‘It’s not too late’: Judge implores agreement in rugby legal scrum

The judge hearing the landmark lawsuit brought by the directors of the now-defunct Victorian Super Rugby franchise against Rugby Australia (RA) has warned both sides to settle the case before reputations are ruined and costs blow out.

Justice Cameron Moore began the second day of the Federal Court trial into whether RA unfairly withdrew financial support from the club in 2024 by issuing a message to both the Melbourne Rebels directors and the sport’s governing body.

“This is directed at the parties. We are embarking on a three-week trial in which millions of dollars will be spent,” Justice Cameron Moore told the court.

“There’ll be cross-examination of witnesses. Credit will be an issue, all dealing with differing versions of the history of events over the previous number of years.

“It’s not too late to resolve these proceedings. The parties should consider that actively.”

Moore then told the court that if any party wanted the court to provide a registrar to help mediate the matter, he was happy to help make those arrangements.

“I’m also happy to adjourn if anyone wants to ask for some time within reason, and subject to being satisfied the trial will complete within time.”

The warning appeared to have little impact on Tuesday as both sides maintained their cases.

The Rebels directors allege that RA drew up a secret plan to preference the development of the sport in its traditional heartland of NSW, Queensland and the ACT.

The Rebels allege this plan, known as the Winning Rugby proposal, provided emergency financial assistance to the ACT’s Brumbies team and the NSW Waratahs.

A who’s who of high-profile witnesses are expected to be grilled over their recollection of events including RA boss Phil Waugh and former Rebels president Paul Docherty, who was declared bankrupt in 2025.

The Rebels collapsed into administration in January 2024 under the weight of $23 million in debt including an $11.5 million tax bill and $6 million owing to its directors. RA stripped the club of its licence in May that year.

RA has long held that its reason for not supporting the Rebels in the same way was due to the alleged financial mismanagement of the club and that it never implemented the Winning Rugby plan.

RA has previously argued administrators alleged the club had been trading while insolvent since 2018, and it was not kept fully abreast of the state of the club’s tax troubles after it failed to pass on money it collected from staff wages to the tax office.

Despite the strong warning from the bench, no party sought an adjournment and the case continued with the second half of the Rebels’ opening arguments throughout Tuesday.

Rebels counsel Bernard Quinn, KC, told the court that RA had continually misled the directors of the club over the course of the second half of 2023.

This included RA abandoning a plan to obtain funding from private equity and instead moved to raising new debt to rescue only the ACT Brumbies and the NSW Waratahs – and not the Rebels.

The court heard that the decision to rescue those clubs was part of the Winning Rugby plan to centralise the best players in the three east coast teams (the Brumbies, the Reds and the Waratahs) to improve the performance of the lacklustre Wallabies squad.

Under the plan, the Rebels would not be a home for Wallabies players and instead merge with the struggling NZ-based team Moana Pasifika.

Quinn then took the judge through the Winning Rugby document, leading to questions from the judge, who seemed baffled about RA’s plan.

“What does this waffle mean?” Moore asked after reading RA’s Winning Rugby document.

Quinn responded: “We’ll probably ask Mr Waugh [when he gives evidence], I suspect, and others.”

The judge then asked Quinn how RA planned to concentrate the best players in the competition into three teams if there were more than three teams in the competition.

“The way you concentrate is to dissolve a club – because those players go to the other markets,” Quinn said.

“So, if you want your best players into clubs, you don’t want other clubs competing for players. It’s the only way to do it. Otherwise, they’ve got to go off overseas.

“The other way might be throwing money at those clubs, but not others, to ensure that you’ve got that talent being attracted, but there are no other ways.”

Moore later asked Quinn: “So you say that every club was supposed to be focused on excellence, except the Rebels in effect.”

“Yes,” Quinn replied.

RA is expected to start its opening submissions on Wednesday morning. The case continues.

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