Will Low: Shift in meaning of being All Black

COMMENT

Whatever your opinion of the rugby World Cup bonuses row, it well and truly illustrated how going professional has changed the national game.

The row was an interesting way to engage students in thinking about what happens when you adopt a market culture. As the 1980s song goes, "Money changes everything".

This was a dispute between an employer and its employees, one union against the rugby union. Not quite the winter of discontent.

And did that man on television really talk about players' intellectual property rights? "Oh, for the good old days," many sighed, "when rugby men were farmers and player payments weren't discussed in polite company."

It would be churlish to suggest there is no longer the same pride in wearing the All Black jersey, but there clearly is a shift in what being an All Black means.

Gone, perhaps forever, is the overwhelming sense of a national purpose and collective identity forged on the rugby field. Instead, the pursuit of individual benefit becomes as important as pursuing a loose ball.

Of course any number of people supported the players trying to get the best deal they could. But if the players are really concerned about being perceived as being greedy, the way the dispute played out did them few favours.

Consider, for example, the suggestion from many quarters that a larger bonus would give the players a greater incentive to win. How silly are the rest of us who trudge out every weekend in our respective sports, with our high-minded ideals and Corinthian values to keep us warm. Chants of "Show us the money" should replace the haka.

Imagine if members of the military demanded bonus payments before going to Bosnia or East Timor.

I would also suggest that the players' representatives drop the argument that All Blacks only have a short time at the top and so have to make hay while the sun shines. That leaves aside the chance to earn a decent pound, yen, franc or two once the selectors lose your mobile-phone number.

What's wrong with a former All Black working for a living after his playing days are over? Everyone else does. Perhaps professional players have forgotten what a job is, given their present job is playing a game.

We should be more worried that choosing a career in rugby seems to preclude learning skills for life after 30. In the past, some former All Blacks went on to be politicians and some even did useful things. A more recent trend has been to become television celebrities, but let's not go there.

Which is not to say that the New Zealand Rugby Football Union did not drop the (administrative) ball - and not for the first time. How is it possible that the All Black contracts in a World Cup year did not stipulate terms for the cup itself?

I can see it now. The rugby union representative goes into the room after the All Blacks are named and says, "Oh, by the way chaps, we just want you to play half a dozen or so games during October and November over in Australia. You weren't doing anything else then, were you?"

The new industrial relations of professional rugby seem to have caught the rugby union out, and it is going to have to find another $1.5 million to pay the All Black bonuses, if they win.

It seemed to take an interminably long time to see who blinked first. The players showed they had mastered the game of brinkmanship as well as they have the game of rugby. The rugby union responded with a lame appeal to public sympathy by revealing the players' pay packets.

The immediate response to the demand for a $120,000 bonus should have been, "Yes, for winning the whole thing - or else no bonus at all."

What the players got seems to be appearance money as well as a win bonus. Consider the $2000 a player for a pool-match win. Let's face it, pool matches are an exercise in trying to put 100 points on weak opposition.

Didn't the New Zealand Maori just beat Canada comprehensively, the All Blacks slay the Welsh dragon, and divisional sides topple both Tonga and Italy? That's the Pool D opposition.

Australia, England and France may get bigger bonuses but will work harder for them. In pool play, the Wallabies meet Ireland and Argentina. England will have to tackle Samoa and the Springboks. Only Les Bleus are likely to have as untroubled a run to the quarter-finals as the All Blacks.

Even the $13,000 bonus for a quarter-final win could be considered pay for play. I hate to say it for fear of invoking a jinx but the likely opponent, South Africa, no longer inspires fear. Of the leading sides, the Springboks have made arguably the worst transition to the professional game.

So it is the $15,000 semifinal and $50,000 World Cup final that will make the All Blacks break sweat. All in all, not a bad bit of bargaining on the part of the players.

Maybe I should encourage the players to study management and employment relations. With their clearly demonstrated aptitude and head for figures, some would go far.

At the very least it could lead to careers as union negotiators.

* Will Low teaches in the University of Auckland's department of management and employment relations.