In honour of Mike Cron, the straight-shooting All Blacks forward maestro who’s about to coach the Wallabies, let’s rate the balls-ups of this century in New Zealand rugby administration.
When they appointed (now Sir) Wayne Smith coach after the 1999 World Cup, the then New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU, now New Zealand Rugby or NZR) immediately hamstrung him by refusing to allow him to take as his assistant Peter Sloane, who had worked with Smith transforming the Crusaders.
At the end of the southern test season in 2001, Smith had a 95 per cent approval rating from his players. Anything above 90 per cent entitled him to continue his contract.
But his sense of fairness drove him to ask for the position to be made contestable. The NZRU appointed a review panel of seven men, who collectively defined the words “conservative” and “old school”.
Black Ferns coach Wayne Smith enjoys the spoils of victory. Photo / Photosport
Bemused by a coach in Smith who expressed some emotions, they recommended he be replaced by John Mitchell. So Smith, the man who is now recognised as a genius of the game, was gone.
Balls-Up rating for officials: 9/10. The All Blacks were knocked out of the 2003 World Cup in the semifinals.
LOSING A FIGHT THEY SHOULD NEVER HAVE STARTED, 2002
New Zealand were granted co-hosting rights with Australia for the 2003 World Cup. Twenty-three games were to be played here, including all the All Blacks’ pool games, two quarter-finals and one semifinal.
Initially, big losses were forecast for games here. However, by December 2001, the NZRU believed it would be possible to make anywhere from $A2 million ($2.2m) to $A5m on our slice of the Cup.
But then we picked a fight with a tough-as-nails Welsh lawyer, Vernon Pugh, chair of the International Rugby Board (IRB), over profits from corporate boxes. In a combative phone call in February 2002, NZRU chairman Murray McCaw accused Pugh of reneging on a handshake deal.
Pugh soon struck back.
On 18 April, the IRB sacked New Zealand as co-hosts. It got worse for the board of the NZRU. In a poll of 5000 Kiwis, 93.9 per cent said the whole board should go. They did, and a new board, led by former All Black Jock Hobbs, took over.
But when the All Blacks then beat South Africa, 35-23, at Ellis Park, NZR changed its mind about sacking Ian Foster.
Ian Foster (left) and Scott Robertson. Photo / Getty Images
Adding an even more bizarre touch, it was then announced in March last year, five months before the World Cup started in France, that Robertson would take over.
There has never been a situation like it since the World Cup started in 1987, and Cron’s summation feels about right. The fact Foster’s team made the final and could easily have won the Cup is a final surreal touch.
Balls-up rating for officials: 10/10. If there was so little faith in Foster, it was unfair to him, and to Robertson, to be offering the position.
THE MEXICAN STAND-OFF, 2024
I doubt there’s been a more fraught time at national rugby board level since the upheaval of 2002 than the current eight-month arm wrestle over control.
An interim, dramatically trimmed-down board suggested by players’ association head Rob Nichol. The analogy by Wellington Rugby Union chair Russell Poole that to not have three provincial union representatives on the board would be like a company building a house with “nine people who have never built one before”. To say finding a middle ground looks hugely difficult is a world-class understatement.
As a rugby tragic you can only hope that when the gunsmoke clears the standoff hasn’t involved three groups who were in a circle when the firing started.
Balls-up rating for officials: Still only a 5/10. The special general meeting in the next week or so has the potential to fix it all, or zoom it up towards the 10/10 level.
Phil Gifford has twice been judged New Zealand sportswriter of the year, has won nine New Zealand and two Australasian radio awards, and been judged New Zealand Sports Columnist of the year three times. In 2010 he was honoured with the SPARC lifetime achievement award for services to sports journalism.
