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Scarlets pull off boardroom coup with signing of Sean Fitzpatrick, the former All Blacks skipper
By Online Editors
Guinness PRO14 club Scarlets have welcomed former All Blacks captain Sean Fitzpatrick on to their board as a non-executive director and global ambassador following this week’s announcement that Simon Muderack is to take over as executive chairman from Nigel Short.
Fitzpatrick played 92 Tests at hooker for New Zealand between 1986 and 1997, leading the side on 51 occasions. A member of the All Blacks team that lifted the inaugural 1987 World Cup, he is recognised as one of the greats of the world game.
“I’m hugely excited to be joining a club with such a rich history,” said Fitzpatrick, the media analyst and motivational speaker who is chairman of the Laureus World Sport Academy and has been a board member at Gallagher Premiership club Harlequins since 2008.
“The tradition and the passion is so similar to New Zealand and the Scarlets is the closest to a New Zealand environment I have experienced, completely community based, with a total focus on the development of local talent and pride in their achievement.
“The development structures are outstanding, that is shown by the number of academy players who come through and earn senior contracts and also go on and win international honours, similarly with the coaching structures.
“As for the facilities at Parc y Scarlets, they are as good as I have seen anywhere around the world. I remember touring here; I played in the ’89 game at Stradey Park in the rain and gales and experienced that West Wales passion first hand.
"I also feel I have a personal connection with Welsh rugby, it is in my blood. My father played against Wales in the 1953 match - the last time Wales beat the All Blacks - and greats like Phil Bennett and Gareth Edwards were my childhood heroes.
“The board has phenomenal strength in depth with a real collective commitment to a shared vision and strong values,” he added about his new role. "The ambition in terms of trying to grow the club is something that really excites me; the club is ambitious and I like that.
"The world is changing and Covid has accelerated that change. We are in a position to shape rugby for the next 25 years; the decisions we are making now are similar to those we were making 25 years ago. I see this as a real opportunity to have an influence and help grow this great game.”
New executive chairman Muderack added: “To have been able to secure someone of Sean’s talent speaks volumes not only about the ambition of the Scarlets to become a global brand in the world of rugby but also of the attractiveness of what we have here and what the club has built.
“The Scarlets brand is already well understood on a global platform, the addition of Sean Fitzpatrick’s name to the roster of talent associated with the club will further uplift that and broaden the appeal wider than it is today.”
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Latest Comments
Well that sux.
Go to commentsLike I've said before about your idea (actually it might have been something to do with mine, I can't remember), I like that teams will a small sustainable league focus can gain the reward of more consistent CC involvement. I'd really like the most consistent option available.
Thing is, I think rugby can do better than footballs version. I think for instance I wanted everyone in it to think they can win it, where you're talking about the worst teams not giving up because they are so far off the pace we get really bad scoreline when that and giving up to concentrate on the league is happening together.
So I really like that you could have a way to remedy that, but personally I would want my model to not need that crutch. Some of this is the same problem that football has. I really like the landscape in both the URC and Prem, but Ireland with Leinster specifically, and France, are a problem IMO. In football this has turned CL pool stages in to simply cash cow fixtures for the also ran countries teams who just want to have a Real Madrid or ManC to lose to in their pool for that bumper revenue hit. It's always been a comp that had suffered for real interest until the knockouts as well (they might have changed it in recent years?).
You've got some great principles but I'm not sure it's going to deliver on that hard hitting impact right from the start without the best teams playing in it. I think you might need to think about the most minimal requirement/way/performance, a team needs to execute to stay in the Champions Cup as I was having some thougt about that earlier and had some theory I can't remember. First they could get entry by being a losing quarter finalist in the challenge, then putting all their eggs in the Champions pool play bucket in order to never finish last in their pool, all the while showing the same indifference to their league some show to EPCR rugby now, just to remain in champions. You extrapolate that out and is there ever likely to be more change to the champions cup that the bottom four sides rotate out each year for the 4 challenge teams? Are the leagues ever likely to have the sort of 'flux' required to see some variation? Even a good one like Englands.
I'd love to have a table at hand were you can see all the outcomes, and know how likely any of your top 12 teams are going break into Champions rubyg on th back it it are?
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