Happy Holidays & Message from the CEO

A MESSAGE FROM PHIL WAUGH, RUGBY AUSTRALIA CEO

Dear Friends of Team Rugby,
We have arrived at an extraordinary moment in Australian rugby history.
The year ahead of us will be one for the ages, highlighted by a home The British & Irish Lions series, a women’s World Cup in England, a reenergised Super Rugby season and exciting men’s and women’s Sevens programs.
The year behind us, meanwhile, will be remembered as one of the most transformative and significant on record.
Consider all that has been accomplished in 2024.
The reset of our high performance unit, led by Peter Horne, resulted in a Wallabies squad that inspired the nation with thrilling victories in Sydney (twice), Melbourne, La Plata, Twickenham and Cardiff and saw the Wallaroos make history with an epic WXV2 victory and advance to the 2025 World Cup.
Thank you to Joe Schmidt, Jo Yapp and their teams in gold for an uplifting year.
Our Sevens teams, too, enjoyed tremendous success in 2024. Australia’s women were crowned SVNS champions after defeating France in the final in Madrid, while the Australian men achieved highest ever finish at an Olympic Games. Indeed, Australia was the only nation to advance to the semi-finals at the Paris Olympics in both the men’s and women’s programs.
Then, to cap it off, Maddison Levi received the ultimate honour by being named World Sevens Player of the Year after her record-breaking feats across the SVNS and Olympics tournaments. Truly remarkable.
Domestically, Australian rugby made significant strides towards alignment with the successful integration of the Waratahs and Brumbies into the RA ecosystem and a connected approach to high performance with the Reds and Force. Regrettably, we also saw the exit of the Melbourne Rebels from Super Rugby.
Addressing the game’s finances has been a major focus for the organisation this year and substantial progress has been made. The Australian Rugby Foundation launched a world-first Rugby Future Fund, which will provide new revenue streams for community, women’s and high performance pathways. The Fighting Fund has also proven effective in securing our top junior talent. Indeed, of the 26 members of the Australian under 18s squad who defeated New Zealand Schoolboys this year, 23 will be playing rugby next year.
Community rugby continued its strong growth trajectory across schools, clubs and Tri-Tag. Particularly encouraging has been the surge in women and girls taking up our sport, no doubt inspired by the incredible performances of the Aussie women’s Sevens team and the Wallaroos on the world stage. That link from grassroots to the globe is what, in my opinion, makes our sport truly unique.
And Australia certainly made its mark internationally in 2024.
Brett Robinson’s historic election as World Rugby chair marked the first time a candidate from the southern hemisphere has ascended to the most influential role in the game. Brett’s journey has been incredible: from Brumbies’ inaugural captain in 1996 to a 16-Test career with the Wallabies, from a successful corporate and sports governance career to a nine-year stint on the board of Rugby Australia, and now to steering the game at the global level. World Rugby is in the best of hands.
Australia also played a leading role in the formation of the Nations Cup, which will create a new, exciting global tournament on the calendar and provide additional revenue opportunities for the game here and around the world.
And all of this work culminated in December with the launch of Australian Rugby’s all-of-game strategy, which we believe will unite and align all aspects of Australian rugby for years to come. The central purpose of the strategy document is to capitalise on Australian rugby’s “golden decade” and create a successful and sustainable ecosystem into the future.
That golden decade starts now.
We are a matter of weeks away from the highly-anticipated Perth Sevens and Super Rugby tournaments kicking off a 2025 program that will be remembered for generations to come. Ticket sales for the Lions tour are exceptional and we anticipate more than 500,000 fans will attend the Test and tour matches, making this the biggest series of its kind ever held. The Wallaroos will then head to the UK to compete for our sport’s grandest prize – the World Cup – the next two editions of which will be held on our shores in 2027 (men) and 2029 (women).
There has never been a better time to be involved in Australian rugby.

Best wishes,
Phil Waugh
CEO, Rugby Australia