O'Neill steps down as ARU chief

Updated October 12, 2012 13:55:13

John O'Neill has stood down as chief executive of the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) after a collective 14 years as the code's top administrator.

He was due to step down from running Australian rugby in 2013, but is now going a year early and will finish at the ARU at the end of the month.

O'Neill said his age, 61, and a 25-year run as a chief executive in sport and banking influenced his decision to leave the ARU and continue as a non executive chairman of casino management group Echo International.

The experienced sports administrator will continue to work with the ARU as its representative on the International Rugby Board (IRB) and as board member of the Rugby World Cup planning the 2015 tournaments in England and Japan respectively.

O'Neill held the position of ARU chief executive from 1995 to 2003, overseeing a golden period of Australian rugby which culminated in the Wallabies' 1999 World Cup win, before hosting the showpiece event in 2003.

The ARU forced O'Neill out in 2004, but reappointed him in 2007 after a stint with Football Federation of Australia where he oversaw the introduction of the A-League and the Socceroos qualifying for the World Cup for the first time in 34 years.

O'Neill's second stint with the ARU saw the appointment of Robbie Deans as coach, who guided the Wallabies to a Tri-Nations title in 2011, before losing to New Zealand in the 2011 Rugby World Cup semi-final.

Although expressing regret the Wallabies have slipped somewhat from the top of the world rugby tree he is proud of what they achieved under his reign.

"The Wallabies are an iconic team, I'm sorry they are not number one but hope fully they will get there," O'Neill told reporters.

ARU deputy chief executive Matt Carroll, who worked under O'Neill at the ARU and FFA, will act as caretaker while a global search is conducted for O'Neill's replacement.

O'Neill says he believes his successor will be able to lift Australian rugby to new heights.

"I am honoured during my second term at the ARU to have played a role in shaping the transformation of the game," he said.

"Australian Rugby has a rich culture and a proud history, but we have also been working to rapidly modernise and evolve the game.

"I believe the key planks necessary to drive that development are in place, allowing my successor to build on the solid foundations rugby enjoys and take it to the next level of success.

"There are other challenges for me to pursue outside the game now, although my involvement at an IRB and Rugby World Cup level will ensure I have a strong ongoing connection."

ARU chairman Michael Hawker said O'Neill had been a committed servant to the game and had laid the foundations for an important phase in Australian rugby.

"John has been a great servant of rugby in Australia over two decades and has achieved the key objectives of a five-year strategic plan since re-joining the ARU in 2007," Hawker said.

"John’s resignation enables the board to put in place new leadership to build on that platform and to drive our substantial agenda over the next five years, while enabling John to focus on his broader business interests."

Tags: rugby-union, sport, sydney-2000, nsw, australia

First posted October 12, 2012 10:07:02

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O'Neill defends arduous Wallabies schedule

Updated May 22, 2012 22:50:37

Australian Rugby Union (ARU) boss John O'Neill has pointed to history and the rival rugby code to justify the Wallabies' tough early season schedule.

The Wallabies open their season with a one-off Test against Scotland in Newcastle on June 5 and play the first of three internationals against Wales in Brisbane just four days later.

While the Reds and Force have a bye the weekend prior, some Brumbies and Waratahs face the prospect of three matches in eight or nine days if they participate in both Tests after playing the previous weekend.

O'Neill said the situation was not ideal but it was manageable.

He suggested the selectors would pick a squad of 30 or more to cover playing two games in such close proximity.

While some pundits have suggested playing two Tests so close together could devalue the jersey if an under-strength team was chosen, O'Neill was confident competitive teams would be picked for both games.

"I don't necessarily understand why there'd be undue emphasis on the fact that we're playing Scotland on the Tuesday and Wales on the Saturday," O'Neill told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday.

"There's a State of Origin (rugby league) game tomorrow night, and a full round of NRL on the weekend, where a lot of the State of Origin players will back up.

"The life of a professional footballer is such that a short turnaround is not ideal but it's manageable.

"If you go back into the history pages you would see teams go on tour and play well over 20, 25, 30 games and a lot of players would play midweek and then on a weekend."

O'Neill revealed the midweek Test was a favour to Scotland, which was keen to play the Wallabies before Tests against Fiji and Samoa later in the month.

"It's not a schedule that you would normally plan," O'Neill said.

"It won't be happening in future years. This is is a one-off to accommodate particular circumstances with the timing of Scotland's tour to the Pacific Islands."

