The year 2015 is of great importance for rugby. And it’s not only because of the impending eighth quadrennial Rugby World Cup. This year also marks the 20th anniversary of one of the most significant turning points for the game of rugby union and its players.
Before 1995 rugby was still amateur, it wasn’t considered a job and therefore didn’t include official payments or fair conditions for players. A few of those who were playing for Australia were on five figure contracts, but this was mainly for their work off the field and promotion of sponsors.
Many forecasted the prospects of rugby turning professional. Amongst those who did was a group called the World Rugby Corporation (WRC) who were looking to take control of rugby globally with an all-new structure and competition, luring the signature of 900 players across the world with well-paid contracts.
Ahead of the Rugby World Cup in 1995, the WRC had already flagged a certain few rugby players of interest. Together with rugby league, it posed a risk to the game of rugby union with potential big losses of talent. A bidding war ensued.
Aware of the potential threat to the game, rugby officials were in negotiations with News Corp who were keen to invest money for television rights to international and provincial rugby in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
On the eve of the World Cup in 1995, the new deal was announced and the game was deemed professional. Endorsed by the IRB, it saw official contracts handed out to players in nations across the world, and eventually the demise of the WRC.
Wallaby number 755 and former Brumbies player, Rod Kafer remembers one of the game’s most tumultuous times in history vividly.
“It was hugely disruptive but in a positive way,” Kafe said.
“Right at the time the game became professional, officially, most of the players had already committed to join the World Rugby Championship. I was one of the players who had already signed to the rebel game.
“The game then became fully professional literally overnight. The IRB came out and said the game’s now fully professional so all of a sudden, all bets are off, and overnight the landscape in rugby changed,” Kafe said.
Amongst all the commotion, Australian rugby players, including Rod Kafer, got together to discuss the imminent professionalism of rugby and where they would play.
Once the new direction with News Corp was cemented, they negotiated with the Australian rugby franchises at the time to agree to distribute 95 per cent of the television rights money to the players, to be overseen by a Players’ Association.
Made official by the signing of the “Ferrier Agreement” on the 16 August 1995, that Players’ Association, now known as RUPA, was officially incorporated later that month.
“We had the great benefit of Tony Dempsey doing a really good job in what became the Ferrier Agreement, which was a letter from Ian Ferrier (NSWRU Chairman) who provided the rights. It gave us great power in the negotiation," Kafe said.
“What was obvious at the time, and as part of bringing players into a collective framework, was that players understood instantly that collectively we had more bargaining power and more ability to negotiate individually around the broader picture of rugby. That’s where we created the framework for RUPA that now exists.
“The framework was created through identifying certain things the players were keen to support. The core aspects were related to the game’s and player’s development.
“Part of the original agreement in and around the distribution of the television rights money was ensuring that proportion of money went to non-contracted young players and was put back into the development of the game, it had to be spent on players who weren’t contracted yet.
“Another proportion of the funding had to be spent on player development and the career and education program. Those were core components of the agreement that was struck with the ARU.
“We believed we had a right to distribute 95% of the funds to however we saw fit as the Player’s Organisation.
“Off the back of that we also negotiated the Collective Bargaining Agreement and that created the landscape for professional rugby in Australia. Of course, we negotiated through a number of Collective Bargaining Agreements when I was there to be honest.
“It was a change the game needed to progress though, and RUPA needed to be there to do that."
In December 1995 Kafe, together with players including Dan Crowley, Andrew Blades and Mark Connor, were elected on RUPA’s first Board, which remains, to this day, largely occupied by representatives from the professional playing group.
“I think the defining moment was probably bringing RUPA into the Governance Structure that it currently sits under now.
“We needed to have a succession plan, which I was involved in with others, which saw myself and Tony (Dempsey) leaving RUPA and getting Greg Harris in,” Kafe said.
“For me that was a pretty significant moment because it changed the direction of RUPA, it was an opportunity to change the way that players were interacting with the game, and I think it changed it positively.”
In December 2010 RUPA engaged in a reconstitution of its Board to improve the level of player representation together with industrial and corporate intellect. The move ensured that each Australian Super Rugby team was represented on the Board by a Player Director. This was further amended in April this year with a Men’s and Women’s rugby Sevens Player Directors added to the Board to further enhance player representation, feedback and say in the professional rugby space.
“The players remain the biggest asset that the game has. Rugby is a game about the players, it was a game designed by players for players,” Kafe said.
“At its core the players make up the game, of course we’ve got all the ancillary things that make up the game of rugby but at its essence are the players.
“RUPA provides the framework in a modern world for the players to be employed and their careers enhanced, or at least effectively regulated, so that we can continue to recruit young people into the game of rugby.
“For anyone aspiring to be a rugby player, RUPA ensures there are rules and regulations and set processes in place, and the other benefits that sit around it, like the Player Development Program (PDP) and so on, that have added greater benefit to the membership of RUPA, as it has done over the years," Kafe said.
RUPA has now been supporting Australian professional rugby players in all aspects of their rugby careers and lives both on and off the field for 20 years, advocating in the name of players throughout the game’s professional history.
“RUPA existed before many of the other athlete association groups and was the first Player’s Association in rugby worldwide,” Kafe said.
“In all of Australian sport, we were one of the first to look after our professional players and we were the model that many other sports followed, including the AFL. The model created by RUPA has seen many other sports people benefit from over the years.”
