‘Just watch out’: The text that was the beginning of the end for Hamish McLennan

Rugby Australia chair Hamish McLennan was taking things easy at the Pullman Hotel in the trendy Paris neighbourhood of Montparnasse in late October when he first realised that he might be in trouble.

It had been a brutal couple of months. The Wallabies, who’d lost five straight matches to begin the year, had crashed out in the pool stages of the Rugby World Cup.

Then there was the fallout from reports in this masthead that the coach he had personally chosen, Eddie Jones, had interviewed for a job with Japan just days before the start of the tournament.

Now, McLennan was hoping to put all that behind him and concentrate on the promising future of Australian rugby’s next four-year cycle, including a British and Irish Lions tour in 2025 and home men’s and women’s world cups in 2027 and 2029 respectively.

McLennan was instrumental in Australia winning hosting rights for those tournaments.

Then his phone vibrated. “Just watch out,” read the text message.

It was from a close contact of McLennan’s in the corporate sector. The contact went on to warn the 57-year-old he had heard it on good authority that a number of state unions had quietly begun plotting to bring down “The Hammer”. It was the start of a campaign to end the reign of the man who had sat at the head of Australian rugby since his appointment by the RA board in May 2020.

Within days, a wary and bleary-eyed McLennan arrived back in Australia. Before getting on the plane, McLennan knew the glare of the spotlight would be even more intense than it had ever been in Paris. He was right.

A bleary-eyed Hamish McLennan arrives at Sydney Airport earlier this month.

As soon as he walked through customs he was met by reporters: Was he to blame for the failed Wallabies campaign?

What was he going to do about Eddie Jones? And, tellingly, was he considering his own position?

“I love the sport and I’m not a quitter,” McLennan replied.

Less than three weeks later, that decision was taken out of his hands.

‘It’s Eddie. What do you think?’

Rugby has been played in Australia for nearly 200 years. Rarely, if ever, in all that time has January 16, the middle of the off-season, been a big news day for the sport.

But on a warm summer’s Monday morning in Sydney earlier this year, an excited McLennan had a huge announcement to make. He rang a number of reporters to brief them on his closely-guarded secret: Wallabies coach Dave Rennie had been sacked, less than eight months out from the World Cup, and a replacement was lined up and ready to be announced.

Hamish McLennan with Eddie Jones and former Rugby Australia chief executive Andy Marinos after Jones’ appointment in January. Less than 10 months late, none remain in their jobs.

Who was it, the reporters asked?

“It’s Eddie. What do you think?” asked McLennan, who has long made a habit of canvassing the rugby media’s opinions on his ideas.

In an official RA media release later that morning, McLennan hailed Jones’s appointment as “a major coup for Australian rugby”.

A draft version of that media release – provided to this masthead at the time – had space at the bottom for a quote from Rennie. It finally arrived two days later in a separate media release.

Rennie has not been interviewed in more than 300 days since he was sacked.

The decision to get rid of Rennie and hire Jones was signed off by the RA board – but it was McLennan who drove the change. It was a huge call, so close to a World Cup.

Eight months later, McLennan sat nervously alone in the stands at Geoffroy-Guichard Stadium in Saint-Etienne, watching the Wallabies warm-up before Australia’s group match against Fiji.

After the Wallabies’ grinding opener against minnows Georgia, the RA chairman knew the biggest gamble of his tenure was about to be tested for the first time at this tournament. Was Jones really the man to get the Wallabies firing when it mattered most?

A dejected Ben Donaldson tells the story after the Wallabies’ loss to Fiji in Saint-Etienne.

As other rugby officials and dignitaries – including Gillian Bird, Australia’s ambassador to France – mingled in air-conditioned suites, McLennan sat outside in the sweltering Saint-Etienne early evening, worrying about the 80 minutes ahead.

McLennan’s wife, Lucinda, saw her husband sitting on his own. She asked if he was feeling OK. He wasn’t. And soon he was feeling worse.

Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Fiji stunned the Wallabies, beating them for the first time in 69 years, with a seismic 22-15 upset.

