Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Rob Nichol: New Zealand Rugby Players' Association CEO on the changes coming to NPC and Super Rugby

Transcript

Rob Nichol: New Zealand Rugby Players' Association CEO on the changes coming to NPC and Super Rugby · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So NZR's made the call on the future of the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: domestic competition. NPC and Super Rugby Pacific are staying. Work
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: underway behind the scenes now to consolidate and keep a
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: single vision for the game. Rob Nicol, New Zealand Rugby
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Players Association CEO with me this morning. Rob, good morning.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Rob.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: I know you're pleased with this, but what is it,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: that behind-the-scenes consolidation that needs to happen, what exactly is
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: going to happen, do you reckon?
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, it's... we're sort of making progress. We did
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: a governance review a few years ago and a new
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: board came in. The whole game united around one strategy
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: and now we're getting to the pointy end of how
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: we deliver on that strategy and that's about community participation,
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: that's about competitions and teams in black and being a
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: successful business. And, you know, to your question, New Zealand
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Rugby looked at this and they're leading this process and
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: they said, well, In order to move forward and nail
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: all three of those areas, we need to lock and
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: load what our men, in particular at this stage, domestic
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: competitions look like, because they're kind of at the heart of,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: I suppose, the commercial business, but also create the pathways
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: from community through. And they've locked and loaded Super Rugby
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: and MPC, which is great. I think everyone can see
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: MPC is the jewel in the crown. It's the NBA
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: of the world, really, and it's stood us in great stead.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: Super Rugby is exciting, cross the border, brings Australia, the
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: market in. But the real art, now that we've locked
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: and loaded those competitions, and I'm sure the female game
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: will follow pretty soon as well, is how we now
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: structure ourselves to be more efficient and effective in delivering
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: those competitions and delivering the pathways that lead to them.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: How we get our Super Rugby clubs, the players, particularly
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: the provincial teams within each region, within each Super Club region,
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: and New Zealand Rugby, high performance and commercial teams, et cetera,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: all working together in a more efficient and effective way.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: And that's really the rubber hitting the road, mate. That's
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: where it gets pretty scary.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Where is the duplication? Where is the money saving going
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: to come from?
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, I think the first and foremost is about alignment,
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: like right in the centre of the strategy when you've got,
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: it's getting everyone on the same page and I was
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: picking on this from a player's perspective at the moment.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: If you're a player at school and you really have
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: a passion to pursue, either as a male or a female,
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: pursue rugby as a career, it's quite confusing when you
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: step out of school into the pathway for the men's
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: space in particular. You can kind of find yourself talking
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: to Auckland, but not sure whether you're talking to the Blues.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: You could talk to North Harbour and the Blues together,
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: or you could talk to Hawke's Bay, but you're not
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: sure whether you're on the Hurricanes path. Whereas if kids
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: are coming out of school, they really want to know,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: what am I committing to? And it's a competitive world
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: out there in the sporting landscape, and they've got options nowadays.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: It's not like 15, 20 years ago where rugby was
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: almost a default. So you've got to be able to
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: have a really strong proposition for them. And our proposition is, listen,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: when you come out of school, you'll go into an
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: absolute world-class rugby high performance academy. And we need alignment between,
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: for example, the Blues and their three provincial unions, particularly
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: North Harbour, Northland and Auckland, to say they're united, they're together,
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: they're putting that proposition to you. And crucially, Ryan, the
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: pathway takes you to where the players want to go,
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: which is super ugly to put themselves in potential for
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: national commitment. But a core progression along that line is
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: obviously the role MPC and the Provincial Union High Performance
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Academy plays. So utopia from a player's perspective is that
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: the Blues and North Harbour are sitting down with a
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: player and their parent at the same time. They're saying,
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: this is what it looks like for you. And then
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: in addition to that, from a rugby perspective, We've had this,
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: you know, the last 20 or 25 years of building,
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: I suppose you could say, performance skills and practices, the
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: habits and behaviours that lead to good performance, leadership, you know,
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: the All Black era, the Gilbert Anoka, all that sort
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: of stuff. That's something that's been doing great for you
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: for life. So if our programmes can offer that, in
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: addition to the rugby, you're like... You go in there
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: for two or three years, but it doesn't work out.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: You're going to come out with something incredibly valuable anyway.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: And on top of that, we do the personal development
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: around career and education. So that's our pitch. All right.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Your pitch is interesting, Rob. I appreciate you being on
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: the program this morning. New Zealand Rugby Players Association CEO
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Rob Nicol.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: to Newstalk ZB from 5am weekdays or follow the podcast
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: on iHeartRadio.