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Job losses and provincial changes not ruled out as NZ Rugby look to revive the game
By Online Editors
By Christopher Reive, NZ Herald
New Zealand Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson has not ruled out the possibility of job losses as the organisation looks to grow and sustain the game.
NZR yesterday released some of the findings of an independent investigation into the state of the game. The review, carried out by consultancy group McKinsey, identified opportunities to grow revenue and remove inefficiencies — including a high performance pathway, expenditure optimisation, resourcing across rugby, domestic competitions and revenue growth opportunities.
Asked if there was any potential for job cuts as NZR looks to remove inefficiencies, Robinson said it was a possibility.
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"The reality is, yeah, there could be a whole range of different options in that space. We just have to work through that," he said.
"There are a lot of possibilities regarding people right across the ecosystem of rugby with stakeholders and they'll be conversations we have for and with those people at the appropriate times."
The Herald understands NZR is going to post a multi-million dollar loss for 2019 and is forecasting another for next year, hence its decision to engage McKinsey earlier this year to investigate ways in which the sport can be restructured.
"We work on a five-year cycle and we're very aligned with the plan we've had over the past five years. In fact, we're sitting slightly ahead of those long term projections so we're very comfortable and we've communicated that well with our stakeholders," Robinson said.
"Yes, we've had financial losses but they are evened out by the overall cycle of those five-year patterns to be in a position where we're exactly where or marginally ahead of where we thought we would be."
It is believed NZR's broader vision sees provincial unions in a new role where they will mostly drive participation and administer the club game at a local level, leaving Super Rugby sides with greater responsibility to manage talent identification and development of elite players.
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Latest Comments
The boy needs to bulk up if wants to play 10 or 11 to handle those hits, otherwise he could always make a brilliant reserve for the wings if he stays away from the stretcher.
Go to commentsIn another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
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