ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact

A Sydney pigeon, who just last week was pecking its way through a discarded yoghurt pot behind Rugby Australia’s Moore Park headquarters, has been promoted by the sporting body’s board today after helping guide the Wallabies to a historic Test victory over the All Blacks.

Rugby Australia tragically lost their previous marketing pigeon after it flew into a boardroom window in the days preceding the Perth Bledisloe Test.

The flying rat (or sky lobster according to broke parliamentarian Barnaby Joyce) was confronted by the board after it allegedly forgot that the Bledisloe opener was on.

However, it’s replacement has done a stellar job, according to Rugby Australia’s Phil Waugh.

The ‘new pidge’, as it’s now called by coworkers, has been doing such a great job, it’s just received a promotion to Head of Media.

The John Eales medal recipient turned successful businessman said he helped find the new marketing pigeon with World Cup hopeful Nick Phipps the same day the old marketing pigeon was thrown twitching and cooing in the green bin.

“Fanga (Phipps) and I ran around the carpark trying to catch a pigeon for about an hour on Friday,” laughed Waugh.

“We finally cornered one and Nick jumped on it. I know, right? Yuck! He actually touched it! Now we call Nick ‘Pigeon Man’ around the office. We all thing it’s funny,”

“So we took it upstairs to level one and let it go in the office. It flew around for a bit and crashed into a few windows and indoor plants but it soon found it’s place. I’d just like to say publically that marketing pigeon has done a great job and the victory wouldn’t have been possible without it. Praise be to pigeon!”

The Advocate reached out to Rugby Australia’s chief pigeon herder, Raelene Castle, for comment but have yet to receive a reply.

More to come.

