Beauden Barrett of the All Blacks drinks from the Bledisloe Cup in the dressing room after winning The Rugby Championship in 2019. Photo / Getty Images.
Beauden Barrett of the All Blacks drinks from the Bledisloe Cup in the dressing room after winning The Rugby Championship in 2019. Photo / Getty Images.
OPINION:
New Zealand Rugby revealed this week that it has a plan to reimagine the sport in this country.
If the game is to survive and thrive in the modern world, NZR says it needs to embrace inclusivity, diversity, player welfare, digital technologies and put rugby back at the heartof communities.
NZR chief executive Mark Robinson has promised to be bold as he seeks to lead this mission and he's warned that he and his organisation will inevitably endure some failures along the way as they try to reinvent the sport's place in society and New Zealand's cultural landscape.
As strategic visions go, this is 10 out of 10 territory, but the execution is destined to fail unless NZR is prepared to take the most radical and unthinkable step of cutting all ties with the booze industry and breaking – forever – the sport's long and troubled relationship with alcohol.
Robinson says he'll be bold – but will he have the bravery to reimagine rugby in this country with no links – financial or cultural – to the brewing giants?
Can he usher in a new world where NZR says it will no longer allow any team – club, provincial, Super Rugby or international – to accept alcohol sponsorship and even more radically, is the national body prepared to deny Lion and Heineken the pouring rights they so crave by insisting rugby games and events in this country be dry?
It may seem puritanical and unrealistic to imagine a world where no one is allowed to drink at the footie, or brewers aren't able to sponsor any team or competition, but it is the only way NZR can realistically achieve the goals it has set itself.
Rugby has wrongly convinced itself it is in a happy marriage with beer but it's not. The two have been bad for each other and it is time to divorce because alcohol is a barrier to all the big-ticket items NZR is reimagining.
NZR says it wants to build a sport that welcomes everyone regardless of gender, ethnicity or religious belief.
Yet while there are beer company logos splattered over so much kit and beer flowing as freely as it does through changing rooms, it would seem the chances of engaging the Muslim community are zero.
Everyone involved in rugby claims the sport is not burdened with the toxic drinking culture it once was, but the brewing industry is still the game's most prevalent sponsor and institutionalised drinking is still part of the fabric.
Steve Hansen, Head Coach of New Zealand and Warren Gatland, Head Coach of Wales in conversation at the 2019 World Cup. Photo / Getty Images.
Rugby hasn't cleaned its act up quite as it says it has. Initiation ceremonies still take place where new players must drink copiously to become accepted.
And sadly, no team in New Zealand knows how to celebrate a title win or major landmark victory with anything other than a solid piss-up.
A big night on the grog is still viewed as a reward – a special treat for a job well done and how many times in the last decade have bleary-eyed players shuffled out to media engagements the day after, barely able to open their eyes with a "we played as hard off the field as we did on it" sort of smirk.
It's not confined to the male game either as the Black Ferns sevens were eager to make sure everyone knew they celebrated their World Cup win in 2018 with vodka shots.
New Zealand, as a country, has a drinking problem – one inherited from the early British settlers.
But NZR needs to recognise that not all sections of New Zealand society understand this incessant need to drink to excess, or the custom of celebrating or commiserating with such liberal alcoholic intake.
The irony is that booze has long been sold as a means to create inclusivity – of breaking down barriers and building bonds between teammates - but it has in fact created exclusivity as an increasing number of New Zealanders simply don't want to have to sink six pints to be one of the gang.
Player welfare is a top priority for NZR and everyone knows that booze and brain injuries don't mix, and it is not some madly drawn long bow to suggest there that there is a real and direct danger having beer companies sponsoring a high-collision sport.
The medical and legal risks of having players who have suffered head trauma in changing rooms where booze is freely flowing are enormous.
All Black Matt Todd (L) speaks with coach Steve Hansen in the dressing room following the International Test match between the New Zealand All Blacks and France in 2018. Photo / Getty Images.
Winning with mana is a big part of NZR's reimagined world, too and that extends to how players conduct themselves off the field as much as it does on it.
And, again, NZR must be honest enough to accept that when there have been high-profile, off-field indiscretions in the last decade, almost always it's because the player in question has been intoxicated.
NZR can scream personal responsibility and cite the education it provides to players to help them understand alcohol and foster good drinking habits, but when the July tests against Ireland are called the Steinlager Series, it sends the most conflicting messages.
It is not enough for NZR to say the players are a product of their non-rugby environment and that their drinking habits are reflective of the country's poor relationship with alcohol, because the whole point of this reimagined world is for the sport to elevate itself to a higher code of ethics.
Heavy drinking is a societal problem, but it doesn't need to also be rugby's problem.
NZR wants rugby to be at the heart of communities but it can't be if it doesn't kick booze entirely out of the picture.
Booze has been a key driver in destroying lives – be it through alcohol-fuelled domestic abuse or drink-driving accidents – and rugby can't be taking handouts from the brewing industry and in the same breath trying to position itself as a community champion.
And there really is no point in NZR investing in all sorts of digital ways to enhance the stadium experience when the single greatest impediment to anyone enjoying being at a test remains the likelihood of finding themselves sat next to a group of obnoxiously drunk morons.
Test matches have somehow become a magnet for those who find glory in drinking to excess and therein lies the biggest problem with alcohol – not everyone can be trusted to use it in moderation.
Standing up to the brewing industry will take real courage as beer brands are invested in all levels of the game.
The power of big breweries is such that security staff at stadiums search fans on their way into a test match with the authority to confiscate any alcohol they find.
But this isn't to protect the experience from drunkenness – this is to protect the breweries' pouring rights, to make sure that big business fully profits from the drunkenness.
Some will say that to kick out the major brewers will be the death knell for community rugby as so many clubs and unions depend on beer sponsorships to remain viable.
But 30-odd years ago everyone feared that banning tobacco sponsorship would kill community sport.
It didn't because there were other corporates ready to step in, just as there will be if NZR can reimagine its new world being one that does not feature alcohol or alcohol sponsorship.