A week later, the Wallabies arrived in Lyon for what was now a must-win game against Wales. Australia’s, and McLennan’s, tournament hopes were on the line.

McLennan sat in the stands behind Albert II, the Prince of Monaco, and Anika Wells, Australia’s minister for sport. Nicola Forrest, the former wife of billionaire Western Force benefactor Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, and former Wallabies captain Phil Kearns were nearby.

Tom Hooper after the Wallabies’ loss to Wales.

The Wallabies slumped to a 40-6 loss, their heaviest defeat in World Cup history. McLennan could hardly watch and neither, it seems, could his chosen one, Jones, who could be seen in the coaches box with his hands over his face.

McLennan told the other RA board members he would field the inevitable calls from the media as the fallout from a disastrous World Cup failure began.

It didn’t take long, with one eager reporter calling him less than two minutes after the full-time whistle, with a number of Wallabies players in tears on the stadium turf.

McLennan said it was the worst day of his professional life.

Back in Australia, officials at states and member unions across the country were starting to mobilise. A flurry of texts and calls took place in the hours after a World Cup nightmare few thought possible.

The World Cup disaster had been the catalyst but the unrest had been fomenting for months, if not years, with a number of controversial decisions from the top causing angst.

The Joseph Suaalii deal also ruffled feathers with some.

The talk in the rugby heartlands was of decisions they felt were not being made in the best interest of the game, such as the parachuting in of Jones as Wallabies coach, the signing of Joseph Suaalii on a multimillion-dollar deal from the Roosters, as well as the mysterious exit of RA CEO Andy Marinos – a well-liked administrator.

McLennan was bullish and at the forefront of big calls. He made no apologies for his style but it certainly rubbed some people the wrong way.

After the Wales match, McLennan and Phil Waugh, the Wallabies great who had replaced Marinos as CEO, trudged into the Australian dressing-rooms, where they saw the distraught young players who would have to live with the disappointment for the rest of their careers.

Jones, whose secret meeting with Japan rugby officials had been exposed earlier that day, walked towards McLennan.

“Sorry mate,” he said.

Thirty-five days later, Jones quit.

He wasn’t even 10 months into his five-year deal, which had initially been cooked up over a serving of Portuguese chicken at McLennan’s home in mid-2022.

‘We no longer have any trust or faith’

Early last week, McLennan was tipped off that he could expect a letter of no-confidence from six state unions to be handed to him as early as Thursday.

The beleaguered chairman feared he was being set up. Who else knew? Were there going to be television cameras and photographers strategically positioned outside his home to witness a representative of the rebel states physically delivering him the letter? As it turned out, McLennan needn’t have worried. It didn’t happen.

Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh speaks as Eddie Jones’ departure is confirmed last month.

But something was brewing. On Friday afternoon, McLennan flew from Melbourne to Sydney after a realestate.com.au board meeting. Minutes after walking into Alta Mura, his Lavender Bay home just 200m from the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, McLennan missed a call from Queensland Rugby Union chairman Brett Clark at 6.14pm. Nine minutes later, he called Clark back.

It was a tense phone call that lasted six minutes as Clark delivered the news to McLennan that he had lost the support of six states and territories and had 24 hours to resign as RA chairman. McLennan was offered the chance to write a resignation letter and bow out with dignity. He refused.

At 6.49pm, McLennan was sent a letter on behalf of the six chairs of the Queensland Rugby Union, ACT Rugby, Rugby WA, South Australia Rugby, Tasmania Rugby and Northern Territory Rugby.

The RA board was sent a separate letter from the rebel states.

This masthead broke the news at 7.36pm that McLennan had received correspondence that the states wanted him to go as chair.

McLennan’s letter then appeared in The Australian.

Hamish McLennan at his home in Kirribilli on Sunday.

In an RA board members’ group chat on WhatsApp, several directors expressed their disappointment at the letter being leaked.

The rebel states subsequently released their letter, via a press release, that they sent to the RA board.

“We do not believe Mr McLennan has been acting in the best interests of our game,” the state unions’ letter said. “We no longer have any trust or faith in his leadership, or the direction in which he is taking rugby in Australia.”

