Manawatu¯ rugby in dire need of an uplift
OPINION: Manawatu¯ rugby cannot afford another season like 2020.
Everyone can see that, from board chairman Tim Myers down.
In such turbulent times, there is always a risk the blacks suits at New Zealand Rugby will get jumpy and a team losing each week by 40 could end up as road kill.
Myers says he has received a firm commitment from NZ Rugby that they are committed to a 14-team provincial competition.
The positive element is that Peter Russell’s Turbos exposed gifted youngsters to NPC rugby and they will be the core of future teams, providing they can somehow get hardened men around them.
There has been unease behind the scenes. Club rugby throws up few Turbos candidates aside from skilled school-leavers, but then that was Dave Rennie’s lament from the day he arrived in 2006.
Population-wise Manawatu is one of the smallest of the 14 provinces, although its postCovid economy is booming in many sectors, so the potential backing of highly profitable companies with renewed cashflow exists. However, a few sponsors need pacifying.
The union will say it had to flit off to play two games at Manfeild because of the Covidenforced speedway clash at the Arena. The mechanics of it though upset its stadium partner, the Palmerston North City Council, and we hear the venture ended up costing the Manawatu¯ District Council a mint.
Manfeild proved to be a novelty not to be repeated, not with tents and open-air bleaches exposed to big blows.
While the Manawatu¯ Rugby Union is set to declare a profit for the year’s operations, some have blinked at that news in a year when staff and players took enforced pay cuts.
However, the union will need some sort of war chest for next season.
And although the Cyclones women reached their semifinals, emerging from a weaker southern group it must be said, it is the Turbos who are Manawatu¯’s shop window, no question.
Myers has had three years as chairman and has two to go. When I asked the Norwoods supremo if down the track he would contemplate a seat at the NZ Rugby table, he said he would consider it if he had the support of provincial unions.
But first there’s Manawatu¯. He and his volunteer board may be outwardly at ease, but they must endure many restless sleeps. To quote: ‘‘We were bitterly disappointed with the onfield performance of the last two seasons.’’
At least this time they didn’t engage in a costly season review. The team’s defensive collapses were there for all the fans to see, starting late in the first half of the opening clash against Northland.
Most of the leadership burden fell on Jamie Booth, where previously the Nick Crosswells added other voices.
When coach Jeremy Cotter was made the scapegoat in 2018, he was the victim of a highfangled review. Involve players in such inquisitions and some will always blame the coach after a bit of much-needed tough love.
It will be interesting to see the tack a new chief executive takes. The always visible arch diplomat, John Knowles, set the template for that job and even he described it as ‘‘hard’’.
Myers revealed the board is poring over 20 CVS to shortlist the position, with interviews on January 27. On the panel will be Myers, two other board members, a NZ Rugby rep and a Sport Manawatu¯ board member.
Myers has stressed the new chief must live in Palmerston North.
Player agents need to be enticed back on side, so they direct players Manawatu¯’s way, not easy when the team is languishing and when Manawatu¯ is hardly in a position to make demands.
It appears Russell will be the sole coaching survivor. Returning as his assistant to run the forwards is Greg Fleming, who previously coached in Japan and was on Cotter’s team, and another part-timer. The board wants to lock down a few ‘‘seasoned Super Rugby veterans’’ such as Michael Ala’alatoa, but then so does everyone else.
At last golf’s knight is booked
Talk about overdue, Sir Bob Charles, The
The newly published life story of New Zealand’s greatest golfer, rather pricey at $60, comes late in his life and has even been preceded by books about Lydia Ko and Michael Campbell.
No doubt Charles was too modest to contemplate such a project. This one was written by his neighbour, Christchurch lawyer-golfer Geoff Saunders, and it gets the job done, even if much of it walks through tournament by tournament.
Golfers of yesteryear will enjoy it, liberally splicedwith about 160 nostalgic photographs, and the great Gary Player wrote the foreword.
Charles was up there with Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Player in their heydays in the 1960s and 70s, when they toured New Zealand. Charles finally quit touring when the courses got too long for him and today they’re still getting longer, suiting the big bombers.