NZ Rugby backs down over player ban
Mistakes do happen, but they don’t normally come out in public.
The Samoan resistance was led by Bay of Plenty’s Danny Kayes, who is understood to have considered taking legal action if he was not allowed to play.
Kayes bluntly told NZR: “I am about as BOP as they get — the fact that I have been denied to represent my province is a kick in the guts and it doesn’t seem right.”
Kayes, whose mother is Samoan, played four tournaments for Samoa early last year but is not among their newly contracted 22 sevens players.
The 23-year-old, a civil engineer, pointed out to NZR he was born in Tauranga and had lived in Papamoa most of his life. He was reluctant to talk publicly, saying it was daunting taking on the national rugby body.
Nichol said NZR had made a clear blunder which he put down to the sevens high performance unit — which is determined to win Olympic gold and world series crowns — holding too much sway.
“Mistakes do happen, but they don’t normally come out in public,” Nichol said.
“It was about the high performance unit’s lens on the world. And we still have things to sort out moving forward. It was disappointing it happened so close to the tournament — it was such a no-brainer.
“Once they changed it for Danny, they had to treat everyone like that.”
The RPA is still vigorously pursuing one case where the ban stands. But with the angst-ridden 2017 Rugby League World Cup still fresh in the memory, it seems rugby has largely avoided a crisis stemming from the tangled sporting relationships in this part of the world.
The finer detail is this: Under the provincial sevens rules for men and women, each squad is allowed one player who is not New Zealandeligible. But approval is still at NZR’s discretion, which is where the dispute arose.
In one email, Chad Tuoro, from the sevens high performance team, stated his role was to approve those “we feel have little or no risk to our national teams competing on the world stage”.
On offering the provincial carrot to players who quit allegiance to another country, Tuoro stated: “I am not sure of where that sits from a legal perspective, and even if we were allowed to ask players for this.”
On the threat posed by teams such as Samoa, Nichol said the RPA believed it was up to New Zealand’s national sides to rise to international challenges, not inhibit them.
Limited Super Rugby and provincial sevens dispensations recognised that, while safeguarding against teams being stacked with imports.