Moffett calls for Robinson to resign
Ireland series loss, NZ Rugby instead put an enormous amount of blame on their shoulders. Being strong enough to thank them for their services at the start of the year would have spared them that.
The board, therefore, must be accountable, particularly as All Blacks supporters view the current issues as part of a pattern that stretches back four or five years.
Would the All Blacks be in such strife had the original process to replace Hansen been handled better?
Given the extraordinary depth of New Zealand coaching resources around the world, it was an underwhelming outcome to end up with Ian Foster, Plumtree, Mooar, Scott McLeod and Greg Feek as the coaching setup, particularly when the nature of the World Cup loss to England screamed out for only the best and brightest to step in.
None of this is an attack on the individuals named above, nor it is a hatchet job on NZ Rugby, which continues to do some things well.
For example, when Stuff spoke to Chris Boyd on Thursday, the incoming Highlanders coaching mentor spoke glowingly of NZ Rugby’s coach development programme under Bruce Blair. Boyd pointed out that England’s RFU had no such programme.
Yet, the question must still be asked if the NZ Rugby board has the requisite skillsets to make the right decisions for high-performance sport. That’s what this comes down to.
The coming review into NZ Rugby should address that question and many more, particularly if it has the rigour of the Black Ferns’ culture review released in April. It was utterly scathing and unearthed a failure of governance across another team in black.
It feels like change is coming. Until now, Foster, Sam Cane, Mooar, Plumtree or the scapegoat of the day have taken the flak. But, kicked along by Hansen’s hand grenade, this conversation is getting closer to the boardroom door.
Former New Zealand Rugby boss David Moffett has blasted the organisation and called for chief executive Mark Robinson to resign in the wake of the messy All Blacks coaching saga.
A day after former All Blacks coach Steve Hansen launched a stinging attack on NZR and its operations, Moffett followed up with his own tirade, in an interview with Today FM’s Tova O’Brien yesterday.
Moffett, who was NZR chief executive between 1996 and 2000, believes Robinson should leave his post, and found it deplorable that he was ‘‘swanning around in Birmingham’’ instead of fronting media in New Zealand.
Asked if he felt Robinson, who was appointed in 2019 to replace Steve Tew, was up to the task, Moffett was blunt in his assessment.
‘‘No, I don’t think so,’’ he said. ‘‘That’s where I would disagree with Steve [Hansen]. Steve said that he thinks he’ll make a good CEO one day.
‘‘Well, the chief executive of New Zealand Rugby is right up there in terms of publicity and persona as the prime minister. I found in my day I used to do more media than the prime minister on some days.
‘‘We don’t need a CEO to learn how to be a CEO at New Zealand Rugby. We need somebody who knows what they’re doing, and if they make mistakes, like we all do, they can just own it.
‘‘Don’t hide, don’t blame the board if they make decisions, it’s him, he’s the chief executive, the buck stops with him. The board sets strategy and policy, that’s it, as far as I’m concerned. The rest of the time the chief executive is running the place.
‘‘Robinson needs to get back here and he needs to front the media and he needs to tell them what’s gone wrong, what he’s doing about it and be open, instead of hiding away up there in Birmingham.’’
Asked if he felt Robinson should resign, Moffett was equally frank. ‘‘Yes, I think he should,’’ he said.
Adding to the chaos, Moffett felt, was that NZR had refused to talk following Hansen’s broadside on Thursday. Instead, a leaked email to Stuff revealed it felt the best course of action was to say nothing.
‘‘They are further out of touch with reality than even I think that they are when they do that sort of thing,’’ Moffett said.
‘‘They said ‘well, you’ll only just start another round of news on any subject’. Well, guess what, because Mark Robinson’s swanning around over there in Birmingham and not fronting the media, it leaves a huge gap for people like me and other commentators to actually come in and say what has to be said.’’