MELBOURNE, April 16 (Reuters) - Rugby Australia $(RA)$ reported a A$36.80 million ($23.33 million) loss for 2024 on Wednesday after embarking on a costly programme to integrate loss-making Super Rugby Pacific teams and spending millions propping up the Melbourne Rebels before they collapsed.

The loss adds to a A$9.2m deficit posted for 2023, when the Wallabies crashed out of the World Cup in France at the group stage, and outstrips the A$27.1m shortfall for 2020 during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite the red ink, the governing body was positive about the outlook and said it was now positioned to retain the "full up-side" of this year's British and Irish Lions tour and the coming 2027 World Cup on home soil.

"Rugby Australia made great progress in 2024 towards building a sustainable, thriving model for Australian Rugby," CEO Phil Waugh said in a statement.

"There is still much to do but the pathway to a prosperous future is clear."

RA said it spent more than A$10 million integrating the Canberra-based ACT Brumbies and Sydney-based New South Wales Waratahs under its management and more than A$5 million on the voluntary administration and exit of the Rebels.

More than A$9 million was paid to service an A$80 million loan taken out with a private lender in 2023.

Waugh said RA was forecasting a record surplus in 2025 on the back of the Lions tour, which should give it the option of exiting the loan.

The governing body then enters a new broadcasting deal with Nine Entertainment from 2026 on better terms than the previous deal.

($1 = 1.5775 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)

((ian.ransom@thomsonreuters.com; Follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/MyRansomNotes; +61 3 9286 1447;))