The times they are a challenging: Mitchell
New Zealand Rugby chairman Stewart Mitchell is welcoming a wideranging review into the organisation he admits might result in significant, and potentially ‘‘confronting’’ recommendations, but has already offered an unequivocal endorsement of chief executive Mark Robinson.
‘‘Absolute confidence,’’ Mitchell told yesterday. ‘‘He’s come into the organisation at the chief executive level at a particularly challenging time.
‘‘There were two years of Covid, which had a debilitating effect not only on our games and our revenues, but also on our staff.
‘‘We’ve had a protracted negotiation with Silver Lake, which he’s been an integral part of, and most recently we’ve had the All Blacks team issues and the coaching issue.
‘‘So look, he’s a very busy man, but we have the most confidence in what he’s doing.’’
The review into NZ Rugby was suggested by the NZ Rugby Players’ Association during the at-times tense negotiations over the Silver Lake deal as a means to getting a fresh lens over an organisation that Mitchell admits is ‘‘complex and multifaceted’’, with the players’ association committing to a review of its own to run either at the same time or shortly afterwards.
Mitchell and players’ association chairman David Kirk have been deep in talks over the past few weeks to appoint the lead NZ Rugby reviewer, who will come from a sports governance background.
That appointment is ‘‘not far off’’ but there has been no deadline set for the review to be concluded. Mitchell suggested it could run into the new year, given that NZ Rugby was at an important juncture of its history.
‘‘My personal view is that it’s absolutely timely,’’ Mitchell said. ‘‘We’ve got a big, complex sports, global sports business of significant scale, and we’re at a bit of a crossroads now with the Silver Lake deal.
‘‘I’m embracing it. We’ve done three reviews in the last 10 years around the constitution and each of those made advances, if you like, towards the structure we now have.
‘‘But we’re now going to effectively carve out our revenue generating assets and the commercial arm of our business into a separate body organisation [NZ Rugby Commercial Co]. And so it’s timely that we looked at those structures on a management level, but on the governance level.’’
NZ Rugby is dealing with a number of challenges, ranging from pure high-performance questions around the All Blacks, Black Ferns and Sevens programmes, to making sure the community game is thriving.
A review could therefore recommend a significant shake-up of the NZ Rugby model that could be challenging for some stakeholders, but Mitchell said he had no qualms with such an approach.
‘‘I have an open mind to that,’’ he said. ‘‘As far as I’m concerned I’m happy to look at it as a clean slate.
‘‘We’re not resiling from this. If there are recommendations made that are significant, or even confronting in your words, we’ll consider them. Ultimately, we need to make sure that New Zealand Rugby remains relevant to New Zealand society, and we have to keep up with the changes, not only in best practice governance, but also in societal areas.’’
Mitchell admitted that tensions existed at various points in the system, with the needs and wishes of the provincial unions and the Super
Rugby clubs not always aligning.
Ultimately, no change will be made unless the provincial unions agree to them, but Mitchell signalled NZ Rugby’s willingness to make the case for change if needed.
‘‘The shareholders have the ultimate say,’’ he said. ‘‘But I know in previous reviews where we’ve advocated change, we’ve certainly gone around the country if we think change is important.
‘‘We’ve held meetings with the parishioners and question and answer sessions, focus groups etc to advance change if we believe it’s necessary. But ultimately, the other shareholders do have the ultimate say – to a level: there’s got to be a threshold of two-thirds [voting in favour of any change].’’