NZ Rugby adopts silent strategy

‘‘While we are trying hard to be an organisation that is fundamentally open, honest and transparent, sometimes the most powerful thing to do is to say nothing.’’ Charlotte McLauchlan chief communications and brand officer

New Zealand Rugby will not publicly respond to Sir Steve Hansen’s withering attack on the national body, believing the best thing to do is say nothing.

In an email to staff, which has been leaked to Stuff, chief communications and brand officer Charlotte McLauchlan acknowledged Hansen’s comments but went on to explain that sometimes the best course of action is ‘‘to say nothing’’.

Former All Blacks coach Hansen yesterday accused New Zealand Rugby of presiding over a series of failures in an astonishing attack that labelled the relationship between the All Blacks players and the board as ‘‘the worst it’s ever been’’.

Hansen came out firing in an interview with Today FM’s Tova O’Brien after weeks of fierce public criticism of the All Blacks, with coach Ian Foster taking all the flak while NZ Rugby stayed silent.

In the email to staff, McLauchlan, said: ‘‘Many of you will have seen the remarks made by Sir Steve Hansen in the media today and having spoken to Robbo (Robinson) and Lendo (Chris Lendrum, General Manager, Professional Rugby and Performance at NZR), we wanted to give you all a bit of a sense of where we are at with it.

‘‘We appreciate and understand the wide range of views around the game at the moment – including those of Sir Steve – but our priority right now is to support the All Blacks and their new coaching line up to have a successful series in South Africa – as well as our Commonwealth Games teams and our domestic competitions which have commenced at home.

‘‘While many of the things Sir Steve has said are unfair and hurtful to many, we do not think entering into a media debate with him is the right thing to do – if we come back to our priorities which is for our teams to Win with Mana, we think this will only serve to create another media cycle and possibly more distraction.

‘‘The level of passion around our game at the moment is of course a blessing and a curse. Sometimes it’s appropriate to comment and sometimes it’s not, and while we are trying hard to be an organisation that is fundamentally open, honest and transparent, sometimes the most powerful thing to do is to say nothing – and understand that the narrative then being ‘NZR refusing to comment’ is sometimes just the ‘leastworst’ option because it offers no fuel.’’