Brodie Retallick, Codie Taylor, Aaron Smith and Nepo Laulala of the All Blacks sing the national anthem ahead of the Rugby World Cup 2019 Semi-Final match against England. Photo / Getty Images.
Brodie Retallick, Codie Taylor, Aaron Smith and Nepo Laulala of the All Blacks sing the national anthem ahead of the Rugby World Cup 2019 Semi-Final match against England. Photo / Getty Images.
COMMENT:
The All Blacks haven't historically made life easy for social activism to flourish.
Those players who have expressed their support for any particular cause outside of winning a lineout, have been ostracised and victimised by their team-mates and punished by the administration.
Rugby bosses have treated social activism mostly as a scourge that needs to be stamped out. The message has been clear from upon high that rugby's administrators won't tolerate any campaigning nonsense, or players having opinions about matters that don't pertain to the game itself.
David Kirk refused to join the rebel Cavaliers tour to South Africa in 1986, a decision that ended with those who did, refusing to accept him as the legitimate and rightful captain of the All Blacks when they returned from the Republic.
New Zealand Rugby agreed that he was some kind of troublemaker by dumping him as captain and replacing him with Jock Hobbs – a man who had struggled with his conscience in accepting the Cavaliers invitation but decided to go, regretting it for the rest of his days.
All Blacks line up during the national anthem. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
The man who went was rewarded and the man who refused, on the grounds it would endorse a political regime committed to apartheid and the subjugation of black South Africans, was punished.
Just as Josh Kronfeld was warned in 1995 by the national body that he would be in trouble should he carry out his threat to wear headgear that protested against French nuclear testing in the Pacific.
In 2014 Kane Hames was reprimanded while playing for New Zealand Maori in Chicago, for wearing a wristband that supported the Native American protest against an access pipeline at Standing Rock.
The peculiar thing is that while there has been no historic tolerance of individual social activism, the national body has made political statements of its own, choosing to allow the All Blacks to tour South Africa in 1976 and inviting the Springboks to New Zealand in 1981.
The current administration of New Zealand Rugby is a million miles removed from the decisions of the past and while individuals can't be held accountable or responsible for what happened almost 50 years ago, the institution can.
And this is why the next few months could end up being critical in the history of the national body as there is a chance, a golden opportunity even, to work with the country's leading players to use the All Blacks as a powerful and influential vehicle to drive social change.
Athletes around the world are uniting to support the Black Lives Matter movement and rarely, if ever, has sport been used in such a unified and powerful manner to heighten awareness of an issue that is intolerable and unconscionable.
Aaron Smith of New Zealand leads the haka prior to the Rugby World Cup 2019 Bronze Final match between New Zealand and Wales. Photo / File.
Racism is pandemic and pervades deep into societal interactions around the world and All Blacks in New Zealand will either have experienced racism first-hand or be aware of team-mates who have.
The whole ethos on which the All Blacks are built is team, togetherness and unity and understandably, players are going to want to promote that message and openly and demonstrably support a movement that strikes at the very heart of their beliefs.
So if and presumably when the All Blacks are given a test schedule for 2020, NZR will have not so much an opportunity to erase a regrettable past, but a chance to build the sort of future where rugby players in this country can actually use their profile and standing to have a positive societal influence.
If players individually or the team collectively want to openly and demonstrably support Black Lives Matter, they must be allowed to do so without sanction or fear of reprisal.
The irony, not lost on many of the current crop of professionals, is that they have the role model tag slapped on them when it suits their employer.
A series of young players over the years have drunk too much and disgraced themselves, their process of absolution requiring them to hold a mea culpa in front of the media.
The embarrassment of those episodes has been acute and exacerbated by the presence of senior NZR officials making sure to express their disappointment that they expect more from their role models.
Yet when those same role models in the past have decided to support a cause in which they believe and use their influence to try to activate social change, they have been told to pack it in.
It's not possible to have it both ways any more. We can't be indignant about the dumb footy player who drinks too much and gets in a fight and then, with no sense of hypocrisy, tell those with opinions about issues that matter to shut up because our expectation is that footy players should confine their opinions to breakdowns and rucks and incessantly paint themselves as dumb.
Rugby has a shocking past, having supported political regimes that have worsened social inequity. But that doesn't need to define its future if it is willing to embrace and support social activism from players and not punish them.
