Disconnection, duplication: Inside New Zealand Rugby’s flawed Super, NPC system

Saturday, 4 May 2024

• Super and NPC have overlapping roles, and lack alignment.

• Blues chair says NZ is ‘not as advanced in rugby with high performance as we think we are’.

• ‘Aspirational’ Bay of Plenty signals interest in Super Rugby, or potential new competition.

In the first of a three-part series, The Post talks to NZ Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson, Blues chair Don Mackinnon, Crusaders chief executive Colin Mansbridge and Bay of Plenty chief executive Mike Rogers about the future of professional rugby in New Zealand.

New Zealand Rugby is having another attempt at cleaning up the messy, overlapping professional rugby system in New Zealand.

The work, titled Men’s Pathways and Competitions {MPAC), is the latest effort to solve the question of how a country of 5.1 million can support 19 professional rugby teams (five in Super Rugby and the 14 provincial unions in the NPC) and get the best out of the talent the country still produces.

Real concerns are being voiced throughout the rugby system, and best captured by well-respected Blues chairperson Don Mackinnon when asked if New Zealand’s once-revered system is now a constraint on teams in black.

“It’s a good question,” he said. “I've had a significant involvement in other sports, some of them with an Olympic background, some of them like cricket with a different structure.

“I don't believe we [New Zealand] are as advanced in rugby with high performance as we think we are.

“I think there is a lot of room for us to get better. And I think part of that is that our structure is still not as aligned as it could be.”

Super Rugby’s dual purpose

Mackinnon and Crusaders chief executive Colin Mansbridge are emphatic this isn’t an agenda to “do away” with the NPC.

In fact, Mackinnon states: “It’s the last thing we can afford to do, and the last thing that any of the Super clubs want”.

But, both still see too much “duplication” throughout the country: too many high performance units effectively doing the same expensive work, and not always in harmony.

The time is clearly right, therefore, for the game to ask some fundamental questions of itself.

What, for example, should be the pre-eminent rugby competition in New Zealand? Is it Super Rugby, a national competition, or a modification of the existing model?

NZ Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson doesn’t shy away from the hard question, but says the organisation still supports the fundamentals that underpin Super Rugby, which - like it or not - is a dual purpose competition that also serves to develop All Blacks.

“When we've looked over the years at the principles of a full-time professional competition, there's been some things that are really important,” Robinson said.

“One being the concentration of talent. So, you have the best playing the best and we feel that broadly the number of [Super] teams we have at present is about right.

“And then it's always had an international component because it brings different playing styles, it brings the need to travel and experience different environments.

'Those things are still really relevant for us.“

The faulty connections

But, at the Crusaders, the country’s most successful sports franchise seemingly working with machine-like efficiency with Canterbury and Tasman, there is the sense that the system beneath Super Rugby isn’t right.

Asked if the Super Rugby champions were getting what they needed out of the NPC, Mansbridge said: “I would almost respond and say, ‘Do we have too much development activity going on across the board?

“…I think the NPC absolutely has two obligations. One is to represent its communities and give players an opportunity to represent them.

“And two, a development competition linked into Super or whatever that other competition is.

“In that respect I don't think the connections are as good as they could be.

“They're not bad, but they're probably not as good as they could be. Does that mean there should be some more work done on it? Absolutely.”

For Mansbridge, the issue has become even more pertinent due to the evolution of the player pathway in the past two decades.

The old school-club-province-All Blacks model just isn’t as relevant, he believes, with high-performing rugby schools now the first port of call for Super Rugby recruiters.

Standout young Crusaders lock Jamie Hannah, for example, hasn’t even played provincial rugby, having effectively gone from Christchurch Boys’ into Super Rugby via the New Zealand under-20s program.

The provincial view

Bay of Plenty chief executive Mike Rogers is on the provincial rugby side of the fence, and a key member of the new provincial union group that flexed its muscle with the announcement of the Gallagher Insurance commercial deal in March.

He echoes the concerns about alignment, and says that genuine “connection” with the Chiefs, the province’s Super Rugby team, is difficult to achieve due to a number of factors, including geography - an issue shared by Taranaki and Counties Manukau.

He’s also open to change, and how the game “can be more efficient” - pointedly noting the Hurricanes’ $1.4m loss in 2023.

But he holds a different view to NZ Rugby on the roles a provincial union should play.

Far from vacating the high-performance space, he hopes “all stakeholders are open to the potential for a new competition and pathway model”, and unapologetically states they see themselves as playing a critical role in developing All Blacks from “the base of the game” - the clubs in the provincial unions.

“The emphasis for us in the Bay of Plenty is to ensure we have a world-class high-performance environment,” he said.

“Through our current high performance program we see our Bay of Plenty players representing a range of Super clubs which also makes a connection between one Super club difficult.”

Asked if the Steamers would put their hand up if the Super footprint in New Zealand expanded to six, seven, or eight teams, Rogers revealed an interest.

“The Bay of Plenty is a very aspirational province,” he said.

“We have always maintained that the Bay of Plenty region is an important contributor to the success of rugby in New Zealand.

“We are motivated to continue to be an environment that develops world-class talent including players, coaches, referees and other contributors to rugby.

“Participation in the best available competitions, whatever they look like, is important to us, our players and our community.“

NZ Rugby’s balancing act

The Post understands that Bay of Plenty are not the only ambitious provincial union who see themselves capable of stepping up, with Hawke’s Bay, Taranaki and Tasman other obvious candidates given their talent pipelines and infrastructure.

That interest, hitherto only talked about behind closed-doors, should prompt a more open national conversation about what New Zealanders really want from their rugby.

For NZ Rugby, getting the Super Rugby franchises and provincial unions on the same page therefore remains a critical but delicate task, with the efficient and streamlined Irish system now representing international best practice.

Robinson is treading carefully. “We certainly don't have any predetermined outcomes here,” he said.

“But our sense is that we can be doing things better right, right across the board ‒ ourselves with our Super clubs and provincial unions ‒ to look for some different outcomes.”

In part two on Sunday:** The commercial challenges facing the game in a sport where Super sides and NPC unions compete for sponsors**