Rugby Australia sets out bold plan to return to top of the sport amid fears over jobs cuts

Rugby Australia has declared it wants to be the sport’s No 1 nation by 2029 in a strategic plan launched on Tuesday that flags job cuts at head office if an anticipated revenue windfall led by broadcast negotiations currently underway is not forthcoming.

RA and Channel Nine – the code’s current broadcast partner – are in an exclusive negotiating period around a deal that would follow the current agreement that expires at the end of 2025, but the governing body will expand discussions to other parties if a deal isn’t signed before January.

The coming years have been dubbed Australian rugby’s “golden decade”, and include a British and Irish Lions tour next year, a home men’s World Cup in 2027 and the women’s tournament in 2029.

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RA chief executive Phil Waugh said talks with Nine have been “constructive” but the game needed strong broadcast revenues in order to deliver its strategy.

“Right now, we don’t have the revenue lines that we require to do everything we’d like to do,” Waugh said. “Therefore you have to prioritise different programs depending on the revenues, and then make sure that you’ve got the cost discipline across the organisation.”

The strategy includes an action to “right-size the business”. RA has taken out an $80m loan to sustain the game until an anticipated increase in revenue arrives in the coming years, and Waugh said there have already been some changes made at head office since he came in last June.

Waugh warned the code would have to look at staffing cuts if revenue increases weren’t forthcoming. “Your cost base needs to be appropriate to your revenue line,” he said, underlining the need for a sustainable business. “So naturally that looks at number of FTE [head count] and your cost base, equally we’ve got a good opportunity for this new period to maximise our revenue.”

The new strategy covers the period to 2029 and includes pillars around performance, participation growth and promotion, all enabled by “resource and ecosystem efficiency”.

In addition to a goal of being the world’s No 1 rugby nation, the strategy specifically targets top four finishes at the 2027 and 2029 World Cups, sevens medals at LA 2028 and two Super Rugby Pacific titles, participation growth among women of 70% and to expand rugby’s fan base from 35% to 50%.

Chair of RA, Daniel Herbert, said the game wanted to be ambitious. “You have to give the public and all of our stakeholders, our fans, some very lofty ambitions, otherwise what are we aiming for? We’re aiming for excellence.”

Waugh said the performance of the Wallabies – who demonstrated promise on their recent tour of the UK and Ireland – was crucial.

“We know that ‘winning teams in gold’ ultimately drives the value of the game,” he said. “86% of our revenue comes through men’s fifteens, so we need to ensure that our Wallabies performances are where they need to be to ultimately fund the rest of the game.”