Australian rugby's turbulent year looks set to continue, after six of the country's unions came together to demand the resignation of their chairperson Hamish McLennan.
In a joint statement, the unions from Queensland, ACT, Western Australia, South Australia, Northern Territory and Tasmania have told the Rugby Australia chair to stand down from his position after he oversaw the Wallabies' disastrous World Cup campaign.
The New South Wales and Victorian Rugby Unions were not approached to sign the statement, due to their ongoing negotiations with Rugby Australia around high-performance centralisation.
McLennan, who been in the role since May 2020, was responsible for the sacking of head coach Dave Rennie in December 2022 as well as the ill-fated appointment of Eddie Jones.
Jones resigned earlier this month after less than a year in charge, following Australia's pool-stage exit at the Rugby World Cup.
The statement, which has been co-signed by six of the eight union chairs, has demanded that McLennan quit by 7am (Irish time) on Saturday, or else they will call an extraordinary general meeting to pass a resolution to remove him from the board.
Should an EGM be required, the rebel unions would need nine of the 16 votes to go their way to remove McLennan from his position.
In a lengthy statement, the six unions say they have lost faith in McLennan's ability to lead Australian rugby, and have accused him of "acting outside his role as a director".
"We do not believe Mr McLennan has been acting in the best interests of our game," the statement reads.
"We no longer have any trust or faith in his leadership, or the direction in which he is taking rugby in Australia. Additionally, we believe Mr McLennan has been acting outside his role as a director, exerting an undue influence on the operations and executives of Rugby Australia.
"This is not the best practice governance that we expect from leaders in our game."
Following the release of the statement, McLennan told Australian outlet The Roar he would not be bowing to the pressure.
"This is divisive by nature and pits state against state, parochialism over unity and centralisation," McLennan (below) said.
"It's going to be an interesting battle."
The unions say their position is not an opposition to Rugby Australia's plans to move towards a centralisesd system, but rather the "damage done to the game by his performance".
Some of the reasons outlined are McLennan's "captain's picks" of dismissing Rennie and hiring Jones, as well as the continued efforts to recruit top talent from Rugby League.
"During the past 12 months Mr McLennan has made a series of calls that have harmed the standing and reputation of our game and led us to question his judgement and his understanding of high-performance sport.
"His decisions and "captain's picks" have directly led to an historic failure at the men’s Rugby World Cup and a Wallabies international ranking at an historic low, with all of the regrettable and public fallout that came with it.
"In addition to this, Mr McLennan’s use of player-poaching to threaten other sports and boost our own stocks and performance alienates us from having collaborative conversations with the other major sports to improve participation across the Australian community.
"It also disenfranchises our budding professional female and community rugby participants, by only focusing on elite men’s participation, which is a small component of our national game."
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