Whingeing Wallabies won’t quit!

Australian rugby authorities and journalists continued their relentless attacks on Jake White and the Springboks for allegedly bringing out an under strength team to tour Australasia.

Australian Rugby Union chief executive John O’Neill continued to bemoan the loss of revenue to his union as the Boks arrived in Sydney today.

“We have come to expect this type of thing from the Northern Hemisphere, but from our own partners here in the South.

“Australians are outraged, but perhaps at the heart of the matter is the fact that last week, before the Bok squad announcement on Monday, only 30000 tickets had been sold for the 100000-seater Telstra Stadium.

“We need to explain to them that in a market like ours, with such a selection of sporting content from which to choose, they can’t let us down like that.

“I would have expected more from South Africa considering the value of our relationship. We supported their return to the game in 1992. We’ve supported them on transformation issues more than any other country.

“At its worst, this is a very cynical sign of disrespect for the SANZAR relationship.

“If this was a normal commercial transaction and one party has arguably not met their part of the bargain and it has cost the other party money, you’d be looking at some claim for damages.

“The response to that is: that’s not the rugby way. And I accept that but I think that the quantification of the financial damage and the damage to the ARU’s reputation has to be spelt out.

“What if our broadcasters and sponsors claim on us and they say, ’you didn’t deliver on what you promised to deliver.’ Well then, you have to have recourse to someone.

“It’s such a hard one to punch, player welfare. They’re challenging us to challenge their medical opinion. They’re literally saying to us, ’how can you tell us what the physical state of our players is?’

ARU chairman Peter McGrath also chipped in with his opinion.

“Saru were happy to cash in on the full-strength Wallabies team that played before 50000 fans in Cape Town.What a pity there has been no reciprocation.

“South Africa have insulted the spirit of the Tri-Nations, but more importantly, also the rugby faithful both here and abroad.”

“The only recourse we have now is to refer this matter to the executive committee of Sanzar but there is the question of whether this would serve any purpose. If they stick to their line that this is their best team, it would be very difficult to get them to budge.”