Young professional rugby players are being helped to develop both on and off the field. Photo / Photosport
Young professional rugby players in New Zealand are struggling with identity and having a “plan B” if sport as a career doesn’t work out, according to key figures involved in the game.
Young men in 2025 have it tough finding out who they are, but for those starting out as professional rugby players or trying to break into the sport, that challenge is magnified.
For Crusaders Academy manager Paul Galland, an important step towards developing a healthy identity is being vulnerable and overcoming the strong societal push for young men to avoid showing weakness, on and off the field.
“We’re in the business of developing people ... rugby’s just the vehicle,” Galland said.
“We try to make an environment where there is a little bit of vulnerability – if we show it, then they may show it too.”
Galland said it’s more important than ever for young male players to develop skills and nurture identities within their lives to help differentiate between their “playing world” and their “outside world”.
He said this was less of an issue in the amateur era, when playing rugby was just one part of the identity of a player who also had to hold down a job.
“We try and stress to them that you are more than just a rugby player – you’re a person, you’re a brother, a father or whatever that looks like.”
The dangers of young players not affirming identities outside of the sport can be “one of the biggest destabilisers” they can face, University of Canterbury (UC) Māori and Indigenous Studies senior lecturer and Canterbury Rugby League CEO Dr Phil Borell said.
Borell, who has published work on the politics and education of sport in New Zealand, said there are too many “horror stories” of young men becoming lost once their sporting careers end, because they lack understanding of who they are off the field.
It is a major reason why Borell, who has worked with Crusaders Academy players who study at UC, is a massive advocate for professional sport to be a player’s “plan B”.
“It’s so important that you are you, and finding a way to be who you are [and] having passions and interests outside of sport,” Borrell said.
“Guys that I’ve spoken to that have strong identities off the field tend to be the ones that are most likely to remain stable ... [Conversely,] a lot of guys will isolate themselves because they’re so focused on the career.”
Lincoln University sports sociologist Dr Tom Kavanagh said the pressures on players to perform can lead to traditional masculine traits of not showing emotion or asking for help when it is needed.
He said these traits manifested early, such as in First XV schools competitions, which were increasingly viewed as a pathway to professional sport.
“In some situations, they’re more likely to be sacrificing their body [and] not reaching out for help ... because they feel like this is their one shot,” he said.
“I’d like to think that things have changed or are slowly changing over time, but I think rugby still is one of those environments where those kinds of traits are able to embed themselves in the culture.”
Professionalism at younger ages is an “unavoidable reality”, according to Borell.
He said while there’s been progress in professional spaces to create conversations about identity and vulnerability, he questions its effectiveness.
“What are they doing for the guys that are in their care? Are they doing that to the extent that they portray that they do it?”
He said former athletes are typically the ones doing positive work alongside young men starting out, as they understand the mental toll being a professional can take.
“The most common thing for men is ‘well, now that I’m out of that environment, I can talk about it’.”
On a national scale, young rugby players building identities off the field is “hugely important” according to the New Zealand Rugby Player Association’s (NZRPA) general manager of people development, Nikita Hall.
She said a professional rugby career, at best, only equates to 16% of a player’s life. It’s why, under the Collective Employment Agreement (CEA), players have a half-day each week – on top of their rostered day off – for their personal development, protected hours outside of scheduled rugby activities and a Personal Development Programme installed in every provincial union and Super Rugby Pacific club.
“We firmly believe a well-rounded, balanced person off the field makes a better contributor on it,” Hall said.
“One of the greatest disservices we can do to our young people is to let them equate their worth solely with achievement in a single area, allowing them to opt out of developing their minds and talents more broadly.”
Hall pointed to how rugby can give individuals soft skills such as “intelligence, resilience and a growth mindset” to grow beyond the game.
There are plenty of examples of that, ranging from Black Ferns co-captain Ruahei Demant being a qualified lawyer to All Blacks Christian Lio-Willie and Will Jordan having qualifications in dentistry and commerce, respectively.
“That’s no coincidence,” Hall said.
“It reflects the breadth of identity and capability our players build beyond the game that enables them to succeed at the highest level,” she said.
“The players who sustain the longest careers, and then transition successfully into fulfilling lives beyond rugby, are those who treat rugby as their job, while also building a strong identity, competence and confidence in themselves as people.”