Ranking NZR balls-ups of century
Boardroom misadventures nothing new in running the national game
In honour of Mike Cron, the straightshooting All Blacks forward maestro who’s about to coach the Wallabies, let’s rate the balls-ups of this century in New Zealand rugby administration.
Cron, talking to D’Arcy Waldegrave on NewstalkZB, summed up in eight loaded words, how Ian Foster had been treated: “It was sh** what they [New Zealand Rugby and the media] did to him.”
I agree, and it prompted this list of rugby boardroom misadventures, with a rating for each.
Dumping of Wayne Smith (2001)
When they appointed Wayne Smith All Blacks coach after the 1999 World Cup, New Zealand Rugby hamstrung him by refusing to allow him to take as his assistant Peter Sloane, who had worked with Smith transforming the Crusaders.
At the end of the southern test season in 2001, Smith had a 95 per cent approval rating from his players. Anything above 90 per cent entitled him to continue his contract.
But his sense of fairness drove him to ask for the position to be made contestable. NZR appointed a review panel of seven men who collectively defined the words “conservative” and “old school”.
Bemused by a coach in Smith who expressed some emotions, they recommended he be replaced by John Mitchell. So Smith, the man who is now recognised as a genius of the game, was gone.
Balls-up rating for officials: 9/10. The All Blacks were knocked out of the 2003 World Cup in the semifinals.
Losing a fight they should never have started (2002)
New Zealand were granted co-hosting rights with Australia for the 2003 World Cup. Twenty-three games were to be played here, including all the All Blacks’ pool games, two quarterfinals and one semifinal.
Initially, big losses were forecast for games here. However, by December 2001, NZR believed it would be possible to make anywhere from $A2 million ($2.2m) to $A5m on our slice of the Cup.
But then we picked a fight with tough Welsh lawyer Vernon Pugh, chairman of the International Rugby Board, over profits from corporate boxes. In a combative phone call in February 2002, NZR chairman Murray McCaw accused Pugh of reneging on a handshake deal. Pugh soon struck back.
On April 18, the IRB sacked New Zealand as co-hosts. It got worse for the NZR board. In a poll of 5000 Kiwis, 93.9 per cent said the whole board should go. They did, and a new board, led by former All Black Jock Hobbs, took over.
Balls-up rating for officials: 10/10
The hesitation two-step (2022)
I rarely quote the Bible in these columns, but in Revelation 3:15-16, Jesus offered advice NZR should have heeded: “Because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”
In one weird week in August 2022, after the All Blacks had been beaten 26-10 in Nelspruit by the Springboks, Scott Robertson was offered the job of All Blacks coach.
But when the All Blacks then beat South Africa 35-23 at Ellis Park a week later, NZR changed its mind about sacking Ian Foster.
Adding an even more bizarre touch, it was then announced in March last year, five months before the World Cup started in France, that Robertson would take over.
There has never been a situation like it since the World Cup started in 1987, and Cron’s summation feels about right. The fact Foster’s team made the final and could easily have won the Cup is a final surreal touch.
Balls-up rating for officials: 10/10. If there was so little faith in Foster, it was unfair to him and Robertson for NZR to be offering the position.
The Mexican standoff (2024)
I doubt there’s been a more fraught time at national rugby board level since the upheaval of 2002 than the arm wrestle over control.
There’s plenty to consider. A threat of resignation by chairwoman Dame Patsy Reddy.
An interim, dramatically trimmeddown board suggested by Players’ Association head Rob Nichol.
The analogy by Wellington Rugby chairman Russell Poole that to not have three provincial union representatives on the board would be like a company building a house with “nine people who have never built one before”.
To say finding a middle ground looks hugely difficult is a world-class understatement.
As a rugby tragic, you can only hope that when the gunsmoke clears, the standoff hasn’t involved three groups who were in a circle when the firing started.
Balls-up rating for officials:
Still only a 5/10. The special general meeting in the next week or so has the potential to fix it all, or zoom it up towards the 10/10 level.