Silver Lake and TV deals may be the least of NZR’s worries if fundamental changes aren’t made - Phil Gifford

OPINION

Rugby in New Zealand should be run by men and women who above all realise they’re fighting to keep the game alive.

In a month or two, at a special general meeting, there’ll be a showdown between those currently in charge at New Zealand Rugby (NZR) and the provincial unions.

Whether control of the sport is then ceded completely to business wizards, or to a mixture of six boardroom experts and three provincial union grassroots members, feels less important than the need for whoever is in charge to urgently address what can be done to at least slow the erosion of support for the game here.

In 2023, basketball overtook rugby amongst secondary schools pupils, with 26,572 players, compared to 24,930 playing rugby. Snapping at rugby’s heels was football, with 22,350 players.

If you want to see the withering of interest in provincial rugby, go to most games and hear the echoes in the stand when fans cheer.

Any doubts over whether provincial rugby was in trouble were surely swept away when it emerged that there will almost certainly be no television deal for the competition in 2026.

Rugby’s battle for hearts and minds has been raging for at least two decades and will only get more intense.

Naturally, scrapping over American private equity firm Silver Lake buying a slice of rugby here, or the chaos that accompanied the appointment of Scott Robertson as All Blacks coach before Ian Foster took the side to the World Cup, or the current Mexican stand-off over who runs the board, captures the headlines.

But I’ve been more spooked by the fact some of our greatest players and coaches have, both in public and privately, said how watching the game they grew up with is no longer their first priority. If people who have loved the game all their lives are struggling to engage, how can we expect the average fan to be riveted?

A man as fanatical about rugby as Sir Wayne Smith calls the rolling maul, now a huge part of the sport at the highest level, “boring” and “legalised obstruction”. Another world-class coach told me last year that in all honesty he usually found NRL games on television better viewing than Super Rugby Pacific games.

With the flood of bad publicity rugby will have this year as the head injury court case in London unfolds, reducing the tackle height shouldn’t be a consideration, it should be already in the law book.

Whoever the new rulers of our rugby are, one of their first priorities should be lobbying, with all the charm and persuasion they can muster, a change of heart from the heads of World Rugby, who appear to be okay with the deathly dull style that won the Springboks the World Cup last year.

We can win over hidebound officials in the north. We did it in 2005, when Japan looked like a lock to stage the 2011 World Cup.

In 19 days, New Zealand Rugby Union chairman Jock Hobbs and chief executive Chris Moller, laden down with ties and cuff links emblazoned with the 2011 logo to give away, visited 12 countries, meeting every International Rugby Board (IRB) delegate on his home turf.

The night before the crucial IRB vote in Dublin in November, New Zealand hosted drinks for all the delegates at the luxurious Westbury Hotel. The next day, Prime Minister Helen Clark was the only country’s leader to attend the presentation. The final IRB vote count was secret, but there were hints that New Zealand romped in.

I’d suggest we need exactly the same level of commitment to get dramatic rule changes. Every World Rugby ear needs to be whispered into, every arm needs to be twisted, every favour needs to be called in, every promise of the All Blacks visiting needs to be made.

If there are no changes, the harsh reality is that the falling interest in a sport that once held a vice-like grip on New Zealand will continue.

The people in charge at NZR need to be fighting with every breath to make rugby more attractive to play and watch. Because if how the game is played, at every level, isn’t quickly improved, Silver Lake and TV deals may be the least of the NZR’s worries.