44 LISTENER MARCH 14 2020
THIS LIFE
G
ET
TY
IM
AG
ES
W
e read the reports with
mounting unease. Despite the
feverish efforts to reverse the
trend, the numbers keep get-
ting worse. As much as we tell
ourselves to resist defeatism,
we can’t help wondering: can
this thing be stopped?
I am, of course, talking about the decline of New
Zealand rugby. If the crisis engulfing our national
game has escaped your awareness, you’re not
paying attention to the news media that keeps
ramping up the threat level. The NZ Herald’s sports
department, for instance, seems engaged in a com-
petition to see who can cry wolf the loudest.
This isn’t a new phenomenon. In his ground-
breaking 1973 book, Mud in Your Eye, All Black and
Rhodes scholar Chris Laidlaw, not long retired from
international rugby, wrote, “I am convinced that
anyone over 50 firmly believes that the best days
that the sport will ever see have been and gone.”
Almost four decades later, well into middle age and
having added diplomat and MP to his CV, Laidlaw
validated his own proposition with Somebody Stole
My Game, a book that argues, often hyperbolically,
that, er, rugby’s best days
have been and gone.
It often seems as if
New Zealanders either
derive a curious and
unhealthy pleasurefrom fretting about the state and
future of our national game or just
can’t help themselves. And although
events such as the 1981 Springbok
tour, the rise of Australian rugby, the
2003 World Cup sub-hosting fiasco
and five consecutive failed Rugby
World Cup campaigns were catalysts
for angst, on the face of it this is a
strange time for hand-wringing: New
Zealand rugby is
coming off a decade-
plus of unparalleled
success at all levels
and in all formats
of the men’s and
women’s games.
Yet although
the headlines may
border on hysteria,there’s undoubtedly cause for con-
cern. As we’re often told, professional
sport is a business and Rugby Inc
is doing it tough. Apart from 2017,
when the British and Irish Lions tour
delivered a $33 million windfall, New
Zealand Rugby (NZR) has run at a loss
in recent years and is reportedly pro-
jecting losses of $30 million over the
next five years. Furthermore, there’s a
growing sense that the red ink is the
canary in the coal mine and the real
problem is that Kiwis are falling out
of love with rugby.H
aving acknowledged that
rugby faces multiple challenges- participation, fan engage-
ment, talent retention, a difficult
financial environment – NZR has
just conducted a review with inde-
pendent input from management
consultant McKinsey, the findings
of which are now being shared
with provincial unions and Super
Rugby franchises. Sketchy initial
reports give the impression of a
broad-brush exercise, the core conclu-
sion of which is that NZR should
Red ink
under lines
apathy
Could venture capital be
the saviour of rugby in this
country as the code faces
multiple challenges?
by Paul Thomas
SPORT
Private equity may
provide a solution to
NZ rugby’s dilemmaof having the game’s
biggest brand but
smallest home market.Problems: Mark Robinson,
and Mud in Your Eye by
Chris Laidlaw.Tough times? The Hurricanes face
the Sharks at Westpac Stadium;
Dan Carter and Richie McCaw with
the Webb Ellis Cup in 2015; Fiao‘o
Fa‘amausil after the Black Ferns won
the 2017 Women’s Rugby World Cup.