Analysis: Super Rugby went missing at the weekend, and the players are ready for a fight with NZ Rugby. The game is at a crossroads, writes Patrick McKendry.
After a Super Rugby Pacific weekend when there were, count them, three New Zealand teams on byes, only four matches in total and all of them one-sided results, it may be relevant to ask the question: How healthy is the professional game here?
And, more generally, what exactly is going on in rugby at the moment?
NZ Rugby isn’t entirely responsible for Super Rugby, of course. Australia is obviously also involved and almost 18 months ago a new agreement to usher in a new independent Super Rugby Pacific governance board was made to “oversee the competition with the purpose of a clear, unbiased focus on governance, and the creation of a consistent look and feel across the competition”.
It’s probably fair to say we’ve yet to see the benefits of that.
And it’s worth an inquiry ahead of another Super Rugby weekend with only four matches (albeit one which includes the long-awaited Hurricanes v Chiefs clash) not least because last week the New Zealand Rugby Players’ Association hit the nuclear button by stating the entire New Zealand Rugby board should stand down and describing the organisation’s governance model as being in a state of “chaos”.
The RPA added that the game in New Zealand is suffering from a “leadership vacuum” and is also “disorganised” and “impotent”.
Despite its incendiary nature, it didn’t make too much of a splash, possibly because the public became used to the conflict between the two during the long-running Silver Lake drama but, now that we’re well on the other side of that capital sell-off, the growing perception may be that the players’ union was right to be concerned.
Despite a big financial investment, NZ Rugby hasn’t made the gains in its streaming channel NZR+ that, among other things, followed the All Blacks around last year’s World Cup.
The NZ Herald recently reported too that NZ Rugby will be cutting its total annual distribution to the provincial unions by $1.8 million in 2024 and by the same amount in 2025. You can be sure those two unpleasant results weren't predicted in the glossy Silver Lake brochure.
And while debates about governance models are usually pretty dry, this is important. It will shape the future of the game in New Zealand and things could get very messy very quickly if this is not resolved. More to the point - if it isn’t resolved to the satisfaction of the RPA.
NZ Rugby is currently in a battle to get its own board to agree on a new governance model eight months after the non-binding Pilkington review found it currently wasn’t fit for purpose because, in a nutshell, it lacked the required expertise to operate in a post-Silver Lake environment.
One of the recommendations was for the current board to resign and potentially reapply for their jobs under the framework which some members are clearly unwilling to do.
Essentially, NZ Rugby’s watered-down version does not require this. The RPA has said it’s a non-negotiable because that’s what NZ Rugby's own Pilkington review writers, including former All Blacks captain Graham Mourie, recommended.
In response, the board have said the RPA’s insistence on resignations is a “distraction”.
Bigger distractions are looming.
If the RPA don’t get what they want it could signal the end of the players’ collective contracts. In other words, NZ Rugby may have to bargain directly with individual players on all things from salaries to image rights to their sponsorship and media responsibilities.
It would effectively be unworkable. One wonders, too, who the New Zealand public will side with in a battle of hearts and minds: the players, or an entitled-looking board with an ordinary track record grimly clinging on to power?
Meanwhile, NZ Rugby has scheduled the Super Rugby Aupiki final between the Blues and Chiefs at Eden Park for 5pm on Saturday, the same time the Warriors kick off against the Manly Sea Eagles at Mt Smart. The NRL match is already a sellout.
Many months ago, NZ Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson admitted the NPC domestic provincial competition was “unfit for purpose”. There have been no developments since.
How long before this applies to Super Rugby Pacific and Super Rugby Aupiki?
The Warriors, meanwhile, continue to catch the imagination of the public. Rightly or wrongly, they’re perceived as down-to-earth and accessible. They’re also increasingly popular with the younger generation.
If Robinson and his staff aren’t worried about the direction rugby is heading in, they should be.
SHARE ME