(L-R) Ian Foster, Sophie Moloney, Rob Nichol and Ruby Tui.
Rugby has become a billion-dollar industry in the past few years, having attracted investment from US fund manager Silver Lake as well as Britain’s richest man, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, and a host of multi-national corporations such as technology group SAP and Japanese pharmaceutical giant Taisho.
Other major players from Japan and the US have bought New Zealand-based rugby businesses, while local broadcaster Sky continues to pump more than $100 million a year into the game.
Across the wider landscape there are high-profile business figures – people with experience running the largest companies in Australasia – in governance positions.
But while rugby has morphed into a business since it turned professional, its ability to make money remains wedded to performance on the field and the ability to produce high-quality players and coaches who can deliver victories.
There are big hitters in the boardroom, but so too are there big hitters in the changing room, leading Gregor Paul to ask, who are rugby’s 30 most influential power brokers?
Stern Vern, after a long stint in France, which subsequently saw him also coach Scotland and then Fiji, has found himself installed at the Blues.
The same Blues who have been the country’s most disappointing club for the past 20 years.
While that hasn’t troubled the massive anti-Auckland brigade, it should, as the decline of the Blues has had a major impact on reducing rugby’s footprint in the country’s largest city.
With more than one million people, Auckland should easily be the epicentre of the national sport, but it’s not.
Rugby doesn’t register in Auckland the way it once did and while some of this is due to the city’s changing demographics and increased alternative sporting choices, the lack of success delivered by the highest-profile team has been a factor.
The city needs more players, more fans and more commercial interest to be generated if the game is to retain its place as the national sport, and its undeniable that a stronger Auckland would lead to a stronger New Zealand.
Cotter could turn the dial some way in the right direction if he can deliver the Blues their first Super Rugby title since 2003.
When he was confirmed in the role a few weeks ago, he seemed to realise the pressure he will immediately be under when he said: “Everyone is a competitor. We will come together and want to win titles. That’s what this is about. It’s two years to win a title. There will be no excuses we’re straight into it.”
Kelly Evans is New Zealand’s only accredited female player agent and while she doesn’t restrict herself to only having women clients, most of the rugby players she manages are Black Ferns or Black Ferns Sevens players.
Her influence is set to increase markedly given the impending growth of women’s rugby in New Zealand and the need for an increasing number of players to have strong representation and career guidance.
Having entered the industry at a time when women’s rugby was struggling for traction and profile, Evans has already gained a reputation as the go-to agent for leading female athletes and her standing is such, that she will be a strong and credible in shaping the direction of professional rugby for women in New Zealand.
She told the Herald earlier this month: “Super Rugby Aupiki needs to expand beyond four rounds it just has to for its continuation and sustainability.
“I think that is the ideal to expand into a trans-Tasman competition, but I think we also need to have more than four rounds in Super Rugby Aupiki to build that fan base and commercial viability, it needs to be longer.”
The lawyer turned entrepreneur decided to stand down as a NZR board member this year, but he remains a powerful and influential figure in professional rugby through his position with World Rugby.
Campbell, who is intelligent, diplomatic and steeped in old school values, understands New Zealand’s specific issues, the traditions of the sport and the need for it to present as a modern, entertainment product.
He is now head of World Rugby’s commercial committee and widely respected by his global governance peers.
Which is important, because the game’s geo-politics are constantly challenging, and with the balance of power sitting with the Six Nations, New Zealand needs a calm and strong presence around the table to ensure its interests are carefully and appropriately represented.
New Zealand is going to come under increasing pressure to relent and agree to shift the Rugby Championship to a March-April window to protect the welfare of the South Africans and Argentinians.
So too is there going to be a long battle ahead to persuade the North to soften its stance on red cards, to simplify some of the current laws around the breakdown and to help facilitate a more flowing, dynamic game that holds more appeal to Southern Hemisphere audiences.
Decisions made at World Rugby HQ in Dublin have incredible power to be felt in Auckland.
