New Zealand Rugby boss Mark Robinson is demanding fairness after Sanzaar released the Rugby Championship schedule that, as it stands, will involve the All Blacks quarantining through Christmas on their return from Australia.
COMMENT:
It might pay to take Sanzaar boss Andy Marinos with a pinch of conflicted salt from now on.
Marinos appears to have seen the writing on the wall for his role, and duly hitched his cart to Rugby Australia (RA) in the hope of landing a new plum position.
The Sydney-based South African had been shortlisted for the Rugby Australia chief executive position, and with that in mind it's only fair to ask how objective he can be in the standoff between New Zealand Rugby and RA over the Rugby Championship scheduling debacle that threatens to force the All Blacks to quarantine through Christmas on their return home.
New Zealand Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Sport Minister Grant Robertson and NZ Rugby Players' Association boss Rob Nichol all felt blindsided by Sanzaar releasing the Rugby Championship schedule on Thursday without an agreement being reached.
When the Rugby Championship was to be staged in New Zealand, all four parties insisted changes be made to the original proposal to ensure the tournament finished on the weekend of December 5th which would allow foreign teams, including the Wallabies, to return home and be with their families in time for Christmas.
Now it is being held in Australia, no such provisions have been made with the tournament due to conclude on December 12th – a date that caught New Zealand powerbrokers off guard.
Once the schedule was released, Robinson, Ardern and Robertson made their views about the inflexible schedule clear.
"There was an agreement that those games would conclude by the sixth of December and if everyone sticks to that, then it wouldn't be an issue," Ardern said.
Robinson suggested the final-round match between the All Blacks and Wallabies could be played earlier, while allowing the Argentina and South Africa test on December 12 to continue as scheduled.
Marinos, unsurprisingly, sided with Rugby Australia when he claimed that New Zealand were "fully consulted" while citing player welfare issues and commercial concerns with a condensed format.
He also gave another conflicting view, saying: "All of New Zealand's modelling was always on the 12th when they were hosting the event in New Zealand. So the only changes, on the request from the Kiwis to put it on the 5th, have come in since Australia were awarded it.
"New Zealand were fully aware that we had a D-Day with the New South Wales government for today. It certainly didn't come as any surprise to the other unions at all."
Sanzaar CEO Andy Marinos (L), Rugby Australia Chairman Hamish McLennan, NSW Minister Stuart Ayres and former Wallaby Morgan Turinui pose together in Sydney. Photo / Getty
While his CV sits with the Rugby Australian board, there is no escaping Marinos' conflict of interest.
Marinos attempting to seek his next position should not surprise.
The latest Sanzaar row threatens to be the final nail in the coffin of a governing body that has little influence over the respective four member unions and has ultimately achieved little in the way of progress in recent times.
Sanzaar's future faces a critical juncture on September 29 when South Africa will decide whether or not to officially breakaway from the Southern Hemisphere by committing four Super Rugby teams to the Pro14 competition.
With New Zealand and Australia set to again stage domestic tournaments next year, Sanzaar's role is fast becoming obsolete.
Sanzaar in recent years has failed to drive major change to the test game in the Southern Hemisphere by including Japan or Fiji in the Rugby Championship.
Attempts to get a second-tier Rugby Championship off the ground have also not eventuated. Such a concept could go a long way to mending the fractured relationship with the Pacific Island nations in particular.
Samoa and Fiji's frustrations at being left out of the established, elite pathways was reflected in the World Rugby chairman election earlier this year when they both voted against the southern bloc in support of reappointing Bill Beaumont over Argentina's Agustin Pichot.
The future of the Sanzaar entity now looks to be heading the in the same direction as Pichot's failed bid for chairman.