At 9.01pm that evening, director and soon-to-be chairman Daniel Herbert messaged his colleagues in the group chat.

Herbert said a course of action needed to be discussed and suggested to McLennan, in a wider group chat, it might be best if he did not join a Saturday morning meeting of directors.

“I’m sorry to see anyone go thru [sic] this,” Herbert wrote.

‘It wasn’t a planned conspiracy’

While the dogs had been barking for months, the tide really turned against McLennan in the last week of October.

Weeks after the Wallabies had returned home, McLennan was still in France, with World Rugby and SANZAAR commitments, as well as 2027 World Cup events to attend.

He was particularly irked by stories in The Australian Financial Review, a sister publication of this masthead, about his “partying in Paris”. McLennan suspected senior figures in the game across the country were leaking to the press, trying to undermine his leadership.

When Jones quit as Wallabies boss on October 29, with a record of two wins from nine Tests, the focus quickly turned to McLennan and his role in the Wallabies’ failure.

Concerns over Australia’s most successful Super Rugby franchise, the Brumbies, also played a part in the saga.

But something else was also going on in Canberra at the same time. That is what really kicked the states into gear.

RA had sent auditors from Deloitte to look at the financial stability of the Brumbies. RA was also privately concerned about the franchise’s governance.

The Brumbies, Australia’s most successful Super Rugby team, believed RA were trying to terminate the club’s licence and felt threatened. Lawyers were engaged.

The thought of conceding complete control to RA, with McLennan at the helm, was something that did not appeal to the ACT or Queensland.

Sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to speak freely, say a plan was hatched in late October to remove McLennan.

It was an absolute last resort. It was like Ernest Hemingway on how you go bankrupt: Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.

An unnamed source from the rebel unions

If the states and territories could get nine of 16 votes, an emergency general meeting could be called, at which the member unions could request a change to RA’s leadership.

There were scores of text messages and phone calls, with Queensland and the ACT leading the charge.

“It came together very quickly,” said one source close to the rebel unions, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the confidential nature of the plan. “It wasn’t a planned conspiracy.

“It was an absolute last resort because it was the nuclear option.”

“It was like Ernest Hemingway on how you go bankrupt: ‘Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.’

The rebel unions were particularly galvanised by an interview McLennan gave to The Australian that was published on November 3.

“If they try to spear myself, Waughy and the board they might find they’ve got a bigger problem on their hands,” McLennan said.

McLennan was instrumental in securing the 2027 and 2029 World Cups for Australia.

The states interpreted this as a threat. Outraged messages whizzed around group chats involving state powerbrokers.

Early last week, the states knew they had the numbers to get rid of McLennan, boosted by the support of minor unions South Australia, Tasmania and Northern Territory.

One minor state chairman, whose signature was needed by the rebels, had to be tracked down from a rugby sevens training session in his state.

The minor states felt they had been ignored by RA and weren’t receiving enough funding for grassroots programs. They wanted to be heard.

The member unions appointed Queensland chair Clark as their delegate to tell McLennan they had the numbers. The strategy was to give him an honourable way out.

There was no plan to publicly release the letter that was sent to RA.

Late last Friday night, McLennan declared to the media his intention to stay on, prompting the states to release the letter, explaining “in the best interests of transparency” why they had moved so swiftly.

At 8.20pm, an RA director posted a message in the Whatsapp group. “Brett Clark’s letter has been leaked to the press. Very poor form. Can we have a conversation pls,” it said.

‘I consider you a great friend’

Last Saturday morning, McLennan sat with his wife Lucinda and daughter Olivia at home. They were excitedly waiting for their son Ted to fly in from Los Angeles the following day, but there was business to attend to.

RA board members logged onto separate Zoom calls at 9am and 11am. McLennan had been asked not to attend either.

A director phoned McLennan that afternoon, who had a resignation deadline of 5pm – as put forward by the states.

McLennan said he didn’t want to be bullied into making a decision. He wanted to sleep on it and encouraged the board to stand firm rather than yield to the states’ demands for a change in leadership.