Women’s rugby is exploding in popularity and has a chance to build the commercial foundation it needs to become a self-sustaining professional entity.
Unlike the men’s game, women’s rugby is building itself around the cult of personality and is deliberately and cleverly promoting individuals who have star power and the ability to inspire the next generation of players.
In terms of star power, there are not many to match Woodman-Wickliffe, whose try-scoring exploits have made her one of the most compelling figures in the global women’s game.
She’s also a strong voice in driving greater gender equity and while she is now 32, New Zealand Rugby will be hoping she can keep herself fit enough to be part of the next World Cup campaign in 2025.
She remains an important part of the national body’s drive to win more followers for women’s rugby and drive interest in the sport yet higher.
It’s only a guess, but an educated one, that Scott Barrett is going to take over the All Blacks captaincy next year and most likely keep the job through to the 2027 World Cup.
It makes sense, as he and incoming All Blacks coach Scott Robertson know each other well and worked neatly in tandem this year when the Crusaders won their seventh successive championship.
Barrett would represent a return to a forgotten age of the All Blacks captain being a man of action and few words: a man of the land and unlikely to feel any need to have any active social media accounts.
As All Blacks captain, he will be instrumental in creating the team’s culture and determining their success.
The modern game may have multiple leaders on the field, but the All Blacks captain remains a sacrosanct and special role with unique powers to influence the national mood and level of confidence about the team’s chances.
Kevin Malloy, in his former life as an advertising executive, worked on the accounts of some of the largest companies in the world.
He spent 17 years overseas, seeing how big companies grew their presence and managed their brands and so he knows plenty about marketing and how to find and engage an audience to keep them loyal to a product.
All of which is decidedly handy in his new role – if its ever signed off - as chair of the soon-to-be-set-up Super Rugby Commission.
At the end of last year NZR and Rugby Australia committed to Super Rugby Pacific until 2030 and under the terms of that deal, it was agreed that a new commission would be set up which would have a remit to drive commercial revenue, oversee rules and regulations, shape the future strategic direction and generate fan-first initiatives.
It was being set up to take the lower-level decision-making and day-to-day running out of the hands of Sanzar, the Sydney-based administrative company owned, funded and governed by the respective national unions of New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Argentina.
Effectively, the commission will be a super—charged marketing arm to try to reposition Super Rugby Pacific as a must-watch competition and try to bring fans back to stadiums.
New Zealand has two super-power player agencies and while Halo currently sits as the bigger player with the greater number of high-profile on its books, Wasserman has the potential to change the domestic landscape.
The US firm began life as a Hollywood talent agency – representing the likes of Ronald Regan and Frank Sinatra – before branching out to represent musicians and athletes.
It shifted its attention to rugby last year, with New Zealand being of particular interest given the already major presence of the code and the arrival of US fund manager Silver Lake, and bought established local firm, Esportif.
That purchase has given the agency the potential to greatly boost the profile and earning potential of its clients, who include Richie Mo’unga, Rieko Ioane, Jack Goodhue and Roger Tuivasa-Scheck among its local clients.
And so too has the arrival of the deep-pocketed Wasserman elevated the influence of former All Black Craig Innes, who is the managing director.
“It’s a coming of age for rugby when an agency the calibre of Wasserman decides it’s time to get involved,” Innes told the Herald lasty year.
“Being part of Wasserman gives us access to resources and relationships within Wasserman’s sports talent, music, brands and properties divisions that will take our service offering to another level, expanding our influence and providing an enhanced platform for our clients to share with some of the most elite and iconic athletes on the planet.”
The Auckland lock became the youngest Black Ferns captain in history when, at just 21, she skippered the side against USA last week.
Roos, who was a key part of the Black Ferns World Cup captain, is the younger face the national sides to continue to inspire and engage its growing fan base.
She is charismatic, funny, driven and in naming a 21-year-old to captain the Black Ferns, women’s rugby is proving that it can follow its own path.
