EDITOR’S LETTER
IT IS NOT SUCH AN EASY EXERCISE to determine who has wielded real influence in the last decade. Some judgements are obvious – and indeed are easy to make. For instance, who is honestly going to be surprised to see that we have decided Richie McCaw was the most influential person in New Zealand rugby between 2010 and 2019?
No one? And that’s with McCaw retiring in 2015 – halfway though the period. How could you look past all that he did? His influence was incredible and lived on long after he retired.
He captained the All Blacks to consecutive World Cups in 2011 and 2015. That’s influence.
Others such as Beauden Barrett, Daniel Carter, Aaron Smith, Ben Smith and Ma’a Nonu were also relatively easy to include.
All of them, in one way or another, played significant roles in influencing the outcome of tests in the last decade. Special players do that – they get involved to the extent that they make things happen, particularly in the critical moments.
But what wasn’t so easy to determine was the less tangible influence some players, coaches and administrators have had.
The last 10 years have been the most successful in New Zealand’s history. They saw the All Blacks win two World Cups and almost 90 per cent of their tests. The Black Ferns won two World Cups and 95 per cent of their tests. The Black Ferns Sevens won a silver medal at the Rio Olympics and have dominated the World Sevens Series in the last five years.
New Zealand’s Under 20 side were World Junior Championship winners in 2011, 2015 and 2017 and New Zealand sides won seven Super Rugby titles in the period – a figure that could easily have been nine but for an earthquake and an erroneous refereeing decision. What’s helped deliver that success has been the retention of key players. New Zealand’s best talent is constantly being tempted to leave by significant offshore offers. Often New Zealand Rugby can’t compete with the dollars offered but they have been clever with the way they have adapted contracts to offer other benefits such as time off and the potential to have short playing stints in other countries.
And they have been able to manage all this because they have been successful at building their revenue and keeping the balance sheet strong enough to support all their plans.
Then there have been the more obscure instances where players unwittingly became significantly more influential than they imagined or had any intention of ever becoming. Into this category go Zac Guildford, Brad Shields and Charles Piutau. Guildford is one of the sadder stories of the last decade but nonetheless influential for it.
His problems with alcohol and gambling opened eyes to the pressures and stresses professional players are often under and do a good job of hiding. There was a collective sense of guilt over Guildford within administrative and management circles as it became apparent, with the benefit of hindsight, that he wasn’t helped or supported the way he should have been when the extent of his problems initially surfaced.
Shields was another who didn’t mean to set any kind of precedent, but that’s exactly what happened when he was granted permission to play for England in June 2018 while he was still under contract to the Hurricanes. Shields had signed with Wasps who he was going to join after Super Rugby and part of his desire to go there was that he was already eligible for England.
While Eddie Jones had signalled he would be interested in picking Shields once he was with Wasps, no one expected the England coach to apply for permission to bring that date forward to June.
NZR took legal advice and in the end agreed Shields could play for England in June as long as he returned in time to resume playing for the Hurricanes in Super Rugby. Precedent set.
And then there was the case of Charles Piutau, who turned down what inevitably would have been a long stint in the All Blacks jersey for a $1million pay day.
His actions were initially seen as mercenary but as the full picture emerged, they were anything but. He was one of 10 children and felt the money on offer at Ulster would have too great an impact on his wider family to be rejected.
So his actions were selfless rather than selfish and by making that sacrifice he inspired others such as Steven Luatua, Malakai Fekitoa and Lima Sopoaga to do the same.
So trying to determine who influenced all of these various aspects was not easy and in the end we can only hope we have produced a list of 50 names that goes some way towards reflecting events of the last decade.