All Blacks head coach Ian Foster and NZ Rugby CEO Mark Robinson at the press conference to announce Foster's retention. Photo / Photosport
The standout image of the past four years in New Zealand rugby was not a forlorn Sam Cane thrusting his head instinctively into his hands as he learned his yellow card in the Rugby World Cup final was being upgraded to red.
No, the image that everyone remembers is the press conference in August 2022 in which New Zealand Rugby chief executive, Mark Robinson, replete in a brown woolly jumper that appeared to have been liberated from the darkest recesses of his wardrobe, confirmed that All Blacks coach Ian Foster had his and the board’s support through to the 2023 World Cup.
It was memorable for so many reasons – for the news itself, and for Robinson’s attempt to paint himself as having been in a no-win situation in recent weeks.
He felt he’d been unfairly criticised by the media for releasing a statement after the All Blacks had lost the series to Ireland, in which he had called the performance “unacceptable”.
And then he was criticised again two weeks later when he called a press conference via Zoom the day after the All Blacks had beaten the Springboks at Ellis Park and had nothing to say.
The assumption of course is that he had called the press conference to announce that he was firing Foster – but when the All Blacks won, Robinson hosted a pointless Zoom call in which the most memorable aspect was the semi-chaotic state of his hotel room in the background.
At the earlier conference with Foster, the CEO suggested the media were impossible to read or keep happy, and that they had a Goldilocks complex where everything he did would be considered either too much or too little, but never just right.
There was also a memorable exchange that day in Auckland in which Robinson and Foster enjoyed a little bonhomie, and in sharing a laugh they patted the other on the back.
It looked a touch forced, and six months later when Robinson announced that he was going to begin the process of finding the next All Blacks coach while the incumbent still had six months left on his contract, it looked almost Shakespearean – as if the CEO was just figuring out into which part of Foster’s back he was going to later plunge the knife.
It also had communication blackspots where the CEO drifted into cliche, euphemism and jargon – the combination of which created an indigestible word salad.
And, of course, there was the jumper – symbolic perhaps of a failure to appreciate the finer detail and realise the media attention that the announcement of Foster’s retention would gather, and the need for the NZR blazer to be adorned so the world knew this was a serious occasion.
One board member was incensed to the point they texted the Herald to say so, stating that old-school values of wearing a shirt, tie and blazer carry more significance than people think.
It was a 30-minute performance that encapsulated the lack of clarity that had defined Robinson’s tenure which had begun in early 2020, and perhaps illustrated the risk NZR had taken in appointing him to the role.
A former All Black, with a postgraduate degree from Cambridge, and a long-serving NZR director with experience around the World Rugby table – Robinson had strong credentials to take over from Steve Tew.
He did, however, lack experience at the helm of a large and complex organisation, but he’s smart, articulate, good company, easy going and steeped in rugby values, so whatever gaps there were in his skill-set, the NZR board that appointed him felt he’d learn on the job. It was felt he would ultimately prove to be a better long-term bet than former ACC chief executive Scott Pickering who was also being considered.
But that press conference was a watershed moment internally for NZR, as the Herald was told that shortly after it, former head of communications Charlotte McLauchlan conducted what is known as a “post-it session” – a brainstorm where Post-it notes with ideas are put on a white board – with her staff, to look at ways in which they could “rebrand Robbo”.
They felt there was a gap between the man who so effortlessly held court informally and was so engaging, and the man who was presenting to the media and public.
Informal Robbo was clear, articulate and decisive, but Formal Robbo was rigid, awkward and waffly. There was an appreciation in-house that the media were regularly pinning Robinson as a problem-starter rather than as a problem-solver.
It’s not clear what the Post-it session concluded, but in October, Robinson appeared on a podcast called Bad News, hosted by comedian Alice Snedden. He was somewhat set upon, being asked to say whether rugby does enough to prevent domestic violence.
That seemed to bring the rebranding operation to a close.
In recent weeks, it has become apparent a reboot is underway. There’s a definitive sense that Robinson 2.0 is on a mission – a charm offensive, even – to be seen and heard, and to reposition himself as the strong, clear, decisive leader the game needs.
Last week, Robinson and All Blacks coach Scott Robertson came to NZME’s offices to record an episode with ZB’s Rugby Direct podcast.
Robertson was there to say that he had changed his views about All Blacks eligibility – several times last year he questioned whether the policy was fit for purpose – and had been re-educated to see that there was enough flexibility in the system to make it work.
As Robertson walked back his previous views – ones he had voiced as recently as December – it was hard not to see this as a stage-managed PR strategy to present a united front between the All Blacks coach and NZR chief executive.
Robertson may or may not have changed his views on the effectiveness of the eligibility policy, but what has changed since the end of last year, is that the newly installed NZR board has given Robinson a clear mandate to focus on domestic issues.
