KEY POINTS:
It's easy to picture Steve Tew in his playing days: the hulking loosehead holding court post-match in the rugby clubrooms. He can talk, he has a fund of stories, a tasty line in humour and is not afraid of the amber fluid.
These days he is paid to
talk, to converse and build commercial and sporting partnerships as chief executive of the New Zealand Rugby Union. He is forthright, staunch and opinionated though he rejects the "bullying" term which has been used to describe his modus operandi.
However, he does concede one resolution in his first year as NZRU boss is to listen some more.
After a tumultuous 2007, Tew, 50 this year, is faced with a multitude of issues as the Rugby Union and the All Blacks head into a new season. Financial stress is near the top of the problem list as the global fiscal uncertainty continues to impact on the national sport. Provinces are in trouble, competition structures need to be addressed and the player exodus grows while there is work to be done to restore confidence and support after the World Cup failure.
It is a huge job and one which comes under as much scrutiny as the Prime Minister or even - that highest of all offices - the All Black coach. Tew is ready after he lost out to David Rutherford then Chris Moller in previous applications to take charge of the NZRU.
Tew has been immersed in rugby administration since the game went professional in 1995 when he switched from a five-year stint with the Hillary Commission to CEO of Canterbury and the Crusaders.
In the opening year of Super 12, the franchise finished last but from that trauma Tew gained his tough reputation.
"We had to take an aggressive approach," he recalled. "Wayne Smith, Peter Sloane, Robbie Deans, Mike Eagle and myself led an organisation which really had to work hard to get our share of playing and commercial resources and, if you like, the spotlight. We had to go flat out to turn it around.
"Otherwise we would not have been successful so we did not take no for an answer when we truly believed we had to get something done.
"I speak my mind but I hate the term bully, it has terrible schoolyard connotations, I do not like that but I will not back down when I am charged with doing something."
Tew accepts there will be contrary views, that he will be criticised; but he bridles when that censure becomes too personal or ill-informed.
He does not crave the limelight, pointing out there are too many examples of sporting administrators who became the focus rather than their code. He also understands he has to be one of the public faces of the union.
Tew's path to the hot seat began as he studied for an arts degree at Victoria University where, by chance, he found himself drawn to an extra course in recreation and sports management. Practical placements followed, including five years as the grandly titled general secretary of the New Zealand University Sports Union. Weeks after the All Blacks won the 1987 World Cup, Tew and his wife Michelle, with whom he has three daughters Ruby, Maddi and Lily, headed offshore where Tew started his OE as chef de mission at the world student games.
Three years working and holidaying around the globe ended with a return to run the Kiwi Sport programme in Wellington. It was home for Tew who was born in Lower Hutt and vaguely remembers his early days in rugby - his father doubling him on the bicycle to the local Strand Park. His love of the game has never disappeared. Tew played senior club rugby for Hutt Old Boys and University until a back injury curtailed that activity in the early years of his sports administration career.#For the past few years he has worked in tandem with Moller who brought his corporate skills alongside Tew's background of rugby knowledge at the head of the NZRU.
"We forged a relationship and mutual trust which neither of us - and I think I can speak for him - ever broke and we ended up working really well together. He ended up taking control of everything ultimately and was very focused on strategy, rebuilding our international reputation, hosting Sanzar through several important years.
"I tended to focus on the New Zealand operations and Chris had a wider external face."
Originally Moller was appointed for two years but was persuaded by others like Tew to stay as projects like the Lions series and the bid to host the 2011 RWC were organised.
Tew has been contracted to the end of that tournament year and has no idea how he or the NZRU will feel about their future beyond that season.
"It is really important not to overplay the role of one person in this country," he said. "We have four million stakeholders and a significant group of actual shareholders in provincial unions and franchises and they are really important.
"Ninety-five per cent of what happens in New Zealand rugby has nothing to do with the New Zealand Rugby Union. It happens in clubs, in schools, in provinces and while we might create some policy framework and some competitions and we are the interface with the lawmakers at the IRB and some of the big decisions which happen around the game, a significant percentage of our game is still completely volunteer and amateur.
"My hope is that when I finally go, New Zealand rugby and the All Blacks will be in better shape than when I arrived," Tew said.
He was comfortable with the way the board dealt with the All Black coaching choice late last year, they were blessed with several options and went through a thorough process before, with senior NZRU management, they made a decision.
Is it good practice, Tew asks, for senior management, the board or others to be replaced every time the All Blacks do not win the World Cup.
"Do we want the situation where all that sort of experience is lost? At the end of the day, one good reference point for me is when you talk to people outside New Zealand who are involved in international sport all the time.
"The context for me was talking to senior people in adidas who look at this on a regular basis and their view was 'we have seen what you have done in the buildup to the World Cup, we have seen how successful your team has been over a four-year period, the progress you have made in areas of weakness back in 2004 like leadership and self-reliance yet you have gone to the World Cup and been knocked out far sooner than you would have liked.'
"But that is the very reason we are involved in sport. There is an element of doubt."
The disappointment for the All Blacks, the NZRU and the country was huge. The effort had been huge and the ongoing review into the campaign may shed further light on any issues but that would have to wait.
