NZR chief rubbishes ‘commentary’ as divisive vote results in civil war concern
New Zealand Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson.
New Zealand Rugby CEO Mark Robinson insists that now is the time to “come together” after the players reaffirmed their commitment to break away from the governing body.
Two weeks ago, Proposal 2 was passed at a special general meeting, meaning that at least three of the nine members on the NZR board must have two years experience on a provincial unions’ board.
That defeated Proposal 1, backed by the New Zealand Rugby Players Association and New Zealand Rugby itself, which demanded that they are all independent.
Signed by current and former All Blacks
Leading up to the vote, the NZRPA wrote a letter, signed by All Blacks past and present, stating that they would split from the governing body if Proposal 2 was accepted.
That caused a significant furore, with reports of a potential civil war brewing, but Robinson felt that some of the “commentary” leading up to the big decision on May 30 was “factually incorrect”.
“The one thing I would say is that it’s an absolutely critical time for the game to come together. There’s a lot of emotion through the last few weeks,” he told The Breakdown.
“I think our role here is to facilitate, coordinate and ultimately lead the next steps of the evolution of the game and we’re really excited about doing that.
“There’s a whole range of things that we’ve got coming together that we think can provide a really sound foundation for the future of the game, despite some of what I thought was factually incorrect, unfair and untrue commentary leading up to the SGM.
“We know people get emotional, there’s different vested interests involved there, so you’ve got to expect that sometimes when we’re still looking at a world, if we’re honest, which is a bit turned upside down on a range of views.”
All Blacks legends: New Zealand Rugby is ‘broken’ as controversial vote puts game at ‘very big risk’
NZRPA’s stance
After the NZRPA’s proposal was rejected at the SGM, their boss, Rob Nichol, confirmed that they intended to split from the NZR.
However, Robinson refused to really address that subject, stating that they were questions for Nichol to answer.
“I spoke to Rob after the vote last Thursday. It’s too early at that stage to talk about what the next steps look like. He’s spoken in the media subsequently,” the NZR’s chief executive added.
“It’s really for Rob to talk about that in terms of what their position is. There’s certainly dialogue going on there.
“Our teams are talking to various people of the RPA all the time around our environments, around the future of our competitions as we are talking to a whole range of stakeholders.”