The new board decided in February to replace Robinson on World Rugby’s council with Greg Barclay. The board wanted one of their directors to be one of the three representatives and Robinson to be spending less time overseas.
And while it’s understood it wasn’t dictated by the board, there was recognition internally that whether Robertson agreed with the eligibility policy or not, there needed to be a public declaration from him that he did.
He needed to be brought into line, hence the appearance on ZB – a high-profile, far-reaching platform that combined audio and visual content to show the interaction between coach and CEO.
Four days after the podcast aired, Robinson made himself available to the Herald for an hour-long interview. I asked him about the importance of the chief executive and All Blacks coach being seen to be aligned about eligibility.
“We are,” said Robinson. But last year that wasn’t the case, Robertson made multiple public statements that he wanted the board to retain an open mind to changing the policy.
“I think he’s explained that,” Robinson says. “He’s talked about the fact that he could have been clearer, and he’s talked about the fact that he’s learned an awful lot in this space around what the details of the policy are.
“He’s talked about the flexibility and the tools we have to work for us and for the athletes. I think it is a reflection of his time in the role and a bit more clarity in that area.
“The relationship between the organisation and the All Blacks is very aligned. We are clear. What has transpired and happened is as it is and…”
The issue of alignment between Robertson and Robinson is one that needs further exploration because the former didn’t have a smooth or successful first year at the helm.
The All Blacks lost four of their 14 tests (70% win ratio), an assistant coach (Leon MacDonald) walked out four games into the season, Damian McKenzie went unpunished for missing the bus taking the team from San Diego to Los Angeles, and then veteran halfback TJ Perenara performed a politicised haka in Turin that split the nation and the team as he did so without the consent of the senior players.
Unconnected to this, Ineos pulled out of their six-year sponsorship of the All Blacks three years early, and the totality of events last year – on-field and off – raises the question of whether Robinson feels the brand still has the same value it did in 2022 when US fund manager Silver Lake decided it was worth $3.5 billion.
“Anyone that is close to the team as it relates to travelling internationally sees the massive interest in and around the team and the respect for the way they conduct themselves,” says Robinson.
“And the continued success we have, and I like to think that over time we will continue to grow value there.”
But have the All Blacks had enough success recently?
“If you look at these pinnacle events… there are moments,” he says. “You want to win every game. But I think when you combine winning, the style we play and the way that the players and coaching staff around the team conduct themselves and combine, then that it is a powerful value proposition for partners.”
Is this intangible around player and coaching conduct more valuable than a winning record?
“I don’t know what the latest stat is, but winning over 70% [means] the conversations we are having are still really positive as it relates to the brand value and the sentiment that is around the brand of the team.”
His reference to the 70% being good enough to keep commercial doors open and potential investors interested in the All Blacks suggests a correction in expectation in recent years. This would reflect the changed international landscape which has seen the likes of Ireland, France and South Africa consistently produce world-class performances, and England and Scotland, and maybe now Australia, pose a greater threat than they did a decade ago.
The All Blacks’ results have changed in line with the market, as their winning ratio was 85% in the 10 years leading into Silver Lake’s $3.5 billion evaluation, and in the past three, it has dropped to 72%.
So, has NZR lowered its expectations around what constitutes an acceptable win ratio for the All Blacks given the more competitive international arena?
“I think the premise to the question about the evenness of international rugby and the rising quality of teams is a fair one,” says Robinson.
“But it doesn’t change the mindset around winning every test that we play, and I don’t think we will ever have an organisation where a team feels that way at all.
“We desperately want to win every game we play, and we want to be consistently highly successful.
“We want to be winning more than that [70%]. We want to win every game we play, and we know that is challenging.”
Saying that the aspiration is to win every game seems both unrealistic – Steve Hansen’s 87% is easily the best record of any All Blacks coach in the professional era – and deliberately vague, as it leaves fans and the media with no real context around how to judge Robertson’s tenure, or indeed, how he is being measured internally.
In contrast, Rugby Australia has publicly stated measurable and easily understood goals for its high-performance teams – saying that it wants to win the upcoming British & Irish Lions tour; compete in the final weekend of both the 2027 and 2029 World Cups; for all teams in gold to improve their win rate to 70% by 2029; to medal at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and for Australian teams to win two Super Rugby Pacific titles.
Surely NZR should do the same with the All Blacks and be clear what it wants its teams in black to achieve, and state measurable targets that relate to win ratios and trophies?
“People know we want to win the World Cup with the Black Ferns, retain the Bledisloe and win the Rugby Championship – and they are clear expectations,” Robinson says with a touch of exasperation that the questions are still coming.
“I think we are being clear that we have high expectations around our teams in black. We tend to focus on performance around what a high-performance, growing environment looks like.
