Rugby Australia boss Phil Waugh has revealed the Wallabies program was $2.6m over budget for 2023, a year when Eddie Jones' side failed to advance beyond the Rugby World Cup pool stage and lost seven of nine Tests.
On the same day that RA released 23 recommendations from a review into the Wallabies' horror 2023 and pledged to "rebuild trust" with the playing group as well as the broader Australian rugby community, Waugh also spoke to the startling figure that will have many across the game shaking their heads in disbelief.
"Again, in the terms of reference, the financial elements weren't part of it [the review], but we have a budget, have an approved budget, and the over-investment that was unapproved was $2.6 million dollars, which covered three main elements, being team costs, staff travel and then player benefits," Waugh told reporters on Thursday afternoon.
"So $2.6 million dollars was the unapproved investment into the Wallaby program for '23."
There had long been speculation that Australia's World Cup budget had blown out, as Jones brought in a staff on short-term deals and concerns were raised about the sheer number of personnel that surrounded the Wallabies in France.
Asked how the overspend had been allowed to occur, Waugh said: "Delegation of authority is important, clearly there were breaches in that area and we've made personnel changes on the back of some of those breaches."
RA recently announced a number of redundancies at its Sydney office, while the governing body parted ways with Jones in December by mutual agreement. Team manager Chris Webb also left the organization, and recently popped up alongside Jones in Japan, where the 64-year-old has taken on the post as Brave Blossoms coach.
Asked if Webb was responsible for the overspend, Waugh added: "I'm not going to point the finger at one individual, I think it was a cultural deficiency that we need to rectify."
At a time when Australian rugby is in a crippling financial hole, and is also locked in a bitter off-field battle with former Melbourne Rebels directors and Rugby Victoria officials, the $2.6m black hole will do little to instill confidence that the governing body is capable of navigating its way out of the disaster.
The Rebels have already threatened legal action on the grounds that they were not sufficiently financially supported by RA during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and that the national body is responsible for almost half of their $22m debt.
The Brumbies and Waratahs are meanwhile also reported to be in significant financial trouble, in part due to the reduction in national grants during the pandemic that were then not restored to their original amount.
Waugh said the country's five Super Rugby franchises and other member unions had been made aware of the World Cup overspend in Melbourne earlier this week.
"The unapproved investment was disclosed to them at the summit on Monday and we were really transparent as to what were the different line items to that over investment," the RA boss said. "Clearly that's not acceptable and it won't happen going forward."
Earlier Thursday, RA unveiled a list of 23 recommendations that were put forward by the review committee of Justin Harrison, Andrew Slack, Darlene Harrison and Moana Leilua to help improve Rugby Australia's high-performance systems.
They were divided into high performance strategy; the Wallabies high performance program; culture; governance; and a national coaching program.
RA has made a habit of conducting reviews and then not following through on the findings, with strength and conditioning programs a key issue for the Wallabies in recent times. In Stan The Wallabies documentary, Jones admitted to mismanaging the group's training program, which resulted in key injuries to skipper Will Skelton and powerhouse prop Taniela Tupou.
New high performance manager Peter Horne, who officially began his role on Mar. 1 alongside new Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt, said changes had already been implemented in the S&C space and that he was confident greater alignment between the Super franchises and Wallabies staff could be achieved moving forward.
"So we were down in Melbourne, I arrived on Saturday and I met Joe there, we've got Nigel Ashley-Jones who's already in our program who's already been doing a number of visits with our head of nutrition across our Super clubs, our national physiotherapist is going in tracking and monitoring," Horne said.
"We will be going to market for some head of athletic performance within RA, and we will also be getting some further strength and conditioning support, and that will come in our recruitment phase. But Joe's been pretty quick to get onto that and to make sure we're actually building through the Super teams and getting players ready for July [Tests against Wales, Georgia] and then the Rugby Championship."
Asked whether there was something that he knew would not repeated from last year's World Cup debacle, Horne said the governing body had a lot of work to do in repairing its relationship with stakeholders across the game.
"Well it's about building trust," he said. "We need to get back in front of the players, create a coaching team that's actually regarded as world-best; we need to actually get back the Australian public to support our team, the Wallabies have underperformed and we're looking to perform to the best of our ability.
"Joe talks about being competitive, he's always very humble in that way, I think we will do our best to make sure that this year we've got, this year, the best team, so that when we get into the British & Irish Lions next year we're able to compete significantly and perform at the heights of where we want to be."
All 23 RA recommendations:
High-Performance strategy
• Develop a national high-performance strategy with a focus on delivering an integrated model to optimise performance across Super Rugby and national teams.
• Create a High-Performance Advisory Group to access more HP expertise, and to complement the expertise within RA and its Board - RA will evaluate its existing Rugby Committee and identify opportunities to broaden its knowledge base.
• Develop a systematic review cycle for national teams including standardised methodology.
• Agree set metrics for board and executive to conduct regular reviews to drive stronger accountability and transparency.
Wallabies and High-Performance programs
• Reset the formal player leadership structure of the Wallabies.
• Implement a shared leadership model across players and coaches.
• Establish more clearly defined roles and responsibilities for coaching staff and team captain in selection process.
• Refine the team selection process to be more transparent for players.
• Development of cohesive training and program principles to establish more clarity for players.
• Employ an experienced S&C expert to lead physical preparation in collaboration with Super Rugby clubs.
• Consider optimisation of Wallabies HP support team; numbers, roles, competency and experience levels, integration into broader HP system with SR clubs.
• New Director of HP (Peter Horne) to manage stakeholder expectations and set clear priorities that are understood across HP system.
• Develop success profiles for Wallabies coaching team.
Culture
• Foster greater interaction between RA Board and national players, to build trust, promote transparency & improve culture.
• Investigate measures to build greater connection between players and leadership - and leverage to facilitate more cooperative behaviours, build group cohesion and trust.
• Create an environment that is built on trust with an emphasis on player and staff welfare.
• Design and embed a Wallabies Team Legacy with input from the playing group.
• Build cultural capability and embed culturally inclusive practices within the Wallabies environment and across the HP system.
Governance
• RA to undertake a governance review with regard to HP.
• Review of current HP practices and policies to ensure 'fit-for-purpose' policies and processes - i.e. safeguarding framework, duty of care charter, robust escalation/whistleblowing process.
• RA to review its HP recruitment, selection and transition processes.
National coaching program
• RA to consider development of a national HP and leadership strategy that prioritises development and acquisition of technical experts and Rugby leaders.
• Evaluate a customised national approach to leadership development across coaches, players, staff and executive.