“Throughout my time in the Black Ferns, Maia has been exceptional, a true professional both on and off the field and her presence is widely felt,” Black Ferns coach Allan Bunting said in explaining why he had made Roos captain.
“A key member of our leadership group now, her daily habits and actions transition into consistent performance. She is a good human and is always looking out to help others. We have great confidence in her captaining the Black Ferns.”
It’s also true that the Ferns need a next generation of stars as the current highest profile players – the like of Woodman-Wickliffe, Rugby Tui and Sarah Hirini are reaching the end of their careers.
Roos has the potential to become one of the longest-serving and highest profile female players in history.
Simon Paterson is not a name many will recognise, but he’s been playing a significant role in the future of the game in New Zealand for more than a year now.
Paterson, alongside his Silver Lake colleague Stephen Evans, is one of the two directors the US fund manager has sitting on the NZ Commercial Company board following its purchase of an equity stake in NZR last year.
Having been instrumental in getting the $200m deal over the line, Paterson now has a key role in ensuring that his firm’s investment delivers the expected returns.
That means he will have influence in NZR’s broadcast strategy, will have a firm hand in determining where and against whom the All Blacks play additional test matches and most significantly, much of the responsibility for finding and monetising new offshore All Blacks fans sits with him.
David Kirk has mostly kept a low profile in his 20 years serving as chair of the New Zealand Rugby Players’ Association.
But that all changed in 2021 when the former All Blacks captain took on a more public role in trying to explain why the players were opposed to doing the original deal with Silver Lake, which world see the US fund manager take a 15 per cent stake in the commercial assets of NZR.
Kirk, who himself runs a private equity investment house in Australia, is not only a treasured former All Black, but a revered business executive with incredible intellect and high personal integrity.
He was uncomfortable with the process which NZR was applying in trying to force through the deal and also with the specifics – arguing that the national body hadn’t properly assessed alternative capital raising options and nor was it wise to sell off such a large chunk of the game’s core commercial properties.
Once he entered the public arena making compelling arguments against the deal, it turned the weight of opinion against NZR, which was then accelerated when the national body chair, Brent Impey, called Kirk disingenuous on a ZB radio show.
Another former All Black captain, Taine Randell, recently told the Herald that was a big moment in changing the nature of the discussion about the deal and highlighted how someone of Kirk’s standing is needed in the game.
“It was really disappointed during the Silver Lake debate when David Kirk, the chairman of the Rugby Players’ Association, who I thought made some reasonably sensible suggestions, was bad mouthed by that guy [Brent] Impey, who was the chairman of the rugby union,” Randall said.
“David Kirk won the first World Cup, he’s a Rhodes scholar, with a commercial background in the top percentage, with a huge experience across a number of walks of life.
“The way Impey dismissed him was disrespectful, considering how emotional the subject was, of selling the All Blacks, and that it was someone like David Kirk he was talking about.
“If anyone is incredibly qualified to be the chairman of NZR it’s actually David Kirk. They should eat some humble pie and give him a call. It’s a no brainer. We need people like him there, either on the board or co-opted.”
Kirk’s intrusion saved NZR from making a terrible mistake and it highlighted how he still manages to be a steadying influence on the national game.
The former Black Fern has become a key figure in the broadcast industry now that TVNZ has “inherited” most of the now defunct Spark Sport’s contents rights.
From being out of the picture, TVNZ now has a chance to establish itself as a serious Free to Air (FTA) sports broadcaster and put rugby back into every living room in New Zealand.
TVNZ’s former head of content and now digital transition manager, Cate Slater, told the Herald earlier this year: “I think giving rugby a free to air presence would do huge things for exposure to the sport, participation, helping stadia get full again.
“It helps with sponsorship exposure – more people see the brands on the fronts of the jerseys. I think there is a way of doing it which doesn’t cannibalise a pay model.”
