Filipo case shows Tew can't lift rugby out of the gutter

Rugby’s image is in the gutter, and Steve Tew proved hopelessly incapable of lifting it out as he was interviewedharangued by TV3’s Paul Henry.

Henry was at his cutting best, a one-man pack of howling dogs with a bone over the Losi Filipo case. He didn’t want much out of Tew, whose role was to sit there via a video link and absorb the outrage.

“Will you tell me now, that I won’t have to have a conversation like this with you again,” Henry snarled.

It must be many years since anyone spoke to the dictatorial head of New Zealand Rugby like that.

Time should be called on Tew’s archaic rugby leadership. The game needs a massive overhaul.

He didn’t stand a chance against Henry, but Tew’s rugby monolith hardly deserved one.

There is no defence for the way rugby bosses have protected Filipo at the expense of almost everything else, including their own reputations. Hopefully the young man’s life will be turned around over time. But there is still time to be done.

Rugby has been rocked by recent scandals. The most visible parts of New Zealand’s national game are operating in parallel worlds: the winning wondrous All Blacks and everything else.

Apart from the horrible over-branding, the All Blacks are a joy to watch.

Elsewhere, rugby has a giant hole in the soul. The major competitions are confusing and boring. The administration is conceited and remote. The Filipo and Chiefs strippergate cases have exposed a heartless attitude towards those who are victims of player misbehaviour and or violence. Rugby’s sense of entitlement and the favours bestowed on the country’s dominant game have infuriated a lot of people for many years. Somehow the Filipo case seems to be an icon of rugby privilege and arrogance.

The teenage Filipo’s assault on four people was absolutely sickening. What followed was just as sickening: a discharge without conviction and Wellington rugby bringing him into the playing fold as if nothing had happened.

One quote in all of this stands out to me. A Filipo victim, 22-year-old Hayden Williams, says he confronted the player after seeing him in the street shortly after the court case.

“Losi was laughing at me and kept saying he’d been through court. I felt like he was laughing that he’d been through court and got off,” said the incredulous Williams.

That’s how a lot of us feel. We are being laughed at, mocked.

The right results in the Filipo case are gradually being achieved, including the termination of his Wellington contract. But this has only occurred through a magnificent public outcry.

I’ve been a court reporter and courts can be souldestroying places. Judges do face tough decisions, but this wasn’t one of them.

In saying that, Judge Bruce Davidson deserves to have his work assessed over all of his cases, not just one. Tew may be unfairly branded over the Filipo case, as he was in the dark until this week. But there should have been automatic reporting protocols in place. He should have known. He also lacked the initial willingness to front publicly and show compassion towards the victims.

Tew has had a long run and many successes, but rugby needs a new direction, a new heart. He needs to go. But what’s the bet we will be having this conversation again.