Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh has outlined the reasons why the governing body rejected a rescue plan for the Melbourne Rebels after the Super Rugby team was axed for 2025 on Thursday.

Waugh and RA chairman Daniel Herbert addressed a media conference where Waugh revealed RA had been working on three scenarios with regards to the Rebels – cutting them from the competition, RA supporting them financially or allowing a private consortium backed by Leigh Clifford to take over the licence and fund the team.

Waugh indicated RA’s financial situation made the first two impossible while claiming the private bid failed to stack up.

Clifford is expected to launch court action against RA on Monday.

“We’ve given an enormous amount of time to that consortium to come forward with information. We split that information into five different requests for information,” Waugh told reporters in Melbourne.

“The first one being financial viability. The second one being governance and risk. The third being commercial strategy. The fourth being high performance. And the fifth being growth of the game.

“We finally got the information or some of the information that we’d requested in the middle of last week in a data room. We’ve analysed that information at great lengths. And then we met with one member of the consortium earlier this week.

“Again, giving the consortium every possible opportunity to put forward a compelling case to support the Melbourne Rebels in 2025.”

Herbert added: “We have informed the Melbourne Rebels staff and playing group that the participation licence to participate in the 2025 Super Rugby season was not granted to the consortium based on a lack of detail and transparency that we were provided recently.

“We’ve been waiting for some time to allow the consortium to get as much information and as much detail and accurate information to us to make a decision.

“That wasn’t forthcoming to the satisfaction of what we would deem a reasonable level of risk. So we’ve had to make that decision today for the 2025 season, for the men’s Super season only.”

Herbert said the future of the women’s Super team would be assessed separately and RA “will continue to work with the Victorian Rugby Union in ensuring the delivery of the important community programs.”

Herbert described it as a “very difficult day for rugby and a very difficult day for rugby fans in Melbourne. A very difficult day for the fans, the players and the staff, but we felt that we had to get to a decision.”

Waugh said RA remained “absolutely committed to rugby in Victoria. All our commitment into community game, into our pathways, into the women’s pathways, we are committed to rugby in Victoria.

“And we’ll continue that commitment. And we look forward to working with Rugby Victoria, Visit Victoria, and the Victorian Government in investing in rugby in Victoria.”

Waugh was asked how damaging the news was for the game in Victoria and if there was any hope of a return to Super Rugby for a Melbourne-based team.

“We’ve got an open mind. I think we’ve been put under enormous pressure on the timeline that we needed to work to in terms of giving players certainty into their futures and staff certainty into their futures,” said Waugh.

“Let’s be clear, the administrator made all the employees of management redundant the day that they took over.

“We stood up the Rebels for 2024. We employed 83% of the Rebels management staff. The relationship we have with the Players’ Association through the collective bargaining agreement ensured that the players were protected.

“So Rugby Australia has stood up the Melbourne Rebels in 2024. And it was important for us to do that. Equally, it was important for us to give the consortium time to put a compelling position forward.

“In terms of the reputation of rugby in Victoria, we see strong growth in the community game. Certainly the performance of the Rebels in 2024 going through to the finals is pleasing. And the growth of the women’s game is also pleasing.

“So it is not an ideal situation having to reduce or remove the Rebels from participating in Super Rugby Pacific.

“However we have limited resources. We have limited finances and we need to invest in the game that’s going to drive the greatest connection to community as well as uplifting participation.”