Chaos now reigns because the key figures in this saga don’t trust their employer, writes Gregor Paul. Photo / Getty Images
Chaos now reigns because the key figures in this saga don’t trust their employer, writes Gregor Paul. Photo / Getty Images
OPINION:
In what may rank as the greatest understatement of the year to date, New Zealand rugby is currently experiencing the effects of operating in a low-trust environment.
Relationships everywhere are broken, some irretrievably, some with the facade of having been patched up, and others clinging together out of alack of alternatives.
One relationship that would appear to be irretrievably broken now is that between All Blacks head coach Ian Foster and New Zealand Rugby (NZR) chief executive Mark Robinson.
There they were back in August, albeit with what always felt like a contrived show of unity for the cameras, back-slapping one another at a press conference to announce that Foster was being backed to stay in his job through to the World Cup.
It was all smiles, bonhomie and, finally, a sense that the chief executive and his board, having come perilously close to firing their incumbent coach, were all 100 per cent ‘Team Foz’.
Ian Foster said he is "highly unlikely" to be All Blacks coach after the World Cup. Photo / Photosport
But that was all a charade, because six months after telling the world Foster was their man, NZR’s general manager of professional rugby Chris Lendrum popped into chez Foster a couple of weeks ago to tell him that the process to appoint the coach for 2024 would be beginning in March.
Foster had the unanimous support of his board in August, but by February, he was effectively told he no longer did.
NZR will dispute this, arguing that Foster has a fighting chance to retain the role if he’s interested in keeping it, but as he himself told Newstalk ZB, he can’t see any circumstances under which he will be the All Blacks coach next year.
This is a realisation not borne of self-pitying bitterness, but the indisputable truth that if NZR had any faith in him - saw some possibility that he could be a contender for his own role next year - they would judge him on what he delivers at the World Cup.
And this takes us to the issue of trust, because how does it get built when an organisation says one thing in August and then another in February?
Crusaders head coach Scott Robertson has reason not to trust his employers. Photo / Photosport
But what has caused an even greater erosion of trust between the All Blacks coach and his chief executive is that for the last few months, everyone else has apparently known the timeline around the reappointment process, but not Foster.
Scott Robertson appeared to know what was happening a couple of weeks ago when he suggested an announcement was imminent.
The fact he felt the need to say something was ill-advised, but it was also understandable in that it alluded to his lack of trust in the process and the people running it.
He has as much right to be sceptical and uncertain about the intentions of his employer as Foster does, because he must have thought the job was his last year.
There he was in August laying out his vision for the team and the coaching group he would build around him, and preparing to take over for the first test against Argentina.
But on August 17, when Robertson was checking his phone every few minutes awaiting confirmation the job was his, news broke from Auckland that Foster had gone full Lazarus and was staying on.
Chaos now reigns because the key figures in this saga don’t trust their employer and clearly feel the need to run media agendas that are outside the control of NZR to ensure that their message is heard the way they want it to be.
Foster, having spoken to the Herald about his frustrations at the way this whole appointment saga is playing out, has clearly resigned himself to the certainty his relationship with Robinson is damaged beyond repair and that his intent in publicly lamenting the process is not to save his job, but to protect the All Blacks.
That we have Foster in open conflict like this suggests that someone really needs to be keeping a tally of just how many key NZR relationships are operating with giant cracks or open hostility.
It seems like they are building up. Rugby Australia and NZR have been in an on-off war for the last three years.
In 2021 and 2022, there was a civil war between NZR and the New Zealand Rugby Players’ Association.
The South Africans remain uncertain about NZR after the latter unilaterally kicked them out of Super Rugby.
There have been a few too many poorly handled incidents as well - most notably the review into the Black Ferns, the scheduling clash between the male and female national teams last year, the failed attempt to hijack and own Super Rugby, and the decision to accept Altrad and Ineos as sponsors.
An executive that has been acutely aware of Foster’s record doesn’t appear to be keeping such a vigilant count of their own.