As head of sport, Robinson, much respected and admired in the wider rugby fraternity, will be responsible for seeing if the state broadcaster can find a way to break the monopoly of Sky and negotiate some kind of package to take the All Blacks back to TVNZ.
New Zealanders may not like this fact, but the future health of rugby in this country is inextricably linked with the health of the game in Australia.
There’s no getting away from the fact that these two nations are “stuck” with each other.
The geopolitics of rugby are such that everyone needs to be part of an alliance and New Zealand’s partner is always going to be Australia.
Which is a worry because the game is struggling across the Tasman. Participation is dropping, profile is at an all-time low and Australia simply doesn’t have the players to effectively run five Super Rugby teams.
McLennan has presented himself as the saviour: as the bullish chairman who secured Eddie Jones for the Wallabies and is now going to orchestrate targeted recruitment raids on the NRL.
He’s bombastic and unpredictable but he’s also making progress as Rugby Australia, having lost millions in recent years, posted an $8m profit this year.
He recently told the Herald: “The issues Rugby Australia have been dealing with over a long period of time are completely self-inflicted. “We haven’t had pathways from the amateur to professional game but we have lots of good players so we must think long term. It’s our fault, but just give us a bit of time to get our house in order.”
McLennan has also thrown around some good ideas about how to jazz up Super Rugby – with a draft system – and his energy, ruthless edge and determination may just enable rugby in Australia to grow and prosper.
The former All Black is the current chair of the Moana Pasifika trust and is both the figurehead and driving force for a club which has an enormously important role to play in rebalancing and enhancing the rugby ecosystem.
Moana has two key roles to play, the first of which is to build itself into a commercially viable club, with the players and support base to add value to Super Rugby.
The competition needs more competitive teams, more fans, more sponsors, and more media interest throughout the region.
The potential of Moana is undeniable, but since launching in 2022, they have struggled to sign quality players, have won just three games and they haven’t been able to build the fan base they expected to.
If the club is to survive, it needs more financial resources to be able to better compete for Pasifika talent, and it needs to find a suitable permanent home as that things haven’t worked out at Mount Smart in South Auckland.
Jones has the connections, reputation and mana to open doors for the club and to give it a strong, passionate and credible voice in all the right places.
His presence also helps with the club’s second key goal which is to be a magnet and then a pathway for the best Pasifika talent to transition into the test sides of Samoa and Tonga.
New Zealand, to support its ambitions, doesn’t just need Super Rugby to up its level, so too does it need to for the wider Pacific region to develop more high-quality international sides.
If the game is to grow globally and create more commercial opportunity in the test arena, it needs more contenders and for Samoa and Tonga to be able to access their players in a way they currently aren’t.
Six of the current All Blacks side were born in the Islands and one third of the team identifies as Pasifika – illustrating that the best Fijians, Tongans and Samoans are still gravitating to the better resourced nations.
All Blacks forwards coach Jason Ryan is going to be the sole survivor of the current regime when Scott Robertson takes over next year.
He’ll be the only member of the new coaching group with inside knowledge about how the team has been operating and that elevates his influence and importance.
But more importantly, the nature of test rugby is such, that the All Blacks can’t expect to compete on the international stage if their forward pack can’t deliver the required level of physicality.
Rugby, more than ever, has become a game of collisions and when the All Blacks weren’t getting this bit right between 2020 and July 2022, they posted a win ratio of just 70 per cent and slipped to fifth in the world rankings.
Whatever ambitions the All Blacks hold in the next World Cup cycle, they can only be achieved if Ryan remains on top of his game.
The former All Blacks captain has not had much interest or desire to be involved in rugby since hanging up his boots in 2015.
He’s been happy enough to throw himself at endurance events and potter around in his various businesses.
But mid-way through 2021 he felt compelled to make sure his voice was heard when he didn’t like the way NZR was trying to force through the deal with Silver Lake.
He knew that he had the power to sway the debate and help put the brakes on a deal he felt was going to be disastrous for the national game.