All the time, the battle was being played out in public and the more McLennan talked to the press, the better the states felt their chances were of forcing through change. Board members had spent hours crafting their strategy. They wanted the damaging headlines to go away.

RA CEO Phil Waugh rang McLennan on Sunday afternoon and asked if he could address the board on Zoom. A 2.30pm time slot was changed to 2pm, then switched again to 1pm.

McLennan grabbed a black pen and jotted down three pages of bullet-point notes. He would rarely write notes for a speech but felt it was important he delivered his logic to the board succinctly.

“These revolutions happen every three to four years,” read the first bullet point.

McLennan told the board he had taken the heat for the Jones and Suaalii decisions even though both had been signed off by other directors.

Pip Marlow chaired the decisive board meeting.

He spoke of the “campaign” that had been hatched to bring him down and how he had found out via a “friend” weeks earlier.

He argued there was not “universal support” for him to stand aside, with three of the five major states – NSW, Victoria and WA (though not the Forrest-backed Force) – on his side.

Ultimately, it did not matter. Directors had made their mind up.

In an attempt to find a way forward, McLennan asked that an emergency general meeting be called, with two matters to be resolved:

• Whether he should stay on as chairman.
• A referendum on constitutional reform, high-performance alignment and to remove voting power from the minor states.

The chair stressed he was happy to walk away but said he did not want to waste a crisis.

Director Pip Marlow was selected to chair the meeting on Sunday night – where McLennan’s fate would be sealed – as she chairs RA’s HR committee.

Marlow rang McLennan in the afternoon at 3.46pm, telling him the board would vote on a new chairman at an 8.30pm Zoom call. McLennan did not know who would run against him as chairman.

New Rugby Australia chairman Daniel Herbert.

It was Daniel Herbert, who had been asked to stand by the other directors.

Board sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity, reject the notion that Herbert had wanted to become chairman all along or that this was a “Queensland coup”.

That was later to come as a surprise to the rebel states, who were waiting patiently for an outcome. They were under the impression the new chairman would be Brett Godfrey.

McLennan and Herbert joined the call but because it was assumed they would vote for themselves, they were both asked to leave inside three minutes.

An hour passed. What was taking so long? McLennan scribbled on his notes and called friends to pass the time.

Marlow called at 9.33pm and told McLennan that Herbert had won the vote.

It was a unanimous decision from the board. They were done with McLennan and wanted a fresh change.

Marlow asked McLennan to remain on the board.

But the writing was on the wall and McLennan, still at home, emailed Marlow to tender his resignation.

“I wish you’d reconsider resigning,” one board member texted McLennan. “I’m a backbencher also in all this and think you don’t have to be done.”

A different RA board member told this masthead, “He lost the stakeholders then lost the board. That’s it. Anything else is spin. It only hurts rugby to keep giving it oxygen.”

Herbert told reporters the next day the decision was “unanimous” to remove McLennan. Both Herbert and Marlow were contacted for comment for this story.

At 11.54pm on Sunday, McLennan received a text from Waugh, the man who in June he had been instrumental in promoting from the board to the CEO’s job.

The pair had been extremely close and would often spend hours talking about the sport they both loved.

“You are a good man,” Waugh wrote as part of a long text message to McLennan, hours after voting for the chair to stand aside. “I’m sorry that you, Lucinda and the family have to go through any of this!

“I consider you a great friend and a leader I genuinely admire and have learnt an enormous amount from.”

Waugh tried to call twice the next morning. McLennan didn’t answer. The pair have since spoken.

On Tuesday, McLennan and Jones caught up for a quiet coffee in Coogee. They reflected on a whirlwind year.

McLennan asked Jones whether he really did do an interview with Japan.

Jones looked McLennan dead in the eye and denied it, for the umpteenth time.

McLennan is not sure what to believe but said on 2GB this week it would be an “appalling” look if it turns out he did.

No one could have predicted that both would be gone by Christmas.

The rebel states have won the day. They believed for rugby to prosper in this country, both men needed to move on.

McLennan is wounded but philosophical. He has no regrets. Time will tell whether the rebel states will feel the same when they look back on the former advertising executive’s often-flamboyant time at the helm and his subsequent demise.

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