Will be interesting to see what Australia have to offer with Jo Yapp at the helm.
Go to commentsSuper Rugby Pacific has been better as a spectacle due to the emphasis on speeding the game up and I’d look at taking things a step further. Instead of giving teams 90 seconds to take a conversion, let’s bring that down 60 seconds. You could also look at allowing 45 seconds for a penalty goal. Maybe teams could get 20 seconds instead of 30 to form a scrum before the ref then starts the engagement process. However, this year the most pleasing change is the added competitiveness in the Trans Tasman matches. What does frustrate me is how the rugby media in Australasia allow the the whole ‘‘rugby is boring’’/’’rugby yawnion’’ narrative to take hold from from vindictive league types, the chairman of the ARL commission and News Limited Australia. Stick up for the game and shift the narrative!
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