He told the Herald in May 2021: “I was trying to be as open-minded as possible, because we’re a small country, and there’s always the challenge about there being enough money in the game to compete. “But there’s also the feeling of ‘What happens down the track? Is it the right thing? What are the risks?’ You’d like to stack it up against the other options.
“Being told [by NZ Rugby] that’s the only option and we take it or leave it, does make you wonder.
“I can see how a whole lot of money coming in would make people feel pretty excited about it. But when you talk with people about private equity, the feedback I get is to be very careful, that you have to understand the motivation, which is to make money off it. Straight away that scares me.”
In typical McCaw fashion, once he stepped in he stayed in the fight, becoming one of the lead negotiators in revising the deal and getting across the line.
And due to his knowledge and standing, he was given a place on the newly formed NZ Commercial Company board.
His role there will be to ensure that commercial initiatives don’t negatively impact the team – to help his fellow board members understand how a desire to make money can get in the way of the team’s performance.
His will be a hugely important voice as one of the great fears currently held by those with recent experience inside the All Blacks is that they are being overly commercialised and pushed too hard to grow revenue.
While he doesn’t have much in the way of corporate or governance experience, he’s considered a door opener – the sort of name with enough pull and gravitas to attract big name sponsors, investors and commercial partners to the All Blacks.
The chief executive of Halo, New Zealand’s largest sports agency, is an instrumental force in shaping the careers of hundreds of professional players.
Porter, an industry veteran, is a trusted confidante, advisor and agent to at least half the current All Blacks side.
His knowledge of overseas markets and global trends has been invaluable in determining the career choices made by many leading players and he was one of the guiding hands in paving the way for Daniel Carter to take a sabbatical in 2009 – a trend that is now common and critical in keeping the best players in New Zealand longer term.
With Halo owned by corporate giant Dentsu, it’s inevitable that Porter will have a huge role in helping NZR foster closer links with Japan, which seems set to soon be asked to join the Rugby Championship.
Not only is Ardie Savea a world-class operator whose athleticism, power and ball skills are critical to the way the All Blacks want to play, he’s also a role model and mentor to emerging players, particular those of Pasifika heritage.
To some extent, Savea has also shown how commitment and belief can overcome a lack of size. At 1.88m and 103kg, he’s relatively tiny in comparison with his international No 8 peers, but he’s shown that speed, leg-drive, anticipation and agility can be more effective than brute force.
But his bigger influence in the game has been to show that rugby players don’t need to conform to any traditional ideas about how to manage their careers.
In 2021, he decided to ditch his long-term agency Halo – who look after many of the country’s biggest stars such as Dan Carter, Richie McCaw, Beauden Barrett, Aaron Smith and Kieran read – and negotiated his own contract extension.
Shortly after that, he announced he had signed with US rapper, Kanye West’s agency, Roc Nation.
“For me, it was about doing something different,” Savea. “It was all about patience and changing the narrative, challenging the system.”
With his own fashion brand, and a strong interest in promoting mental well-being, Savea is redefining what it means to be a rugby player in the modern age and repositioning the sport away from its historic, toxic male culture.
Dame Patsy has become one of the country’s most respected business and legal figures having worked in the investment world, held multiple directorships and of course having served as governor general.
Smart and experienced, Dame Patsy has also gained strong exposure to large scale mergers and acquisitions through her time with Brierley Investments.
She now finds herself serving as chair of NZR as well as sitting on the board of NZ Commercial Company – giving her significant influence in all areas of the game.
Her key task on the NZR board is to bring a firm and fair hand to a relatively inexperienced group of directors, who have not always been united in their recent past.
She also has a key role to play in helping NZR rebuild a number of damaged relationships with various partners and stakeholders, particularly Rugby Australia.
Essentially, she needs to lead the mission to persuade the rest of the rugby world that NZR is an organisation that can be trusted and within New Zealand, she needs to persuade a sceptical rugby fraternity that the national body has its act together after a series of mishandled events.