O'Neill predicted the ARU was likely to break even this year after reporting a loss last year.

Despite clinching a more favourable distribution of revenues from the next World Cup, O'Neill could not guarantee Australia would not undertake another arduous schedule moving forward.

"As to the future of additional Test matches, you never say never," he said.

"But certainly our financial circumstances, given the additional distribution of funds by the IRB, doesn't make those decisions as necessitous as they were in the past."

AAP

Tags: rugby-union, sport, australia

First posted May 22, 2012 21:09:35

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O'Neill touts feast for rugby fans

Updated February 10, 2012 16:26:16

ARU boss John O'Neill says a "wall-to-wall" schedule will give rugby union a stronger footing in the battle for crowds with the NRL and AFL in 2012.

Launching the new Super Rugby season in Sydney on Thursday, O'Neill told Grandstand he anticipates great things not just from the provincial tournament but in international competition as well.

"I'm very excited, it's a long time since we've had a defending premier in the form of the Reds going into 2012," he said.

"We're really looking forward to all of our five Super Rugby teams being competitive and playing great rugby.

"It's our shopfront, it runs now through to August, so it's wall-to-wall rugby and we expect a big season."

The 2012 season marks the first time the Super Rugby competition runs into August, with the final taking place not long before the rival football codes enter their respective playoffs.

But O'Neill said he was not hoping to beat the NRL or AFL at their own well-established games.

"It's not about knocking off a competitor, it's about being in the space," he said.

"We've lacked the same sort of continuity and content [and] now we have that, we've got a lot more content and a lot more continuity.

"Success becomes infectious and I really hope that we're on the same page in building a fan-base through the turnstiles and with our viewing audience.

"That's what makes the game tick and that's an appropriate aspiration."

This year will mark the inaugural season of the Rugby Championship, which pits Tri Nations rivals Australia, New Zealand and South Africa with South American powerhouse Argentina in a four-way competition.

Add that to a full Test schedule both home and abroad, and O'Neill feels it is the perfect treat for the rugby faithful.

"When you look at the totality of our rugby inventory this year - Super Rugby, inbound Tests in June, completion of Super Rugby [with the] grand final in August, then the Rugby Championship including Argentina ... then four Tests in november in the UK, that's quite a lot of rugby," he said.

"But I'm sure the fans will love it."

The 2012 Super Rugby season kicks off on February 24 when the Brumbies host Western Force in the nation's capital.

Queensland will begin its title defence the following night against the Waratahs, under new skipper Rocky Elsom, at the Olympic stadium.

Tags: super-14, rugby-union, sport, australia

First posted February 10, 2012 09:29:04

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O'Neill tips All Blacks-Wallabies Cup final

Posted April 19, 2011 17:42:00

Australian Rugby Union chief executive John O'Neill has tipped the Wallabies to meet the All Blacks in the World Cup final this year, but would not hazard a guess as to who would come out on top.

"I think our prospects for World Cup 2011 are really encouraging," O'Neill said.

"No one is sitting here saying we are going to win it.

"My prediction is we will make the final and play the All Blacks. As to who might win the final, well, we'll come to that."

Australia beat world champions South Africa twice in the Tri-Nations last year to snatch the world number two ranking behind the top-ranked All Blacks, but remain very much a work in progress.

The Robbie Deans-coached side lost a record 10th consecutive match to the All Blacks in September and were thumped by Six Nations champions England 35-18 during their season-ending tour.

O'Neill took heart in the improvement of the likes of fly half Quade Cooper and full-back Kurtley Beale, likening the current Wallabies line-up to the Rod Macqueen-coached side that triumphed in the 1999 World Cup.

"If I look at the '99 team and the players who had X-factor, (captain John) Eales, (Tim) Horan, (George) Gregan, (Stephen) Larkham, Matt Burke. It would be hard to argue that Quade Cooper, Kurtley Beale, James O'Connor don't have X-factor," O'Neill said.

While Deans's tenure has seen the emergence of a number of talented backs, the New Zealander has struggled to mould a world-beating forward pack, with threadbare front row stocks a particular concern.

O'Neill tempered his enthusiasm by conceding that the Wallabies were yet to fully overcome weaknesses around the scrum and that the backs' spark would only go so far at the September 9-October 23 tournament.

"The caveat I've got on our prospects is that it won't be razzle-dazzle. 2007 reminded us that this is a tournament," added O'Neill, referring to the Wallabies' disappointing quarter-final loss to England in the last World Cup.

- Reuters

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