Tom Fitzsimons
All agree that rugby has had a torrid year off the field. But is it a symptom of something rotten in the institution – and if so, how does it need to change? reports. THE
David Moffett, former chief executive of the New Zealand Rugby Union, remembers that when he took charge, at the dawn of professional rugby, there was a problem: the union had lost a lot of money.
However, it was also 1996 and the All Blacks were on their way to a historic series victory in South Africa. All the success masked the gaping hole.
‘‘The All Blacks were undefeated, so the financial position was pretty much skated over.’’
That was then, and rugby bosses probably banked on it happening again this year, he thinks. The All Blacks are winning at a canter, and so rugby’s run of well-publicised scandals might just have faded into the background.
‘‘That can happen when you’re just about to become the most successful team of all time. But it doesn’t excuse the arrogance of the off-field team.’’
Moffett is scathing about how New Zealand Rugby has handled its onslaught of player troubles this year. Chief executive Steve Tew’s leadership during the Chiefs stripper scandal – and his failure to ask for outside help with it – was a serious lapse, he believes.
The union needs an independent integrity commission, in the style of Australia’s NRL, which can look into controversies from a distance. But New Zealand Rugby thinks it has all the skills it needs, he says.
‘‘They’re so arrogant because of the position of the sport.’’
Moffett, who has been critical of Tew before, thinks he needs to be replaced: ‘‘He’s just shown he’s been there too long. Anyone who’s been there that long needs to go.’’ (Tew first joined NZR in 2001 and has been chief executive since 2008.)
Moffett thinks the union will have suffered damage with women this year, and backs longstanding calls for women to be appointed to the board – even as chairwoman.
‘‘You can’t tell me that in the whole of New Zealand there aren’t sufficient females who aren’t, one, interested, and, two, have the ability to sit on the board.’’
Few in New Zealand rugby or even society are quite as lacerating as Moffett. But rugby’s annus horribilis has opened the floodgates on national concern about the national game. Critics, including the Human Rights Commission, politicians, past rugby players, academics and women’s representatives, have taken aim at the organisation.
Many take the trouble, too, to point out what the union is doing right – its ‘‘rugby factory’’ for talent, its success in keeping many top players in the country, and its bulging trophy cabinet.
But they share a desire for fundamental change.
The union, for its part, accepts some of the criticism, but rejects several of the most serious complaints.
Board chairman Brent Impey paints a picture of an organisation working furiously behind the scenes to change – with panels on improving diversity and player integrity, and plenty of will to listen after a series of ‘‘major wake-up calls’’.
Rugby might be seen as ‘‘conservative and old, and white, male and stale, and all that sort of thing’’ but the perception doesn’t match the reality, the former MediaWorks boss says.
‘‘Once you get on the inside, and see, well, people are trying to change, and are trying to address these issues, I can’t help the perception of others still looking through an older-age lens.’’ ‘‘Thousands of New Zealanders are questioning the culture of our country’s favourite sport and those in charge of it.’’
So wrote Equal Employment Commissioner Dr Jackie Blue, a former National Party MP, in her bold and unprecedented open letter to the rugby union, signed by prominent women around the country.
The Chiefs scandal, and later the assault case involving Wellington player Losi Filipo, ‘‘to a degree blindsided’’ national administrators, Impey says.
Former Rugby World Cup boss Martin Snedden says he thinks the combined impact of successive scandals ‘‘knocked them for six a bit’’.
Labour MP and former Black Fern Louisa Wall points out that social media has transformed how quickly an issue can mobilise the public and create pressure.
‘‘I think what we’ve seen, though, is a demonstration of a whole lot of reactions because they haven’t anticipated, or haven’t planned, or didn’t have the policies to deal with, a whole lot of issues.’’
Her former team-mate and legendary Black Fern captain Farah Palmer, now a senior lecturer at Massey University’s school of management, has also been struck by the sheer level of public concern she’s witnessed over the past few months.
‘‘It kind of reminds me of the early 1980s, when maybe the union at that time didn’t read the public well enough, or didn’t realise that society was changing, and the whole Springbok tour caused a bit of a ruckus.
‘‘I think we’re seeing something – not to the same extent – but we are seeing a bit of a public backlash and movement from the ground up, in terms of ‘we’re not going to put up with this any more, we want transparency, we want respect and we want you to do something about it’.’’
Canterbury University sociologist Mike Grimshaw, who has written on the role of rugby as religion in New Zealand, says the latest scandals, and their handling, are helping to confirm a long, slow drift away from the game.
‘‘I think all of those issues, many people are saying ‘well, there’s something not quite right in the culture if these things are continuing to happen’.
‘‘And I think that comes to the point where parents are often saying ‘do we want our kids to be associated with such a sport?’ ’’ Everyone, even the most ardent critic of rugby, accepts that players will stuff up – sometimes seriously – no matter what the sport does.
As New Zealand Rugby Players’ Association boss Rob Nichol points out, the sport has more than 500 players on contract, and they are a microcosm of the country’s young people. There will always be court cases.
The questions for the powers that run the game are not how to snuff out absolutely all misbehaviour, but how to build a culture that meaningfully cautions against it, and, most of all, how to react when it does happen.
Rugby figures say they’ve long had in place a world-leading programme designed to hammer into young players how to handle everything from their finances to illicit drugs to character development.
The association is now urgently working on adding ‘‘respect and inclusiveness’’ to that picture, with a new protocol sent out to all players. Nichol says there are ‘‘learnings’’ to come out of the succession of scandals, but the basic processes for dealing with player misbehaviour are sound.
In the Chiefs case, for instance, the players made a bad decision to hire a stripper, after years of improvements across the game.
‘‘That’s probably the biggest wake-up call for us – is, actually, this is a continuous thing. We’ve got to continually reinforce expectations and standards and case studies and learnings for these young guys.’’
NZR has also just announced a high-profile new panel on player integrity issues.