As the All Blacks coach in waiting, Scott “Razor” Robertson is the man who will be responsible for re-establishing the All Blacks as the dominant force in the world game.
The last few years have been tough for the All Blacks. Their win ratio has dropped from the 88 per cent delivered by Steve Hansen between 2012 and 2019, to not quite 70 per cent.
Not only have results declined, but so too has the national team lost some of its aura by not only failing to deliver endless commanding performances as they used to, but also because of the unseemly way coach Ian Foster has been handled.
Razor is coming in with a mandate to reset the All Blacks as a powerful rugby force, but just as importantly, his employer is looking for him to change the way the team interacts with media, sponsors and the public.
NZR, in conjunction with its equity partner Silver Lake, has ambitious commercial goals for the All Blacks which will only be met if the team is regularly winning and building a relationship with more fans.
Razor, so NZR hopes, is going to be the charismatic, out of the box thinker that emboldens the All Blacks’ traditional values while giving them a modern twist.
If he can reposition the team as a winning and enigmatic brand, it could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars to NZR.
Ruby Tui has become a household name and an inspiration to thousands of New Zealanders – male and female.
Her uninhibited media engagements at last year’s World Cup, combined with her incredible on-field performances have made her the biggest star women’s rugby has known, a point confirmed by the way her autobiography became a runaway best seller.
Honest, colourful and committed to advocate for women’s sport, gay rights and many other causes, Tui has the force of personality to inspire thousands of young girls (and boys) to take up playing rugby.
She is now the most influential female player in world rugby and destined to be used as the face of NZR’s marketing drive to grow women’s rugby.
Having pushed through a private equity deal with US fund manager Silver Lake, Mark Robinson has been massively depowered in the process.
The transaction came with a major restructure and the creation of a new company called New Zealand Commercial which now houses the national union’s revenue generating assets.
Robinson is a board member on NZ Commercial, but this new arrangement means that he has limited influence in the key decisions that will determine the game’s future.
He is now in the curious place of being a chief executive of an organisation that has no revenue generating assets and is effectively in charge of community rugby.
Where he continues have influence is in the wider world of rugby geopolitics and ensuring New Zealand’s voice is prominent within the Sanzaar alliance and around the World Rugby table.
But diplomacy and relationship building have not been strong suits for Robinson since he came into the job in early 2020.
The crass means by which NZR blew up Super Rugby damaged the national body’s relationships with both Australia and South Africa and the bullish way Robinson tried to force through the Silver Lake deal in 2021 led to a catastrophic falling out with the NZRPA.
Having clashed with various partners and stakeholders, Robinson has reduced his influence as an administrator because this is a world where trust, confidence and strong relationships are needed to get things done.
As the incumbent captain, Sam Cane has a chance to etch himself into history as the third man to lead the All Blacks to a World Cup triumph.
While some public figures and sectors of the media have never warmed to Cane, or seen him as the right choice to captain the side, he’s hugely popular, respected and admired by his peers and is a strong and influential leader within the team.
His ability to keep his players on track through what looms as a hugely difficult assignment in France this year will be critical in determining the All Blacks’ fate.
If they are to win a fourth title, they will need calm and authoritative leadership from Cane as well as smart tactical application.
This is the nature of World Cups – they exert enormous pressure on the players, and it tends to be that the winning team is the one with the most astute and commanding leadership.
Cane has a huge role to play in trying to be the iconic figure the All Blacks need, as winning in France would likely bring enormous commercial rewards on the back of what would be a brilliant redemption story for a team that has battled for form since 2020.
In 2021, NZR signed a six-year front of jersey sponsorship deal with French building services form Altrad.
The deal is worth an estimated $30m a year and is believed to be the most lucrative arrangement of its kind in world rugby.
But in December last year, the posthumous owner of the company, Mohed Altrad, was found guilty of bribery and corruption charges and handed a suspended jail sentence.
