Conflicts of interest in messy meltdown
Phillipa Muir, the head of the review team, had spent 16 minutes sifting through the wreckage of the Black Ferns derailment when she lobbed a grenade into the room. Muir accused New Zealand Rugby of failing to help the Ferns both as a rugby team and as individual people because of ‘‘conflicts of interests’’.
That grenade has been left undetonated so now it is time to go bang. Can someone at NZR tell me how it is possible in this day and age that Wesley Clarke can serve as assistant coach of the Black Ferns when his wife, Farah Palmer, is the deputy chair of the New Zealand Rugby board? Did someone not think that this might lead to what Muir described as a lack of transparency when reporting to the board?
But it doesn’t stop there. Cate Sexton, the head of Women’s Rugby Development, has done two terms as Black Ferns manager and previously worked with Glenn Moore, the coach who resigned at the weekend. Yet I understand Sexton’s husband, Matt, has been involved in the campaign review into the Black Ferns. Again is that appropriate when his wife oversees much of the programme?
There were other relationships further down the food chain that are also anachronistic in a high performance environment. It is astounding these were left unchallenged.
Yet the culture of see no evil, hear no evil, is one that still appears to exist at NZR. And despite the fact that Black Ferns were repeatedly raising issues about their environment. It came to a head when hooker Te Kura Ngata-Aerengamate went public on social media, yet she was far from alone.
Previously, at the end of 2020, a number of players (I am told that number is over five), raised concerns. Despite this, they were initially told that there would not be a campaign review. They then told New Zealand Rugby that they needed a review because there were big problems.
So the all right noises were made, but so little happened that the players lost all confidence in the review process. Ultimately the NZR board is culpable for this devastating failure to support and look after its players.
If anything, matters became worse. The northern tour was a shambles with the Ferns losing their four test matches by an average of 30 points to England and France. They were woefully unfit compared to the opposition and lockdown was no excuse, because England and France had both been in far longer periods of lockdown.
Having been dropped from the team Ngata-Aerengamate broke down. Whatever the cause of her problems, she was a young woman clearly in need of support. Yet when the team returned to New Zealand and spent its seven days in managed quarantine, Ngata-Aerengamate received no support during her isolation.
In the wake of these results and social failings it is astonishing that the coach could have survived. And yet Mark Robinson, the chief executive, still insisted that ‘‘Glenn was the right person to lead the coaching team.’’ It was poor judgment.
Even the appointment of the review panel, who did a fine job, was not without controversy. The review team consisted of Muir, Tammi Wilson Uluinayau, Gilbert Enoka and Eleanor Butterworth with assistance from cultural advisers Luke Crawford and Saveatama Eroni Clarke.
It was hailed as an independent panel but it is nothing of the sort. Muir is independent, but the majority of the others are paid or have been paid by NZR.
Looking ahead there are huge challenges. With 75% of the Black Ferns either Maori or Pasifika, NZR has to appoint at least one, and preferably more, of the new management team who reflect that ethnicity. Because at the moment the pale, stale model of male Pākehā is failing both the All Blacks and the Blacks Ferns. There is clearly a massive cultural separation.
The first big test for the Black Ferns future prospects is what shape are the players going to turn up in before their next test match. Fitness is literally a bottom line requirement when playing for your country, and yet New Zealand women teams are still failing in this area.
Not so long ago the Silver Ferns were being run off the court. Then Noeline Taurua came in and made fitness a minimum requirement. Those who were not fit enough, weren’t selected.
Being outrun is what used to happen to the Silver Ferns and it is now happening to the Football Ferns (not to mention the cricketers who would have made the playoffs if some were quicker between the wickets).
The Football Ferns could and should have lost both their matches to the Matildas 6-0, but the truly shocking aspect of their twin defeats was an amateur hour failure to close space.