How do we, in New Zealand, arrive at a single body having overall governance of the game?
How do we get some responsibility and accountability from individual teams for looking after the good of the game here?
There is a bit of a false perception in the NH about how NZ Rugby is structured. Many seem to think that the NZRU is some kind of corporate juggernaut that rules with an iron fist, answers to no-one, owns everything and maintains control over all aspects of NZ rugby, but this simply isn't so.
What I will do here is a give a reasonably brief explanation of how the NZ system works, so that you can pick the bones out of it and see if there is any facet of the way we do things here that might be applied in England;
Amateur Rugby
There are about 600 amateur rugby clubs in New Zealand. They are ALL completely amateur and run by volunteers. They are distributed around the country and are formally part of one of New Zealand's 26 Provinces.
The Governing Boards and the ownership of the game
The Clubs elect members to their Provincial Governing Body; the PGB, which in turn annually elects members to the New Zealand Rugby Board, the NZRB, a body that is charged with setting strategy and direction for New Zealand Rugby. Most importantly, this result in the fact that it is the 600 clubs who ultimately own the game in New Zealand. The NZRB is an entirely separate body from the NZRU (the executive branch) and while the NZRU President, Vice President and CEO may attend board meetings, they have no voting rights. Many of the decisions concerning New Zealand’s national teams, domestic competitions, financial management and rugby traditions can only be made by a vote of the NZRB, and they can, and sometimes do, overrule the NZRU Executive. One recent example was over the reduction of the National Provincial Championship from a 14 team to a 12 team competition. The NZRU wanted to do this this. the NZRB overruled them and told them to come up with a plan to keep all 14 teams in the competition. This issue was discussed extensively on this forum at the time.
The NZRU
The NZRU sets policy and maintains control of the running of Inter provincial competitions at all age groups. They also provide high level support for the development of the game. They provide direct funding to PGBs who in turn are responsible for the Provincial Teams, clubs, schools, juniors, girls and women and Maori teams. This support involves funding and grass roots development.
The Professional Game and player contracts
The NZRU owns a minimum of 51% of the shares in the Five Super Rugby Franchises. It contracts all professional players and controls most sources of revenue, TV Rights, commercial & image rights etc. The Super Rugby franchises keep all gate receipts and some commercial revenue and sponsorship. Players in NZ can have up to three contracts at any one time.
ALL pro players are contracted to the NZRU - members of the current All Blacks squad are paid directly by the NZRU
Super Rugby players are sub-contracted to their franchise - those players are paid by their franchise
ITM Cup players are sub-contracted to their Provincial Team - non-SR players are on a retainer from their Provincial Team
NOTE: ITM Cup players must be registered with one if the amateur clubs within the boundaries of their province. New players, i.e. not members of an existing ITM Cup team) can register at any time, but players wishing to transfer from one ITM Cup team to another must register with their new club by May 1st of the year they wish to compete for their new team
Who controls where the players play?
Ultimately, its the players. Neither the NZRU nor the NZRB have any control over who plays for which Club, Province or Super Rugby Franchise. The Franchises operate just like a club in any other sport, they try to lure players to play for them, negotiate sponsorship deals (over and above the national competition sponsor), they negotiate player sub-contracts with player agents, and have to meet all the criteria set down by the NZ Rugby Player's Association as regards employment laws etc.
The only limitations on this are
1. Overseas players; Franchises can only contract non-NZ eligible players (limit of 2 per team) with the approval of the NZRU, who will usually give that approval provided that the position in which the player is to play is not one which they consider that we have a shortage of test level talent. A good example of that would be the Highlanders, who had both Fumiaki Tanaka (Japan) and James Haskell (England) in their team in the same season. These restrictions do not apply to Provincial or Club teams.
2. Draft players: Franchises are limited to competition squads of 32, but before each SR season, each franchise "protects" what they consider as their top 28 players. Once named, those protected players are off-limits to other franchises until the end of the season. The remaining four are allowed to negotiate with other franchises to transfer in that coming season if they so choose (overseas players MUST be on the protected list).
3. Wider training squads
Franchises also have a "Wider Training Squad" (WTS), however, their use is limited to injury. Until two years ago, a player replaced from the WTS was out for the rest of the season, and the WTS player was promoted to the main squad for the rest of the season. Now, a player can be replaced with a WTS player (still for injury only) who can remain on the main squad until the replaced injured player recovers.
The All Blacks management works with the franchises to best manage the current All Blacks to the benefit of both the All Blacks and the player's franchise team. To this end, individual programmes are designed for each player as regards playing time, fitness training, injury treatment, recovery and prevention. The All Blacks team doctor and team physiotherapist are available to the medical staff of all franchises, as are their specialist coaches.
Summary
This system seems to work very well for us. Effectively, the NZRU sets policy and is for the most part free to run the game in New Zealand, but the NZRB is its "conscience"; they decide whether what the NZRU wants to do is good for NZ rugby as a whole, and how it would impact on the game right down to grass roots level. The NZRB has the final say.