In response to that verdict, NZR said: “We have been in discussions on the possibility of this outcome for some time.
“With the verdict against Mr Altrad personally now having been handed down, we will be reconvening with representatives from the company immediately - as well as with our key stakeholders.”
What saved them having to make a decision about whether to keep or axe the association was the news that Altrad is appealing the verdict.
And while the appeal is pending, NZR can continue to collect its money. But should the French courts uphold the decision to find Altrad guilty, the national body will have to determine what sort of reputation damage will be inflicted by the sponsorship and whether the All Blacks can carry the name of someone convicted of bribery and corruption.
There is a fairly obvious reason why Ian Foster remains one of the most powerful and influential figures in the game.
He’s head coach of the All Blacks and just weeks away from taking them to a World Cup.
Rugby is now a game as much about the coaches as it is the players and the tactical planning, selection innovation and ability to read and adapt gameplans to surprise opponents has become a huge part of the package.
But Foster’s influence has been amplified by the decision earlier this year to not reappoint him after the World Cup, and instead line up Scott Robertson to take over.
The implication of that move was that the All Blacks were broken, beyond being fixed and needed to make sweeping changes at the top if they are to succeed.
The thinking behind it all is that Robertson will be taking over a team at its lowest ebb and everything will be built around the idea of themes of recovery and rejuvenation.
What, though, if the All Blacks are crowned world champions in October? The situation will change dramatically and NZR will immediately be under pressure to justify its decision to effectively sack a World Cup-winning coach and the Robertson era will begin under an entirely different premise to the one everyone is currently expecting.
The chief executive of Sky TV has the power to determine what the future of broadcast content in New Zealand may look like post 2025.
Sky currently owns all NZR’s content rights and pays $100m a year to do so.
It is critical for NZR to keep that income at least at its current level when it renegotiates its next contract, but ideally it wants to see that number grow.
But the price of what NZR’s content is worth depends entirely on how it chooses to sell its next package of rights.
The national body is getting ready to launch its own content hub, NZR+, and it may look to show live content on this.
Moloney has already told the Herald that if Sky is no longer offered exclusivity, it won’t be able to pay anywhere near the same amount as it currently does.
But Moloney’s influence stretches beyond the monetary value Sky ends up paying for broadcast rights as equally important will be her willingness to work with Free to Air and digital broadcasters to proliferate content.
Sky has teamed up with Stuff to air FIFA World Cup games and future deals of this nature with rugby could be critical in helping the sport find a new audience.
One of the great fears for those opposed to NZR jumping into bed with Silver Lake, is that the relationship will prioritise making money over considering the longer-term brand values of the All Blacks.
For more than 120 years the All Blacks have carefully and painstakingly crafted a global reputation as a team built on the core values of humility, hard work, respect for the game and the concept of team being more important than the individual.
These are treasured elements of the All Blacks – the very reason they have been so successful over such a long-period of time and as chair of NZ Commercial Company, Ian Narev has a critical role to play in ensuring these values are preserved and respected in the quest to make money.
The former CEO of Commonwealth Bank Group and current CEO of Seek, will need to be a steadying influence to ensure the ambition of Silver Lake is not allowed to run roughshod over the tradition of the All Blacks, yet the new investors will have to be given enough leeway to drive new revenue streams and reinvigorate some old ones.
For NZ Commercial Company to succeed, the chair needs to play a strong but enterprising hand in finding the right balance between making money and respecting tradition.
There is only one genuine growth story in rugby and that is the women’s game.
While the number of men playing rugby, particularly teenage boys, has steadily declined in the last five years, female participation rates are experiencing average annual growth rates of more than 10 per cent.
If participation trends continue as they are, there will, within 10 years, be almost as many women playing rugby in New Zealand as there are men.
But for the growth to continue at its current rates, New Zealand’s 10-year strategic plan for women’s rugby needs to be carefully and astutely administered to ensure that the country develops a co-ordinated and staged development programme.
