Raelene Castle revealed RA has been working for 10 months to align with Super Rugby and the Wallabies.GETTY IMAGES
It has been "hinted at for quite some time" but Rugby Australia CEO Raelene Castle confirmed that Australia will follow a similar centralized model to New Zealand’s to get the Wallabies and Super Rugby franchises "back on track." Castle revealed RA has been working for the past 10 months to achieve a "full high performance alignment and integration with the Super Rugby clubs and the Wallabies." Inevitably, the RA plan will be seen as "mimicking the system that has made the All Blacks so successful" but the model "has also worked in Ireland" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 9/5).
Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) Dir Yuri Ganus is "not optimistic" about his organization's chances of being reinstated when WADA meets this month to discuss its progress. RUSADA has "little control" over the two outstanding criteria for its reinstatement. For the agency to regain accreditation, Russian authorities must acknowledge the findings of a WADA-commissioned report. The authorities must also "provide access to urine samples stored at the suspended Moscow anti-doping laboratory" (REUTERS, 9/4).
