Rugby World Cup 2023: Why former NZRU chief executive David Moffett won’t watch the World Cup

A former boss of the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) has slammed the current state of the game and says he will not be watching the Rugby World Cup.

Across September and October, 20 of the world’s top rugby nations will head to France in the hopes of leaving the European nation with the title of world champions. The All Blacks kick off the tournament on the morning of September 9 (NZT) against hosts France.

But one man who formerly led the New Zealand game will not be tuning in to watch it. David Moffett.

Moffett was the chief executive of the NZRU (now New Zealand Rugby or NZR) from 1996 until 2000, and speaking to Newstalk ZB yesterday, he launched an attack on how the game is refereed and played.

“I’m not watching the Rugby World Cup this year because I refuse to watch a sport where the match officials have such an effect on the result of the game. I don’t think they do it deliberately; I just think that it is the way in which the game is currently being played and the fact that a very important law is completely ignored, which is law 15. If anybody’s interested, you can go and have a look at what it says and essentially it says players at the ruck have to be on their feet and of course, no players are ever on their feet,” he said.

“If you made that one simple choice to get the players to stay on their feet at what’s called a ruck and it’s no longer, it’s no ruck really, then you wouldn’t have all of [these penalties]. For every single breakdown, you can find a penalty and nobody knows what they’re for. The referees are not consistent amongst themselves and sometimes they’re not consistent within themselves.

David Moffett ran the NZRU from 1996 to 2000. Photo / Photosport

“What did the game go the other day, [like] 120 minutes or something and the ball was in play [for] 35? Why would anybody turn up to watch that? They will at the World Cup because it’s an event but we’ve seen it with NPC crowds [that] are hugely down.”

Following the release of the NZR governance review, which found the current constitution and consequent governance structures “are not fit for purpose in the modern era”, Moffett said he doubts recommendations from a panel inquiry into the organisation will be effective.

Released yesterday, the review was undertaken by a four-person panel that included former Fonterra executive David Pilkington, former All Blacks captain Graham Mourie, and experienced directors Anne Urlwin and Whaimutu Dewes. It recommended two key changes: the first being the appointment of a skilled, high-performing board to govern the organisation and the second, the creation of a stakeholder council to ensure the voices of stakeholders are heard and interests represented collaboratively.

Moffett said club rugby was being ignored in New Zealand, even though it formed the provincial unions, who in turn elected NZR officials.

“New Zealand Rugby itself behaves as though that doesn’t exist. And I think that is largely as a result of ignorance and arrogance and, and it, and that, and that has to stop. Now whether the proposals are going to be able to achieve that, I just don’t know,” he said.

“I think they’ve got to actually redefine the role of provincial rugby, club rugby and also international rugby. Once they do those sorts of things, they can then sit down and work out how they’re going to deliver it but that’s how basic I think they’ve got to go back and have a look at this stuff.

“I’m surprised that anybody thought that they should actually get such a report done. Anybody can see that NZR as it’s being run at the moment is not fit for purpose. You didn’t need a report like this to tell you that.”

Luke Kirkness is an Online Sports Editor for the NZ Herald. He previously covered consumer affairs for the Herald and was an assistant news director in the Bay of Plenty. He won Student Journalist of the Year in 2019.