‘A GAME IN CRISIS’
Players’ boss issues warning if provincial unions vote against reform
Rugby is on the brink of a protracted and costly civil war after Rugby Players’ Association (NZRPA) chief executive Rob Nichol warned of “chaos” if the provincial unions and Māori Rugby Board (NZMRB) rejected plans to sweep away the New Zealand Rugby board and replace it with an independent structure.
After the provincial unions requested a special general meeting (SGM), NZ Rugby on Wednesday put forward – without officially backing – a proposal to implement the recommendations of last year’s David Pilkington-led review.
A second proposal put together by a group of provincial unions will also be put forward at the SGM in Wellington on May 30, with any successful proposal needing the support of two-thirds of NZ Rugby’s voting members.
Nichol, who described the national game as “in crisis”, told Stuff that the NZRPA fully supported the Pilkington proposal and indicated that the players’ association could take the drastic step of refusing to engage with NZ Rugby if it was not adopted.
“If the outcomes of this process are either no change or the adoption of what the provinces are put on the table, then we will absolutely not have trust and confidence in the governance processes for New Zealand Rugby,” Nichol said.
“That will cause us, from a professional players’ perspective, to take a fundamentally different approach in terms of how we partner with them, and to what extent we do choose to partner with them.
“And then that will unfortunately put the game into a further state of flux and crisis while all that gets sorted out.”
If the players’ association refuses to sit down with NZ Rugby, the game would effectively be in a state of paralysis, giving rivals such as the NRL a free run to the tryline.
In practical terms, it could mean the players’ association opts not to take up a position on the provincial unions’ proposed “governance advisory panel” – an option that could also be open to the Super Rugby franchises.
The new collective-bargaining agreement between NZ Rugby and the NZRPA is also set to negotiated this year, although there is an option to put it on ice until 2025.
However, Nichol said that hostilities were avoidable, insisting the Pilkington proposal would deliver an independent NZ Rugby board with a high degree of rugby knowledge from the community game through to the elite game, as well as giving the provincial unions a crucial ratification vote on any new NZ Rugby board members.
“If the members [provincial unions] are not happy, they can raise objections before a vote is cast,” he said.
“Ultimately all nine members of the new board get put to the voting members, and if they don’t like it, then they can say no and then the appointments have to go back
“We are in chaos at the moment, we have a crisis on our hands.’’
Rob Nichol, Rugby Players’ Association chief executive
and find someone else.
“So they retain ultimate control ... they don’t need to be afraid of it.”
But Nichol said those safeguards also put the onus on the provincial unions to publicly justify their stance if they rejected the Pilkington proposal, and he pointedly called out every provincial union director – “not just the chairs” – to read and understand the Pilkington proposal over the next two weeks.
“They are all under the microscope here,” Nichol said. “Take the time to review this proposal and understand in absolute detail before making a decision.
“... We are in chaos at the moment, we have a crisis on our hands. We’ve got an opportunity to address the governance crisis. We’ve been told what to do. There is a proposal on the table to do that.
“If we don’t make any changes, then we know what’s going to be happen isn’t going to be good.”
The chances of either proposal succeeding are unclear. Under NZ Rugby voting rules, the bigger unions such as Auckland, Wellington and Canterbury get more votes than the likes of Southland or Manawatū.
Therefore, they could form a voting bloc to veto the Pilkington proposal, meaning that the entire process went back to square one.