NZ Rugby CEO Mark Robinson has been at the centre of a rocky road for the organisation in 2022. Photo / Photosport
Liam Napier takes a closer look at some of the biggest off-field issues in New Zealand rugby in 2022.
A year like no other in this regard for the All Blacks and Black Ferns.
Whatever you do, don’t mention a review.
First the All Blacks had their traditional post-season review; swiftly followed by the review after the first home series defeat in 27 years to Ireland, which foreshadowed another, yes, review once they returned from South Africa.
Through that turbulent time, assistant coaches received underwhelming player-led feedback, only to be retained out of loyalty. John Plumtree and Brad Mooar were then cast aside as pressure mounted on head coach Ian Foster’s position following the Irish series defeat.
One coach down, and with Jason Ryan parachuted in as forwards mentor, Foster led the All Blacks on a survival mission to South Africa, of all places.
A one-sided loss in Mbombela left Foster needing to conjure an improbable, defiant statement from the All Blacks at Ellis Park - the mecca of South African rugby - to save his tenure which, at that stage, was firmly in freefall after five defeats from his last six tests in charge.
Against all odds, set against the backdrop of a siege mentality, the All Blacks stunned the world champions on home soil after surrendering the lead late and rallying to score two tries in the final 10 minutes. That victory, in part, forced NZ Rugby to backflip on the definitive regime change mood.
The morning after the upset, NZR chief executive Mark Robinson held a zoom media conference from his Johannesburg hotel that lasted for eight protracted minutes in which he would neither confirm nor deny Foster’s future because, at that point, no final decision had been made.
Coupled with the Ellis Park triumph, vocal support from senior All Blacks - who voiced their views to Robinson in South Africa - and Joe Schmidt’s elevation from analyst to full-time assistant coach/selector, ultimately proved telling factors in Foster’s knife-edge retention over Scott Robertson through to the World Cup.
Two days after the All Blacks arrived home, during a hastily-arranged press conference at NZ Rugby’s Auckland headquarters, the irony was inescapable as Foster placed an awkward arm around Robinson’s shoulder.
How different that press conference could easily have been.
With Ryan and Schmidt injected, the All Blacks now boast an infinitely improved coaching team – yet it took them two-and-a-half years to get there.
Before scaling their giddy heights, the Black Ferns endured major upheaval too, after record losses against England and France on last year’s northern tour and their damning cultural review led to Glenn Moore’s resignation in April.
Wayne Smith then guided a miracle seven-month transformation, alongside Mike Cron, Graham Henry, Wes Clarke, Whitney Hansen and Allan Bunting. The big question now is who assumes the mantle?
Grade: C
A sea change that first emerged in May 2020, before being revealed in full detail by the Herald nine months later, lurched well into this year as New Zealand rugby’s many puppeteers pulled the national body into an ugly public dogfight.
The essence of the push towards partnering with a US private investment firm was built on genuine foundations. New Zealand Rugby’s business model was broken – the future unsustainable. Spending more than the game earned could not continue.
Driven by a desire to reshape the funding model, to increase revenues and investment in the grassroots, alongside decreasing the overall hefty players’ share, NZ Rugby set out to tackle the largest transaction in the history of New Zealand sport.
Silver Lake emerged as the preferred partner after tabling an initial $465m offer for a 15 per cent slice of NZ Rugby’s commercial rights.
Cue the two-year fallout.
The Players’ Association, through their collective bargaining process, vetoed the deal to spark a heated rift between headquarters and the country’s leading current and former players that would culminate in their relationship hitting rock bottom.
Former NZ Rugby chairman Brent Impey led the attack by claiming, among other accusations, that the players would be “scoring the greatest own goal in the history of sport” should they continue to blockade the deal.
Before the two parties eventually brokered an agreement, following prolonged and costly meditation, Richie McCaw, Kieran Read and Conrad Smith emerged to pointedly question the national body as claims and counter claims further pried open the divide.
By February, the players and NZ Rugby finally settled their differences and signed off a vastly more complex deal that involved Silver Lake purchasing an initial 5.7 per cent stake for $200m.
New Zealand institutional investors will later be able to buy $100m, with Silver Lake potentially underwriting as much as $62.5m, which would increase their stake to 8.5 per cent.
New Zealand’s 26 provincial unions, having unanimously approved the sale of a 12.5 per cent stake worth $387.5m early last year, were forced to vote again on the reshaped deal in June.
Despite one vote against the new deal – thought to have been cast out of frustration by Auckland – it was belatedly signed off by all parties in June.
Such a monumental change was always going to cause major ructions but the painstaking public fallout landed several black eyes for the sport.
The worst of the deep fractures largely occurred before this year. With overdue progress made, a marginal pass is granted thanks to the eventually agreed deal.
Grade: C-
The infamous cancelled press conference at the InterContinental in Wellington, the day after the All Blacks’ third test loss to Ireland, is the flashpoint of a relationship that hit its lowest ebb this year.
