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AAfter 126 representative games over 10 months, the season that seemed to last forever is finally closing its doors. Rugby of the year in New Zealand will be remembered for the trials of the new All Black leadership regime, whose 38-0 elimination of Argentina at the weekend could not hide the fact that they had achieved only a 50% win rate against teams ranked sixth. and tenth in the world.
Perhaps it was to their advantage that the All Blacks reboot was almost a sideshow to the 2020 main drama. The biggest story was the team’s performance off the field, primarily new CEO Mark Robinson and the chairman of the board. Brent Impey and, 12 months after the board elected one of their own to the CEO, he missed a chance to reboot. .
Certainly, Robinson, who won the job before 84 other applicants, had a difficult job. The global shutdown didn’t help, but most of the structural problems already existed and were largely self-inflicted. Covid-19 just brought them to the surface.
The pandemic wiped out $ 40 million from the union’s $ 92.6 million reserves, but highlights the unsustainability of the financial model New Zealand Rugby operates in that losses barely cover what it spends annually on player salaries. This will have to change. Sponsorship is increasingly difficult to come by, as AIG’s $ 80 million jersey sponsorship deal has yet to be superseded, while embracing private equity risks losing control over aspects of the game.
It was hoped that the departure of former CEO Steve Tew could remove some of the heavy hand with which NZR conducted its business. A year later, the perception is that the union is even worse. In addition to well-publicized international disputes, more than half a dozen senior Super Rugby and provincial officials have privately expressed reservations to the Guardian about leadership from both an organizational and communication perspective.
It has been a year marked by political miscalculations. From putting faith in Agustín Pichot’s failed attempt to oust Bill Beaumont as president of World Rugby to trying, and failing, to pressure Australia to decrease its contribution to Super Rugby, the missteps of leadership in the field of rugby international relations were amazing.
An outreach around trans-Tasman Super Rugby, as well as a new commitment from the four parties to the renewal of the Rugby Championship, suggested that the relationship issues were being ironed out, but there is still ground to make up. New Zealand’s lack of diplomacy, which is embarrassing along with the goal referenced at this year’s AGM of maintaining “a positive global presence” will not be easily forgotten.
Even the promised inclusion of the Pacific Islands in Super Rugby is getting dangerous. Floated on a non-binding internal stakeholder review, the union is now in a bind, with no real ability to back off the idea, given the public momentum it quickly gained. The entry announcement would be delayed for a year and would provoke emotional howls of protest, while the dispute over the transparency of the bidding process caused an abandoned party to threaten legal action. Another told The Guardian that the bidding procedure was “amateurish.”
Given that the Fiji Rugby Union and Auckland-based Moana Pasifika are believed to be the favorites, NZR will need to be forensic in its analysis of the long-term sustainability of finances behind each offering. The last thing you need is your own Melbourne Rebels, who have heavily taxed Rugby Australia’s financial resources as they move in and out of private property.
While Kiwi’s influence is strong at leading clubs like Panasonic Wild Knights, Kobe Steelers and Toyota Verblitz, and NZR discussed Japan’s economic promise in their annual report: “We are encouraged by our continued strong relationship with the Japan Rugby Union” – the hopes of salvation in that neighborhood seem very distant.
The “ongoing strong relationship” did not extend to the World Rugby elections, where Japan’s vote was decisive for Beaumont’s ticket, despite the fact that Impey publicly defended his rival. With the union, through its relationships with global marketing giant Dentsu, maintaining an interest in establishing a new professional league in Japan, the country’s decision not to support a cause New Zealand campaigned for was a major one. reality check.
The deceptive nature of Japanese rugby politics won’t help, but there is still no white smoke emanating from the chimneys of the Japan Rugby Union about a new competition.
Domestically, the national provincial championship, which concluded last weekend, is expected to change, although no one knows exactly how and when yet, as the provinces contemplate an additional 20% reduction in their national union funding for the next year.
While economically understandable, playing with the 45-year-old competition is a risk to public participation, especially as the games drew a good crowd in the provinces, even as meetings in the top five cities disappointed in largely due to the invasion of Super Rugby. The message in this was clear: Provincial history and community identity retain their importance to the rural public, even if the change in leadership has not changed the national union’s obsession with the All Blacks and Super Rugby.
The 12-team Heartland competition, which was parked this year, is also a target for the razor gang. The Guardian understands that it will return to the North Island and South Island groups, a format last used in 1984, but which seems appropriately symbolic of the state of the game today. After the promise of a new administrative dawn, a year later, New Zealand rugby appears to be on the decline.
