Escapade Media Secures Rights to Australian Rugby Doc

Escapade Media has secured the worldwide rights for the new documentary Gold Digger: The Search for Australian Rugby.

From Matt Durrant’s Raging Board Productions, the documentary examines the rise and fall of an Australian rugby team. At the turn of the century, the Wallabies were world champions with a massive financial windfall, but in just a few short years, the money was all gone, the Wallabies were easy to beat and rugby was on the cusp of irrelevance.

Durrant, a long-time Wallabies supporter, set out to find why the team had fallen so far and why the sport is on the precipice of a financial crisis.

“This film represents two things that interest me: rugby union and mysteries,” said Durrant. “How this sport emerged as Australia’s fourth favorite football code to capture World Cups and the attention of the nation at its peak in 2003, and then gradually slipped back into relative obscurity has both bothered and intrigued me. Gold Digger is my attempt as a fan and filmmaker to make sense of just what has happened to the game of rugby union in Australia by talking to the very people who have been a part of it and provide answers to this mystery.”

Natalie Lawley, managing director of Escapade Media, added, “With the postponed Rugby World Cup due to be held in New Zealand next year and then closely followed by the scheduled World Cup in France in 2023, this documentary is perfectly timed. Matt provides an intimate insight into Australian rugby and their future.”