13. BAILEY MACKEY

“New Zealand Rugby doesn’t need another gold card toting Pākehā businessman at the helm. We’ve had that in Brent Impey and he did an okay job. Now is the time for New Zealand Rugby to show a new face, a new perspective on the game. Mackey is young, at 43, and he is Māori. That really shouldn’t matter, but it does.”

So wrote the editor of NZRW, Jim Kayes, in the days before NZR selected Impey’s replacement as chair of the union.

They went for the gold card-toting Pākehā accountant.

Plus ça change.

The smart money remains on the idea that Mackey’s time will come, though like Campbell (see No 6), there is some concern that he is in a position that can help influence decisions that will boost his bottom line as the owner of production company Pango, maker of Amazon Prime’s All or Nothing: New Zealand All Blacks.

Mackey has an entrepreneurial streak and a dynamic personality. He would be a perfect front-facing figurehead for New Zealand rugby, small ‘r’, and NZ Rugby.