The top-selling item of Wallabies merchandise will not feature the Aboriginal flag after Rugby Australia baulked at paying a “seven-figure” sum in copyright fees.
The 2020 Wallabies First Nations jersey hit stores this month and is expected to once again fly off the racks, with the Australian Test team tipped to wear the jersey in a home Bledisloe Cup Test in October.
But in ongoing fallout from the Indigenous flag licensing controversy, which has hit all sports, the hugely popular Wallabies jersey and all other Australian representative and Indigenous team jerseys will not feature the Aboriginal flag.
Rugby Australia also confirmed the flag would not be displayed on field at the Test, as it was in Brisbane in 2017, even though physical flags can be bought as licensed products. The AFL made a similar call for their Indigenous round, two weeks ago.
“WAM clothing were demanding 20 per cent of the sales for the use of images of the flags,” Lloyd McDermott Rugby president Dean Duncan told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“The Wallabies Indigenous jersey is rugby’s highest-selling product, we sell out and it’s a limited edition, so the cost to Rugby Australia was going to be at least in the seven figures.
“The biggest disappointment is not being able to identify under an image that is synonymous with our people.
“Having that flag on a jersey is essentially the same as having the Australian crest on the chest of the Wallabies jersey. If you take away that crest – or in this case our flag – it takes away an emotional link to a team that people have.”
An image of the flag was displayed on the right-hand sleeve of the Wallabies Indigenous jersey in 2017 and 2018, when Australia wore it against England at Twickenham on the spring tour.
Early last year WAM Clothing issued cease and desist orders to RA and other national sporting bodies, Indigenous healthcare and educational authorities and clothing manufacturers.
RA made the decision to stop using the flag’s image in concert with the other major football codes in May last year, a move Duncan said was the right call and had the support of rugby’s Indigenous communities. Indigenous Wallaby Kurtley Beale, Test captain Michael Hooper and Duncan were all consulted on the decision.
The Wallabies wore a variation of the Dennis Golding-designed print as their alternate strip at the Rugby World Cup in October, minus the Aboriginal flag.
