Former Wallabies player John Welborn claims the Australian Rugby Union took ownership of the Western Force last year with the intention to axe the Super Rugby franchise.
The Force are on death’s door after being told on Friday they are being culled by the ARU.
Billionaire mining magnate Andrew Forrest has vowed to fight the decision, with his lawyers now drawing up an injunction notice in a bid to take the matter to the Supreme Court.
Whether the Force wins a right of appeal remains to be seen.
Welborn, who is good friends with Forrest, believes the ARU’s campaign to axe the Force began in June last year when the two parties formed an ‘alliance’.
That alliance was effectively a bailout takeover after the Force hit financial strife.
Under the deal, the ARU took ownership of the Force and guaranteed the franchise’s future until the end of the broadcast deal in 2020.
The Force were confident they could turn around their financial woes within that period, allowing them to eventually buy back the licence.
The ARU announced in April that it would axe either the Force or Rebels as part of a reduced 15-team Super competition.
But Welborn, who was a foundation player at the Force, believes the plan to axe the Perth-based outfit was hatched about a year prior to that.
“If you go back, what’s happened is the ARU have formed an alliance with the Western Force, and then have used that alliance as the mechanism to cut them from the competition,” Welborn told the ABC.
“So it appears obvious that the decision around going from five to four (teams) was known by the ARU at the time that alliance was formed.
“It wasn’t known by RugbyWA.”
As well as appealing the decision to axe them, the Force are also considering taking out legal action over the circumstances which led to the alliance deal.
Welborn slammed the lack of transparency in the axing process, and said the ARU’s handling of the matter was cowardly.
The ARU claim cutting the Force, and not the Rebels, is in the best interests of Australian rugby.
Retiring ARU chief executive Bill Pulver said his organisation conducted an “exhaustive analysis, a massive spreadsheet” on all the variables that went into the decision.
He said axing the Force made the most sense.
Welborn doubts that very much.
“Everywhere in Australian rugby, there is a broad-base view that this is a very strange decision, and it’s not one based on the best interests of rugby,” Welborn said.
“I’d like the ARU to release the criteria on which they’ve made this decision.”