New Zealand has an unprecedented opportunity to capitalise on the unprecedented interest in women’s rugby by building club facilities that accommodate female players, developing talent pathways that make it easier to graduate from school, to club, to Super Rugby Aupiki, and to grow professional competitions at the right pace to ensure there are players to fill teams.
It’s a huge opportunity for rugby in this country to double in size and become an equal gender sport where the Black Ferns and Super Rugby Aupiki carry enough standing and commercial support to be self-funding and independently viable.
Beard, as the architect of the strategic plan and head of women’s rugby at NZR, carries much of the responsibility for changing the participation profile of the sport in New Zealand.
In a recent article with the Herald, she revealed the scale of her vision: “It is a complex change management process,” she said.
“The player base, the commercialisation of the game, the growth of the fan base, the people at the board table, keeping girls safe in rugby with age-appropriate talent programmes - you can see the complexity and the inter-dependency of all these things that need to be done.
“Over 75 per cent of our player pool are under 18. How do we move more of those girls safely and effectively into having an awesome experience into the senior rugby framework.
“We want more domestic tests, NZR and our provincial partners need to work together to build a healthy rugby system.”
The toughest battle the professional game faces in New Zealand is retaining talent and this is why Chris Lendrum is such an influential figure.
He’s at the forefront of that battle – the general in the contracting world and ultimately the man who decides how much money can be thrown at which players.
Lendrum has gained a reputation as far, intelligent and willing to find innovative ways to keep players in the country.
He’s also been influential in driving holistic work environments at Super Rugby clubs and building a culture where New Zealand’s top players feel like they are cared for and treated as high-performance athletes rather than commodities.
The most influential role in NZR has ceased to be that of chief executive. The creation of the new entity, NZ Commercial Company which houses all the game’s money-making assets, has changed the balance of power.
Whoever takes over as chief executive of NZ Commercial Company will hold unprecedented power and influence over the future direction of the professional game and the commercial fate of the All Blacks.
The job became vacant a few months ago when interim chief executive Richard Thomas decided to resign when after a global search began to fill the post permanently.
Whoever comes in will be responsible for shaping the sport’s future broadcast strategy and determining how to set-up and evolve the soon-to-be launched in-house digital streaming platform, NZR+.
They will also need to look at how to resell rugby to a new audience as a modern, high-entertainment sport, and strategise how to fulfil Silver Lake’s goal of winning millions of offshore fans.
Having sold an equity stake to Silver Lake, NZR has taken an enormous risk that it can now dramatically change the revenue profile of the game and make enough money to continue to fund the professional arm, better resource the grassroots and return to Silver Lake the sort of dividends it is expecting.
A day after publication, New Zealand Rugby announced Craig Fenton as the new CEO of New Zealand Rugby Commercial. Fenton will take up the role in January 2024, after living and working overseas for the past 25 years, most recently in London where he has been Google’s Managing Director of Strategy and Operations for UK and Ireland since 2017.
It became clear midway through 2021 who holds the real power in New Zealand rugby.
NZR, through chair Brent Impey and chief executive Mark Robinson, were trying to push through a private equity deal with Silver Lake, believing they would find a way to get permission from the professional players to do so.
But they underestimated what they were up against in NZRPA chief executive Rob Nichol, who has the force of personality and conviction to stand up to a deal that would have ruined the game in this country had it been signed.
Nichol refused to buckle, arguing that his and his members’ resistance to the deal was not driven by fears about what they would be paid in future, but by the genuine concern it would destroy the grassroots and bankrupt the national body.
As hard as they tried, NZR couldn’t out argue, or out manoeuvre Nichol and the NZRPA and were forced to back down and renegotiate a totally revamped deal.
To get NZRPA back to the table, NZR had to agree to an independent review of its own governance structure and processes, the findings of which could have deep ramifications for the national body and further underline that Nichol is the game’s number one power broker.
At their Mt Smart fortress, Auckland FC were mauled 4-0 by Western United