There have been ructions in the New Zealand Rugby boardroom. Illustration / Paul Slater
For eight long months, New Zealand Rugby’s (NZR) biggest test has been happening behind the scenes.
NZR has been at loggerheads with the provincial unions about reforming governance for the country’s most popular sport.
NZ Herald sports writer Gregor Paul told The Front Page the saga began when the Pilkington report, released in August 2023, confirmed what everybody already knew: the governance structure, and the way the NZ Rugby board of directors is appointed, isn’t fit for purpose.
“What has happened is we’ve had an eight-month period now where the New Zealand Rugby Union and the provinces separately have tried to reimagine the report and create their own blueprints for a governance structure.
“The Pilkington review said that the current process is not fit for purpose. And you could argue now that the fact that it’s taken eight months to get not get any closer to any kind of agreement is indeed evidence that it’s not fit for purpose,” Paul said.
Paul said that another roadblock comes in the form of the sheer number of top directorships and executives.
“There are currently 25 directors on New Zealand Rugby’s payroll. We have nine directors working for New Zealand Rugby Commercial, which is a new company housing all the money. We’ve got nine directors on the New Zealand Rugby Board. We’ve got a new Super Rugby Commission. And we have a Sanzaar Board, which now just looks after the logistics involved in Super Rugby and the Rugby Championship.”
There is a potential end in sight. A meeting is in the pipeline in the coming weeks after provincial unions applied to hold a special general meeting.
The proposal the unions have lodged is to restructure the NZR board to comprise nine independent directors, one of whom must have lived experience with te ao Māori in a complex organisational context, one of whom must identify as Pasifika, and at least three members in total to have had a minimum of two years’ experience serving on a provincial union board.
NZR’s board can respond by amending the proposal, presenting its own, or calling a separate meeting. The board’s chairwoman Dame Patsy Reddy, has previously vowed to resign if the demand for two years’ experience is not dropped.
Paul said that observers following this saga are “shaking their head, going, ‘this is a mess’.
“We need to go to ground zero and sort this out before kids just don’t want to play the game, people don’t want to go and watch the game, and anyone who’s half good at it in this country is going off to go and play in Europe or Japan because there’s not really a lot for them here.
“I don’t want to be doom-mongering about that, but that’s what will happen if there is not a sustainable plan put in place.”
Listen to the full episode for the complete story on how this saga got so messy, and whether it’s having an impact on how the game is being played on the field.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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