The Brumbies struggled last season and will be without star-attraction Matt Giteau for the new season © Getty Images

Enlarge

Related Links

Tournaments/Tours: Super Rugby

Teams: Australia | Brumbies

The Brumbies insist they will only seek funds from the Australian Rugby Union as a last resort as they face up to a cash-flow crisis.

The Australian franchise have been cast into financial uncertainty less than two months before the new Super Rugby season after Chinese telecommunications and technology giant Huawei pulled out of a sponsorship deal worth AUS$4 milllion.

The Brumbies still hope to revive the four-year deal or find a new principal sponsor prior to the Super Rugby season starting on February 24. However if those avenues prove fruitless, Brumbies chief executive Andrew Fagan admits a temporary cash injection from the ARU could be an option.

"If we need assistance, the ARU has assured us that they will provide it," Fagan told Canberra Times. "But our first step is to see if anything can be resolved with Huawei.

"Subject to it being delayed or deferred, we need to look for another partner. If that takes longer than we would like, then the ARU sits there as one organisation that could provide cash-flow support. It's not a long-term issue for us, it's a short-term cash flow issue.

Computer Associates ended their 15-year sponsorship of the team last season as the two-time champions recorded their worst ever finish in Super Rugby history. However Fagan said the Chinese company had been very close to concluding the deal.

"It got to the stage of approving jersey designs," Fagan said. "We were awaiting the global board's rubber stamping of the agreement, which I understand was received last week.

"There were some unrelated issues that arose that Huawei needed to address, that essentially meant instead of signing contracts on Thursday we received notification that they weren't able to confirm the sponsorship."