Rugby: Hit or miss? Rating Steve Tew's 12 years in charge of NZ Rugby

Outgoing NZ Rugby chief executive Steve Tew. Photo / Getty

On Wednesday, Steve Tew announced he would be stepping down as New Zealand Rugby's chief executive at the end of the year, bringing down the curtain on a 25-year career in rugby administration. Rugby writers Gregor Paul and Patrick McKendry run the rule over Tew's 12 years in one of the hottest seats in the game.

Financial security

GP: The strength of NZR's balance sheet is Tew's legacy. Around the world the major unions are all struggling – even England, forever seen as having an endless pit of money, are making huge budget cuts as they come to terms with having overspent on refitting Twickenham. But on Tew's watch, NZR have not only seen revenue steadily increase year on year, they have managed costs and spent sensibly. Provinces have enjoyed strong investment from NZR and players are better paid than they have ever been and yet NZR has significant cash reserves. Tew has been careful to not overspend through the boom times and has been quite ruthless at controlling periphery spending. 9/10

PM: He's known as a tough negotiator and has been near tireless in his fight to wrangle a fairer share of the game's profits for New Zealand, a struggle that will be ongoing well after he leaves. During Tew's tenure, New Zealand Rugby's commercial team has been able to leverage sponsorships on the back of the All Blacks' success far better than in the past; he can rightly claim some of the kudos for that. And yet, there are dark clouds ahead for the game. Last year, NZR made a $1.9 million loss which was better than expected, but the coffers are beginning to run dry. 6/10

Public sentiment

GP: NZR was an unloved organisation when Tew came in and they will be an unloved organisation when he walks out. In fairness, it's probably an impossible job winning the hearts of a rugby public, most of whom feel they would be able to do a better job themselves. But it would be just as fair to suggest that Tew, whose key strength was his single-mindedness and determination to get things done, often exacerbated this sense of NZR being a corporate machine out of touch with the people. The most memorable example came in 2009 when the Canterbury rugby public were still seething about the re-appointment of Graham Henry ahead of Robbie Deans and were then only given one test that year – a June fixture against Italy. 5/10

PM: Tew has been in the job for 12 years – that's a long time to be a chief executive of a big organisation which should be constantly changing and attempting to improve. There will be those who will forever consider Tew as part of rugby's old boys' club – white, male, privileged and resistant to change. He didn't always do himself favours in terms of his public image because his brusqueness approached arrogance at times, and yet he was comfortable in all areas of public life – as comfortable talking to a young rugby player as he was to a politician or sponsor. 5/10

Steve Hansen and Steve Tew. Photo / Photosport

Strategy

GP: The first point to make about Tew is that he's commendably never been confused or ambiguous about NZR's overall strategy. He has been a believer in trickle-down economics from day one – arguing that the power of the All Blacks brand should be used to maximise funding, which would then be invested in other areas of the game. Some have argued that this strategy was pursued to the detriment of the grass-roots and that the money never properly flowed down. But the grassroots has done pretty well since Tew took over in 2007. Provincial unions have been flooded with cash in the last decade and while many have flirted with bankruptcy in that period, they have themselves to blame for that and not a lack of funding from NZR. 7/10

PM: As an administrator of one of New Zealand's highest profile organisations, Tew has had to juggle not only the financial bottom line, but also NZR's reputation and outlook. Moreover, he's had to juggle the task of maintaining the All Blacks' No 1 ranking that they've held since 2009 with the nurturing of the grassroots game here and the need to promote women's rugby while retaining as many elite players as he can. That is no easy challenge, and overall he's done a pretty good job while probably leaning towards the conservative rather than the progressive. 7/10

Diversity

GP: NZR didn't know what diversity was when Tew came into the role. He can't be attributed with radically changing things, but he can be certain that he at least began the process of NZR changing towards being a more inclusive and diverse organisation. The first female board member was appointed during his tenure and both the Black Ferns Sevens and XVs now have retainer contracts and access to a range of high performance services that were previously never available. There was also a major historic moment last year when Kendra Cocksedge became the first female winner of the Kel Tremain award. 7/10

PM: This has been one of Tew's biggest areas of development over recent years. He was extremely honest two years ago when the Respect and Responsibility Report came out in the wake of the Chiefs stripper scandal in 2016 about the need for the game in New Zealand to make meaningful change in terms of attitudes and, alongside chairman Brent Impey, he has largely succeeded in doing that. There is a pragmatism at play here of course in that, apart from wanting to attract more women to leadership roles, engaging the ethnically diverse city of Auckland has been a NZR priority for half a decade. 7/10

Kelvin R Tremain Memorial Player of the Year winner Black Ferns Kendra Cocksedge. Photo / Photosport

Stakeholder and media relations

GP: Tew has always been one to understand the value of relationships and worked tirelessly throughout his tenure to ensure there was strong and open communication with sponsors, broadcasters, international rugby executives and players. He's a naturally sociable beast, good company and old school rugby in the sense that he enjoyed getting to know those with whom he was doing business. He also knew being affable and convivial would help NZR professionally and no doubt the fact that most key sponsorship executives liked him, would have had an influence on their decision to commit. Always available to media to discuss issues of the day. 8/10

PM: Appeared to recognise the importance of stakeholders and media, and under NZR's priorities, the media – effectively a captive market for a sport which dominates all here - are considered stakeholders. He was usually open and occasionally charming with the media. 6/10

Scandals

GP: If Tew were to be given a chance to re-live 2016 again, he'd tackle things differently. It was a tough year for the chief executive as he learned the hard way that the buck always stops at his door. It was a terrible year for rugby – with the All Blacks bugged in Sydney, the Chiefs Strippergate scandal, followed by Aaron Smith's toilet tryst and then an assault case involving a young Wellington player. None of these issues were of Tew's making but he didn't handle them well. The business with the Chiefs was particularly bad as it took an age for the whole business to appear to be taken seriously by NZR and then there were issues with the independence of the review they conducted. Tew came across as someone ill-equipped to deal with a crisis. 4/10

PM: One area of weakness for Tew, who was in no way to blame for the Chiefs' Mad Monday celebrations of 2016 which for whatever reason included a stripper, or the Spygate scandal in before the All Blacks played the Wallabies in Sydney that year. But unfortunately he appeared slow to recognise the seriousness of the issues involved and that backfired. In the case of Spygate - the discovery of a listening device in the All Blacks hotel – the police and World Rugby should have been notified far earlier. 4/10