sport, brumbies

The ACT Brumbies' rich history in Super Rugby saved the club from a merger with the Melbourne Rebels after the ARU board deemed there was "no advantage breaking up Australia's most successful team". In another dramatic day in Australian rugby's saga, the ARU published a detailed 12-page document on why it decided to the axe the Western Force instead of the Brumbies or Rebels. The Force lost an appeal in the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday, leaving former captain Matt Hodgson in tears and prompting billionaire backer Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest to set up a rebel competition. The ARU fired its shots in a 12-page assessment of why the Force was cut from the struggling competition, detailing a lengthy timeline of its decision and process. The ARU says it would have been insolvent by the end of 2019 had it not agreed to cut one of its five teams from Super Rugby next year, putting the Brumbies, Force and Rebels on the chopping block. There was a push for the Brumbies to merge with the Rebels, but new documents show the ARU said the Brumbies were too successful and financially stable to consider a joint-venture. "[The] ARU does not have the unilateral right under its constitution to construct mergers between Super Rugby teams," the ARU's document said. "Any merger would need to be constructed by two willing unions. "The notion of a merger between two Australian Super Rugby teams was also rejected based on historical evidence in Australian sport, where the most 'successful' currently merged sports entities have involved teams that are geographically-linked where the fanbase and junior participant catchment of the merged teams are contained within the same territory or within close proximity. "A Brumbies-Rebels merger was not seriously examined, due to the reasons above but also based on the board's view that it did not see an advantage in breaking up Australia's most successful professional rugby program (Brumbies)." The ARU said the Brumbies "compared favourably" against the Force and the Rebels after setting a "Super Rugby scoreboard" criteria for survival. The areas the ARU evaluated were: The Brumbies have been a Wallabies production line since 1996, developing 60 Test players compared to 51 in NSW and Queensland, 18 at the Force and nine from the Rebels. The Brumbies have won two Super Rugby titles and made the finals for the past five consecutive seasons. The club is also expected to be the only Australian team to record a profit this year. It emerged last week the ARU deemed terminating the Brumbies was considered "high risk" because of a participation deed agreement. But the reality was the Brumbies' on-field performances and financial stability made it impossible for the ARU to cut the club. The ARU has spent an unbudgeted $28 million to support Australia's Super Rugby teams in the past five years, but none of that money was spent on the Brumbies. "From this analysis, the Brumbies were eliminated from the process by the board based on superior on-field and financial performance metrics," the ARU document said. The Brumbies could attempt to recruit Force players if the franchise does not launch a High Court appeal. Forrest is digging in for a long fight, declaring his intention to start an breakaway competition in the Indo-Pacific region. "This is not the decision we wanted. This is clearly not the decision which we consider just. We're not giving up," Forrest said. "I've just begun to fight, mate. If the court cannot deliver justice for these players, I understand that. I didn't write that agreement which the ARU cunningly exploited. I know the decision was made purely on legal ground. Forrest said the Force had been "hideously cut down by the chairman of the ARU", Cameron Clyne, who "should have stayed with running a bank".

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