Reddy to make a stand

New Zealand Rugby chair Dame Patsy Reddy has confirmed that she will “reconsider her position” if the provincial unions reject her reform proposals and press ahead with their own plans to secure at least three spots on future NZ Rugby boards for provincial union board members with at least two years’ experience.

NZ Rugby released its proposal to change the game’s leadership structure yesterday, and is awaiting feedback from its members before deciding whether to call a special general meeting to vote on it.

However, the provincial unions have drafted their own proposal that is significantly different in some key areas, notably their view that the “board must include at least three members who have had at least two years’ experience on a provincial union board”.

Despite months of negotiations that has involved compromise on both sides, Reddy said this was “a red line” for her.

“I've been clear that I'm committed personally

“For me it’s being honest.”

NZR chair Dame Patsy Reddy

to delivering an independent model of governance for the game,” she told Stuff. “And the [governance] review gave us a well-considered blueprint for that.

“I'm hoping that the provincial unions will support this way forward, but if the voting members choose to vote a proposal that maintains that level of representation - of three members of the NZ Rugby board having to have government experience at provincial level - yes, that’s my red line.

“... As I've said to them [the provincial unions], if they do proceed with this model and it's successful, then I would review my position because I cannot support it.”

Reddy has proposed a transitional model - which has been endorsed by the governance review author David Pilkington - that NZ Rugby believes still offers the provincial unions scope to shape the future of the game without the guarantee of a minimum three board spots out of the nine available.

Further, she disagreed with the view that the community game’s views could only be represented by provincial union board members with at least two years’ experience.

“We need to understand the provincial union experience, the lived experience of the provincial unions and the communities that they represent,” she said.

“But there are different ways of doing this, and having a bar, or having a requirement that at least three members of the board must have that [provincial union] governance experience, is unnecessarily restrictive.

“It sets in place a criterion that will cut out or could cut out people that have equally as strong understanding of the game.”

Should Reddy resign, it would mean a short tenure for the first woman to chair NZ Rugby since it was founded in 1892.

Asked what message that would send about NZ Rugby as an organisation, she said: “I think that's for you to consider.

“For me it's being honest, it's being upfront with the provincial unions in the first instance, but also the wider rugby stakeholders - and indeed the public - to say that one of the principles that I firmly believe in is the time is right to have not only a diverse board, not only a board that has the opportunity for constructive feedback from a wider range of stakeholders, but a board that has that an independent position, all appointed through the same appointments process.’’

The NZ Rugby proposal is now being weighed up by the provincial unions.