For Pete’s sake, how many times did they say no
THE Wellington Rugby Football Union has staunchly defended the process by which Earl Va’a was appointed Lions coach.
Eyebrows have been raised since Va’a was unveiled on Friday, given his relationship with the WRFU’s appointments panel chairman Ken Laban, who later took to Twitter to defend himself and confirmed yesterday there was ‘‘definitely a conflict’’ of interest where his WRFU role and history with Va’a are concerned.
‘‘The families are very close. I coached him [at the Wainuiomata Rugby League Club] when he first came out of St Bernard’s College and I’ve had a very close association with him,’’ Laban said.
‘‘His son, T J, lived with us for two years while Earl was coaching in Japan, so there’s definitely a conflict.’’
Laban stated that in writing to the WRFU, as he did with regard to some of the other candidates interviewed by the panel. He also expressed a reluctance to the WRFU about continuing to chair the panel, given his interests.
‘‘For three of them, I’d previously been a reference or support person and for the fourth one I was the speaker at his 40th birthday. To be fair, with the exception of the 40th birthday, I declared the others.’’
Having done that, Laban said the ball was in the court of the WRFU board, of which he’s been a member since 2010. WRFU chairman Iain Potter said there was no question of removing Laban from the process.
‘‘Ken is the chair of what we call the the rugby sub-committee. That person, as opposed to Ken as an individual, sits on the appointments panel,’’ Potter said.
‘‘Ken declared his association with Earl, and with other candidates, where he felt there was a pre-existing relationship of some strength. It was felt that, given the nature of sport and the fact we all know people . . . I mean there wouldn’t be anyone on the board that doesn’t know someone who’s applying, so we just rely on good process.’’
Laban, club delegates Nigel Hughes and Peter Scott, WRFU chief executive James Te Puni and Hurricanes high performance manager Chris Stirling interviewed the candidates and reported back to the board.
Potter said the subsequent debate was robust and ‘‘a conclusion was drawn by the whole board’’ that Va’a was the man for the job.
‘‘The appointments panel make a recommendation to the board. They don’t appoint anyone,’’ Potter said.
Peter Russell and Filo Tiatia were known to be among the other candidates. Russell has said ‘‘there was no transparency at all’’ to the appointment process and called on the WRFU not to allow conflicts of this nature to occur again.
Critics might say the WRFU could appoint Father Christmas, if they felt he was the best man to lead the Lions. They just have to be seen to be making the appointment in the right way.
Potter acknowledged that but reiterated that there had been nothing shady about how Va’a became head coach.
‘‘We can drop personalities into it but the process had integrity and I can understand that Ken would take umbrage at anyone levelling any accusation that he is lacking personal integrity.
‘‘He was a cog in a process,’’ Potter said. FIVE no thank-yous sound they’ll be Peter Russell’s lot.
Three times he’s been interviewed for the job of Wellington Lions coach, and twice for the Hurricanes, and while dreams are nice to chase, they don’t pay the bills.
The former Marist St Pats, Wairarapa-Bush, Hawke’s Bay and Newcastle Falcons head coach, and Highlanders assistant, had seemed to be the obvious can-
like didate to take the Lions from provincial rugby’s championship and back to the premiership next year.
Earl Va’a got the job instead, as part of an interview process in which Russell says ‘‘there was no transparency at all’’.
He’d interviewed for the head coach’s job at another NPC union but told them that the Lions were the only team he was interested in. Now, having been turned down by Wellington for the third time, Russell accepts his coaching future probably lies offshore.
‘‘To come back and miss out on the Hurricanes and, fair enough, Boydy [Chris Boyd] had his feet in the door there. But to go from interviewing for that job and now being interviewed for the Lions and missing out all together is dumbfounding for me,’’ Russell said.
He’d established an all-star support cast, featuring favourite Wellington sons such as Dion Waller, Christian Cullen, Norm Hewitt, Rodney So’oialo and Alama Ieremia, to aid him in improving the Lions’ lot. Russell feels some missed the names and simply saw dollar signs.
‘‘But that’s not right. We always knew there was going to be a lack of money and these guys just wanted to get Wellington back on its feet again. We were pretty much going to run on an oily rag,’’ said Russell.
He felt he always faced an uphill battle convincing the Wellington Rugby Football Union’s appointments panel of his merits, when its chairman Ken Laban was a close personal friend of Va’a. But Russell believes he interviewed strongly and would have made a difference.
‘‘I was going back there to challenge everyone to get better. You can’t come off a season like that and not expect some cages to be rattled.
‘‘But, look, I’d just like to thank those people that’ve supported us during the weeks leading up to the interview. There was club support, past players and past coaches that’ve worked with me too.’’