The planned Indo-Pacific Rugby Championship, into which Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest is "scheduled to pump" A$100M ($75.9M) a year for the next 10 years, "is in danger of falling over as talks with Rugby Australia grind to a halt," according to Wayne Smith of THE AUSTRALIAN. A term sheet sent by RA to Forrest's people sets out "four pages of conditions" that will have to be met before Australia will give its permission to the new competition. Unless RA signs off on the IPRC, World Rugby "made it clear that, however much it wants a major competition in Asia, it will also withdraw endorsement." In that event, Forrest could be "forced to take his competition offshore" -- which defeats the initial purpose of providing some "significant rugby" in Perth following the closure of former Super Rugby side Western Force -- or "set up a rebel league." Neither prospect "greatly appeals to him but there clearly is growing exasperation with RA," with a spokesperson describing the latest term sheet -- the third such document in three months of negotiation -- as "so restrictive that no investor would be prepared to accept the conditions." The spokesperson said, "We're negotiating but there is little hope RA will be reasonable." A planned state-of-the-art Rugby Centre of Excellence in Perth, to which Forrest planned to contribute between A$10M ($7.6M) and A$15M ($11.4M), has been placed on hold. The spokesperson added, "There is no point having a high-performance center without a high-performance competition. We don't know what it will turn into." Little by little, further details are coming out on the IPRC, including the fact that Forrest "wants to fund the first professional women's 15-a-side rugby competition in the world," as well as use his six competition centers -- five in Asia as well as the one in Perth -- to host a men's and women's sevens competition annually (THE AUSTRALIAN, 12/5).
