ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
An era punctuated with administrative mediocrity and disappointment has come to an end this week with the resignation of Rugby Australia Chairman Hamish McLennan after what’s been described as the Wallabies’ darkest hour ever.
The position of chairman means little to the day-to-day running of a business, but it does require a certain amount of professional accountability and responsibility for that business, as the board appoints the CEO and other key positions.
The wheels have fallen off Rugby Australia, and Hamish McLennan is ultimately responsible for it.
He’s been shown the door by state rugby bodies, but before he goes, he’s begged Rugby Australia to let him have just one more long lunch at Mr. Wong’s on the company dime and time. Sydney’s board-hopping Forrest Gump spoke briefly to the media today, where he made his impassioned plea.
“While I will go, I would like one more Thursday afternoon spent at Mr. Wong’s. In good company, surrounded by glorious Chinese food,” he said,
“It would be great to listen to Bill order the usual banquet we get in a thick, mock mainland Chinese accent. It’s the height of comedy, it really is. I can hear him now, ‘Ah harrow, koo we prease harv one frai rai and tehn ching tows to start, ya?’ while the rest of us try not to burst out laughing,”
“Just one more afternoon spent chowing down on a decadent Chinese meal. With all the trimmings. The kind of feast that makes you envy the man with the colostomy bag, able to simply go boom boom at the table and simply cast the old bag under the table for the cleaner. A luxury akin to smoking in the pool. How we would howl at those types of things. After that, we’d try to get into Level 6 but end up having to settle for Hemmesphere. Can’t win them all [laughs]. I’m going to miss this place,”
“We lunch on Thursday because you do your hangover on company time. It’s just standard practice.”
More to come.