“It is thorough, and we have a whole range of areas [that we assess] and that can be on-field, off-field, technical, tactical … a range of things… the way a week is set up, the way travel works, it’s an exhaustive process.
“Getting the week right, a campaign right and getting the focus on performance right is where most of the energy goes and generally speaking if that is right the results take care of themselves.”
One of the most significant domestic issues Robinson will have to deal with this year is the ongoing legal action against Ineos.
NZR is suing the British petrochemical firm for unilaterally pulling out of the six-year deal that was worth $21 million a year, halfway through the contract.
There’s unanimous agreement among stakeholders and connected parties that NZR and the All Blacks fulfilled their contractual requirements. Regardless, there are valid questions to be asked about whether Robinson has any regrets about forming a partnership with a billionaire (Ineos is owned by Sir Jim Ratcliffe who was Britain’s richest man when he signed the deal) given the evidence that the world’s super rich haven’t always respected the rule of law and behaved ethically or predictably in relation to their investments in sport.
“I think you are making a whole lot of generalisations as it relates to high-net worth individuals who invest in sport because there are a great deal of them around the world, and the majority of them are in positive partnerships.
“I think we went into it [Ineos sponsorship] in good faith; we will work through that. We entered into a really clear contract, and we have abided with that and we are in a situation where we have a partner who hasn’t.
“I don’t think at the time of entering the contract that we thought this would happen. We have worked through a process since understanding their position to try to resolve it. Two willing parties in good faith negotiated a contract.”
Seemingly, then, Robinson has not been put off working with billionaires. It would be interesting to know how he feels about the prospect of the Saudi Arabia sovereign wealth fund making a play to invest in rugby.
The Saudis are targeting sport – they have investments in golf, tennis, football and boxing – and speculation has been growing that rugby is on their radar.
This would be money coming from a political regime that has a poor track record in human rights and one which has not afforded women the same terms as men.
Modern administrators and executives should be expected to hold coherent and well-informed positions on this issue of how they feel about potential private equity investment in their sport by political regimes that divide public opinion.
So, what’s Robinson’s broad brush thinking about the possibility of the Saudis making a play to buy into the All Blacks and/or international rugby?
“We know there is a huge amount of sensitivity around some of the areas you describe there.
“People’s minds are open to what the future of sport and what the future investment in sport and future partnerships look like.
“Any proposal like you are describing would have to be part of a serious consultation process that looked at all the different issues that might go along with it.
“The way we look at these things is to get the right people involved and take a long-term approach.
“There will be commercial, high-performance, calendar issues, there are a range of different things that would factor into decision making and we would work with the board as well.
“If there was something in that space that came along, we would be open-minded and then work through it.”
The big project this year, says Robinson, will be determining how the whole of professional rugby can be reconfigured to be financially sustainable.
Robinson, when he first came into the role, would often, literally, pull an envelope out of his jacket pocket and scribble pie charts showing the problem NZR had with too many high fixed costs such as the professional player payment pool [PPP] which is 36.5% of all player-generated revenue and the 17% which goes to provincial unions.
Reducing these numbers, as well as streamlining the overall efficiency of the administration and management of the game, is Robinson’s priority in 2025. It is understood former Kainga Ora chief executive Andrew McKenzie, has been commissioned to independently determine how and where things can be changed to set the game up to be financially sustainable.
“The big focus this year is the opportunity to reshape the overall model of the game,” says Robinson. “The funding framework.
“We believe we have enough revenue coming into the game overall, it is north of $350m but we have some things in place which make it challenging to be sustainable overall.
“We are in the process of redeveloping the strategy, once we are aligned on that, it is a case of sitting down and creating a model for the game that is aligned with strategy that allows investment of resource into all the areas of the game combined and to get really clear on the role and purpose of ourselves and each of the stakeholders across the game.”
The inference, then, is that too much money is being spent, so where can costs be cut?
“Well… like I say… we have got some things that have been in place for a long time, and we have got some areas where across the game there is duplication, and there is inefficiency at a crude level.
“We are doing some work looking at our own model. I don’t think there is any one area where you would say, if we do that, everything will be alright. I don’t think we are in that space.
“I think there is a sense across the game that everyone has got to have a look at the way the game is operating and be prepared to come to the table and talk.
“What we do know is that where we have good plans and strategies, we do get good return on investment.”
It’s debatable whether Robinson, in his first four years, was the charismatic, astute, articulate, decisive and visionary leader the previous NZR board said he would be when they appointed him.
But this second attempt to rebrand and reboot him, combined with a firm mandate from the new board to focus on domestic issues, may be the catalyst which sets Robinson on his way to becoming the sort of dynamic, plain-speaking chief executive that so many stakeholders in the game believe they need.
Gregor Paul is one of New Zealand’s most respected rugby writers and columnists. He has won multiple awards for journalism and written several books about sport.
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