Major breakthrough in New Zealand Rugby governance standoff as warring stakeholders agree to collaborate

The various parties have agreed to plot a way forward that will lead to governance change that all parties can live with. Photo / Mark Mitchell.

It is probably just a coincidence that six days after the Scott Robertson era kicked off with a test victory, the first shoots of common sense broke out in the ongoing governance saga.

Warring stakeholders, who have spent the last nine months in conflict, agreed at a private meeting before the New Zealand Rugby Annual General Meeting on Friday, to shift the dial to collaboration.

The provincial unions, Super Rugby Clubs [SRC], New Zealand Māori Rugby Board [NZMRB] and New Zealand Rugby Players’ Association [NZRPA] have, at last, agreed to engage in discussions to plot a way forward that will lead to governance change that all parties can live with.

The breakthrough agreement meant that North Harbour withdrew its resolution to further change the constitution to enable the unions to handpick individuals to represent the SRC, NZMRB and NZRPA despite the fact all three major stakeholders were actively boycotting the proposed new governance structure.

If Harbour’s union had been put to the floor and approved at the AGM, it would ultimately have turned an already fraught, and confused process into one of utter chaos as it would have led to three key stakeholders in the game having people they didn’t support or endorse represent them in a governance system they didn’t want to be part of.

No one could see how this would serve the game well or lead to effective governance.

That the various parties are now willing to at least get in the same room with one another and address the various issues each holds about the so-called Proposal 2 governance change, is a signal that perhaps New Zealand’s rugby fraternity is ready to begin the process of reuniting and healing a number of still raw wounds from a conflict that dates back to early 2021 and the first attempt to strike an equity sale to US fund manager Silver Lake.

Since that failed attempt by NZR to sell a 12.5 per cent stake in its commercial assets to Silver Lake, the game in New Zealand has been divided – with an acrimonious split between the professional players and their employer being the worst and most damaging rift.

That rift intensified late last year when the decision was made to sell a further $62.5m of equity to Silver Lake, but relationships everywhere have been strained and broken in the last three years.

The provincial unions have only just reached agreement with NZR to repay Covid payments to the Ministry of Social Development – a process that was long and tense and at times antagonistic.

And of course, since the publication of the independent review into NZR’s governance structure in August last year, there has been an almost irreconcilable difference in views between the provincial unions and every other major stakeholder, about how to respond.

It has been, to put it mildly, a dark and difficult period for the game – one where it has seemingly lost its sense of unity and common purpose.

But it is possible now that the process of reparation is set to begin and that by doing something that they should have agreed to months ago – getting into a room with all the key stakeholders and trying to agree the right governance structure to adopt – New Zealand rugby’s leaders have accepted that the cold war has to end.

And maybe, the catalyst to this thaw has been the arrival of the 2024 test season and the immediate sense of excitement and opportunity that has developed now that the All Blacks have assembled and played their first test under new management.

It’s perhaps unfair to lump yet more expectation on head coach Scott Robertson, but it does feel that he could be the game’s unifying force, the North Star to usher in a new era of co-operation and cohesion to bring once divided stakeholders together.

He does have a magnetism, and he doesn’t carry any sense of being politicised, or representing one group at the expense of others.

For the last two weeks, he’s been the people’s coach, the player’s coach… he’s been everyone’s coach – willing to engage, to be honest and in the immediate aftermath of the 16-15 victory in Dunedin he gave the most insightful post-match interview in professional rugby’s history.

Not everyone likes or agrees with his mission to theme this season under the banner “Together we Walk”, but it is, even if it may be a touch contrived and designed to give the NZR+ content factory an overarching narrative to follow, a message that has relevance and value.

The All Blacks are the apex of a rugby system that works best when everyone in it works together, and perhaps everyone has had enough of the bickering, the self-serving attitudes and refusal to adhere to the values that the game promotes.

Razor represents change and modernisation and if he can get his All Blacks to play with a defined sense of who they are, it may just be enough to persuade the country to reconnect with the national team without agenda, grievance or bitterness.

For too long New Zealand’s rugby landscape has been dominated by conflict and misalignment, and for too long the All Blacks have been only half supported by a country that has wanted to moan about who isn’t coach.

The last three years have been bad for the game in New Zealand, and decisions were made – such as selling a share in the commercial assets to Silver Lake – that could ultimately prove to have been manifestly wrong.

But they are decisions that the game must now live with and try to make work.

Just as there is a pressing need to find a workable solution to the governance saga and maybe now stakeholders who have been enemies for too long will once again become partners.

Robertson has chalked up one win on the field so far, but he has perhaps scored a more significant victory off the field.

Gregor Paul is one of New Zealand’s most respected rugby writers and columnists. He has won multiple awards for journalism and has written several books about sport.