NZ Rugby tackles the issues around domestic violence
Michael Jackson was a monster. Don’t listen to his music. Sevu Reece is a wife basher. Don’t watch his rugby. Right now our society seems to prefer judgement over understanding. Maybe some things are too grotesque to understand. But where do we draw the line, if indeed a line has to be drawn?
I have heard people say we should not buy Jackson’s music because his estate will benefit. But then, so one day may his victims, if the money is there in the future to compensate them. And let us not forget that Jackson was a victim himself. He was appallingly treated as a young boy. Is he not worth some compassion himself?
Maybe music was the beautiful thing he could create from all the pain. Is that not worth something? Do we want to strip that beauty from the world, as Alex’s love of Beethoven was stripped from him in Anthony Burgess’s Clockwork Orange. Are we better people for denying the good in Jackson as well as the bad.
I do not know. Perhaps creative works are changed by context. South American writer Jorge Luis Borges wrote a short story about a man who manages to write Don Quixote. If the same work is written hundreds of years later does that make it a different work of art. Probably. The very use of language verges on pastiche.
However, I am not running straight here. The question for these pages is whether New Zealand Rugby is doing the right thing by Reece and the woman that he pushed to the ground at 1.30am. Should he be punished for his physical and verbal violence, or should he be helped?
Hopefully, we can recognise that New Zealand Rugby does a far better thing, for both Crusaders wing
Reece, his victim and society, by trying to help. And it is not just about Reece. NZR’s Respect and Inclusion programme is also concerned for the victim.
Nicki Nicol, NZR’s chief operating officer, says that NZR ‘‘reached out externally to make sure we were doing the right thing for the victim in the Sevu case’’. Straight up front that’s part of the conversation. Making sure she’s safe. At the time there was reconciliation.
‘‘We get advice about counselling. It’s not appropriate because the balance of power is wrong. So how do we get a proper independent process to make sure both are supported.’’
Rob Nichol, the head of the Rugby Players Association, stresses that how you deal with something bad can be as significant as the original act. He says: ‘‘We often use the expression, ‘It’s not so much as what happened, as how you deal with it, is what people will judge you by’.’’
Reece is a Fijian who left his home at a vulnerable time to take up a rugby scholarship in Hamilton. In Fiji he may have been treated differently. But then again in Fiji his family may have been able to prevent the alcoholic spiral.
Ben Ryan, the coach who took Fiji to gold at the 2016 Olympics, wrote in his book: ‘‘As we travelled through some villages you would see hand-painted signs: ‘This is a domestic violencefree village.’ Occasionally Osea or Ropate might say, you need to drop this player, we’ve heard he’s gone at his wife again.’’
And yet there are similarities. In Fiji the players were also a big part of the process under Ryan, just as they are here. It was their decision to drop the offending player. And the key word is perhaps ‘again.’ NZR and the Players Association believe that Reece has ‘‘taken ownership’’ of what he did and is a good chance not to reoffend. Reece has been free from alcohol for several months.
New Zealand Rugby’s integrity manager met with him. Chris Lendrum, NZR’s head of professional rugby, met with him. Lendrum says: ‘‘He understands he made a big mistake. We don’t condone violence. He is crystal clear about that. But we will try to look at all cases through a restorative lens.’’
And surely it is better to try to restore something, than let a damaged person fall apart completely. Reece continues to undergo counselling and other off-field work. But NZR has also enabled him to play rugby again.
There are alternatives. We could all shout at Reece until he is angry and isolated and miserable. That seems to be what has been happening to Julian Savea at Toulon.
Angry at Savea’s lack of form, Toulon owner Mourad Boudjellal said: ‘‘I’m going at ask for a DNA test. They must have swapped him on the plane [when he joined from the Hurricanes last year]. If I were him I would apologise and go back to my home country.’’
Boudjellal also said: ‘‘I find his behaviour unacceptable. I cannot think it’s normal for a player paid more than [NZ$1.65m] per year to go on holiday to Fiji for a month in December — he just had to attend his brother’s wedding, not take long leave.’’
Now I may side with Boudjellal on that. Savea has not been professionally responsible. He has had issues with his conditioning before. And he has gone AWOL before. It is disappointing that these things are repeating themselves, despite the help Savea has had. But Boudjellal’s words have achieved nothing except to provoke vile online abuse from Toulon fans, hatred breeding hatred.
I wonder how New Zealand can prepare players who are heading overseas for what is likely to be a far less supportive environment. Rob Nichol tells me that the association has a fulltime career planner in the office. Last year she went to Japan and met with 56 players. This year she has a three-week trip planned for France.
Lendrum and the NZR bring in former players to talk about their experiences. Lendrum says: ‘‘I think it’s really sad to see the way he’s [Savea] been treated up there. I think we both know it’s not the first or last time something like that will be said by a French club owner about a player.
‘‘It is a real contrast between the northern club game and New Zealand. The game in the north in some parts is still more about money and results than it is about people and long-term sustained success. Julian wouldn’t have been treated like that in New Zealand.’’
With so many players about to head overseas it is a concern. Jordan Taufua and Jackson Hemopo are the latest to announce they are on their way. Lendrum points out that NZR does not want to seem biased or running down the game in the northern hemisphere. He points to Nick Evans, who had a great career at Harlequins and then was supported into another career when that time was over.
Support is surely the key in all this. Rugby players come from diverse backgrounds. Some have fractured lives or are struggling to adapt to life in New Zealand. And bit by bit NZR engages. It recently hooked up with the Tongan community in South Canterbury.
Surely New Zealand Rugby is doing a socially valuable job for both its players and communities with its Respect and Inclusion programme. On Friday, it was in Taranaki doing more work on the ground, and didn’t even get to go to Womad.
Millions of dollars a year are invested in the programme, money that could be spent keeping an extra couple of All Blacks in the country. But what good would those All Blacks be if they were just two more privileged athletes causing mayhem in our communities? If Sevu Reece has found a family at the Crusaders, then surely he will be a better young man for the warmth of the community’s embrace.
He understands he made a big mistake. We don’t condone violence.