ACT Brumbies chairman Matthew Nobbs is confident the Rugby Australia board can bring the sport "back to where it should be" following the departure of Raelene Castle as chief executive officer.
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Castle stepped down on Thursday night, with Rugby Australia chairman Paul McLean taking on her duties until an interim replacement is appointed.
As the search for new leadership begins, the governing body is ploughing ahead to cement a new broadcast deal and get a domestic Super Rugby alternative up and running by early July.
McLean says Rugby Australia does not want to lose momentum in those discussions and will split the business into three key areas; finance, rugby (from grassroots to international levels) and media, broadcast and stakeholders.
While Nobbs is disappointed with how the resignation of Castle played out, he's confident the Rugby Australia board, two of whom were recently elected by member unions, can take the game forward.
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"The disappointing thing about it is there's a lot of people making a lot of noise publicly and it's not necessary," Nobbs said.
"There are a lot of good things happening behind closed doors and obviously we've gone through a rough period of time, but things will get sorted.
"The people who have been brought onto the board, they're quality individuals who have had a lot of success nationally and internationally in business.
"They're doing it for the love of the game, they can see they can make a difference and get it back to where it should be."
Castle was poised to resume broadcast negotiations next week, with Rugby Australia still seeking a broadcast partner for 2021 and beyond.
Castle and Rugby Australia were days away from signing a significant deal with Optus before the coronavirus pandemic put those negotiations on halt.
Failure to secure a broadcast deal after spurning Fox Sports copped heavy criticism, but Nobbs flagged former Network Ten boss and board member Hamish McLennan to bring them back to the table.
"As much as Raelene did some good things, I think she probably got offside with Fox. I think they'll come back into the picture now if Hamish leads that," Nobbs said.
"He's the perfect person to pick up the broadcast discussions and get a deal done."
Nobbs says while there's "a bit of doom and gloom about" with governance struggles and the coronavirus shutdown, Rugby Australia should take this transition as a chance for a reset.
A domestic or trans-Tasman competition looms as the most likely scenario for Super Rugby this year but Nobbs sees that format as an option to revitalise the code for 2021 and beyond.
"Personally I think it's a great opportunity because there's a blank canvas now," Nobbs said.
"Let's get it up and running and change it up in 2021.
"Competitions where games are played at 2 or 4 in the morning doesn't make sense, then add the costs that go with it. I would have thought for a broadcaster, that's not attractive.
"If we can sit down and run a competition in the same timezone, you could have two Japanese teams, a Pacific Island team and then your New Zealand and Australian teams.
"You could play three games one after the other on a Saturday, then have Friday night fixtures. It's more eyeballs watching that content then previously."