Yet the cracks began to show long before then.
Behind the scenes throughout the Irish series, reporters were often probed about innocuous questions or headlines that caused apparent offence, with pressure gradually building following the first test victory at Eden Park.
As results and performances soured, so too did the mood surrounding daily interactions with those leading the All Blacks.
To be fair to Foster, it seems the decision to cancel his standard Sunday press call to dissect the Irish series defeat was made for him.
With journalists from all major media outlets not told, however, and instead left standing outside the hotel for a press conference scheduled three weeks prior, this was a communication blunder of the highest order. It left the impression Foster and the All Blacks were ducking for cover as scrutiny reached fever pitch.
A matter of hours after it became apparent the All Blacks had gone to ground, NZR chief executive Mark Robinson issued a strongly-worded statement, saying the Irish series defeat was ‘unacceptable’.
That was the last anyone heard from the All Blacks or NZ Rugby hierarchy until Foster delivered his highly emotive address at Auckland airport to declare “I’m Ian Foster and I’m the All Blacks head coach”.
The week-long code of silence prior to Foster fronting, while a review that determined the assistant coaches’ future took place, let wildfire speculation run amock.
The fallout from the Irish series clearly took a toll.
In South Africa the All Blacks could not hide their disdain for the small New Zealand touring media contingent, with interactions cut to the bare minimum, with those that did take place largely shrouded in frost.
After the victory at Ellis Park, Foster seized the platform to address what he deemed to be vicious personal attacks - completely dismissing reportage of one of the worst periods in All Blacks history.
Relations have since thawed, somewhat, but the residual strained-grudge remained evident for much of the test season.
The Black Ferns comparison is not entirely fair from a scrutiny perspective, but there are obvious lessons for the elite men’s game to glean from the women’s authentic and engaging attitudes prevalent throughout their successful home World Cup campaign.
Grade: D
First and foremost, New Zealand Rugby’s harshest critics seemingly fail to recognise the national body had to bid to secure the rights to host the World Cup.
Without that, Eden Park doesn’t twice sell-out to host record attendances, the Black Ferns don’t get to soak in such memorable occasions and potentially don’t win the tournament.
It was disappointing Wellington, Dunedin and Christchurch, where half the team originated from, and other provincial centres didn’t host matches.
In an ideal world the entire country would have revelled in the crowd diversity and family friendly atmospheres - driven by affordable price points and triple-header matches - that emerged in vast contrast to the men’s game. Instead the tournament was confined to the upper North Island.
In a Covid climate, though, New Zealand is thought to have won the hosting rights from World Rugby on a cost-price basis.
The scheduling blunder that pitted the All Blacks test in Japan against the Black Ferns’ quarter-final with Wales was the other avoidable black mark.
Otherwise, though, the tournament was a roaring success; a stake in the ground for the women’s game globally.
The Black Ferns, significantly bolstered for the first time by a proper high performance ecosystem and their high-powered revamped coaching team, captivated the country to generate a groundswell of interest en route to their sixth, and most unlikely, world title.
Grade: A-
Impey set off a firestorm when he led the expressions of interest process to join Super Rugby Pacific that effectively told Rugby Australia to cut two, possibly three, teams to join the revamped competition.
Over the last 18 months NZ Rugby paid the price for that brutally blunt approach.
Impey’s logic could be deemed sound enough, but the delivery was all wrong. New Zealand need Australia almost as much as the reverse is true. Alienating our closest partner was not wise.
Ructions that flared this year were partly tied to that grievance, and partly driven by Australia’s desperate need to supplement their lightweight broadcast deal.
Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan planted the power-play with a carefully timed bomb by threatening, on the week of the sold-out Super Rugby final between the Crusaders and Blues, that Australia could walk away from the competition beyond next year.
New Zealand Rugby bosses opted to absorb the barbs and lay low, preferring to try to negotiate a private resolution while McLennan continued to land public haymakers and undermine a tournament attempting to recapture interest.
Six months on from McLennan’s ultimatum, the national bodies breached the standoff last week, with NZ Rugby forced to increase their annual payment to Rugby Australia from $5m to $8-9m for the next two years.
McLennan achieved Australia’s ultimate aim of gaining an uplift, though not the 50/50 revenue split he publicly called for, while casting himself as the boy who cried wolf on the threat to walk away to stage a domestic-only competition.
While a commitment to Super Rugby Pacific through to 2030 was reached, broadcast deals must be renegotiated beyond 2025 before a long-term revenue-sharing agreement can be agreed.
Expect McLennan to throw the toys again at that juncture if Australia aren’t happy with their proposed share.
The other major issue hanging over Super Rugby now stems back to Impey’s original point: Australia do not have the player depth or revenue to sustain their five teams; and it is impossible to see that dynamic changing.
Grade: B
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