A memo for NZRU HQ. ATT: Steve Tew

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Dear New Zealand Rugby Football Union

ATT: Steve Tew

Subject: Selling us short

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I see what you are doing, and it doesn’t fool me one bit.

In 5 years time I just hope you don’t rue your decision.

Don’t let us become like the Northern Hemisphere.

Super 15 is now letting you destroy what we the fans hold dear.

Next year won’t be so bad, but it is what happens when the June tests return that I am concerned about.

I implore you to reconsider your decision.

You are stepping on Tapu, selling our Taonga short.

We’ve sat back while you’ve whored our team to different parts of Asia.

We’ve sat back while you’ve let our best players go to the Northern Hemisphere after their failed World Cup attempts. This with no transfer fees, nothing to bulk up the Union which has raised them into the superstars which allow them to earn millions for their clubs overseas.

We’ve sat back while you’ve let South African hissy fits dictate terms and agreements in SANZAR.

But this time, you have gone one step too far.

June – August is reserved for one thing, and one thing only.

It is not reserved for the June tests, then the Super 15 finals, then the Four Nations as it will be.

That window is reserved for the All Blacks. Fullstop.

Thank you for not consulting us when selling our land for their muskets.

The current leadership at NZRU HQ has to be questioned on the merits of this decision.

Rugby will become oversaturated. Do you not get it?

Every time you dilute the All Blacks, they lose a little bit of their mysticism.

I hope you do not rue your decision, as not all fans are as patriotic and unwavering in support as I.

Mediocrity, the middle name of the Highlanders?

I read an article a few weeks ago which promoted the idea of scrapping the Highlanders name.

I have to agree. New coach, new CEO, new players, new stadium, new competition, new attitude.

The Highlanders franchise has come 8^th, 12^th, 4^th, 2^nd, 3^rd, 5^th, 4^th, 7^th, 9^th, 8^th, 9^th, 9^th, 11^th, 12^th, and it is the last seven years which stick in my head. Seven years without making the semi-finals.

Seven.

Granted they had their heyday with the likes of Oliver, Meeuws, Brown, Wilson, Randell, and Kronfeld on their books, but now the name has become associated with mediocrity.

What team in their right mind would truly feel the passion in an amalgamation of two die hard rivals. Then for that same team to take on the name of one of the provinces in the rivalry is totally unfathomable.

Who from Southland truly supports the Highlanders?

Who from Otago truly supports the Highlanders?

Which other team generally gets excited about playing the Highlanders?

Which other team’s supporters get excited about playing the Highlanders?

Yes there are the passionate people, namely Dean Hohaia, the craziest of the bunch (refer pic below), but to me it is an arranged marriage.

Sometimes things go a bit far in our new PC world, the groom shouldn’t have to take the bride’s last name.

Yes, the Southlander’s can hardly be the brides. They show guts, passion, the ability to dig deep, the want to succeed, and what’s more the knowledge of how to win. They are the real men of the south.

They have had a few weeks off the boiler in the ITM Cup, but that has been nothing compared to Otago. Otago are dismal, lying in last place, it makes a mockery of the Super 15 to have a team named after that region.

You look at Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury and Waikato – all top four teams, all have naming rights.

You certainly wouldn’t call the Hurricanes the Manawatu Hurricanes would you?

You can’t have the Otago Boozers, or the Southland Stunners (lets face it, which good looking New Zealanders come from down there)

But…

Here’s an idea. ‘The Southern Razorbacks.’

All the players aren’t from Southland, and a razor back is something you associate with the province of Otago, and the ‘Southern’ implies that whole area.

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Here’s the PR exercise. Rebrand them.

Everything is fresh, everything feels new.

As I said, New coach, new staff, new CEO, new players, new stadium new competition, new attitude.

The tagline could be,

‘new coach, new players, new competition, same supporters.’

Everything is new, fresh, and has a positive outlook. Just please do me a favour, lose the bloody name.

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PS.

While we’re at it too, no point using that new stadium – Super 14 teams found it bloody hard to win in Invercargill, and for me that won’t change. Just play the home games there. Gosh the supporters down there deserve it.

International Corruptket

Has anyone been paying attention to the Black Caps batsmen’s bank accounts recently? If Pakistan can be accused of match fixing, then so should the New Zealand batsmen.

Crumbling against Australia has long been our favourite past time, but even the most ardent of supporters has to agree that this is one step to far.

New Zealand Cricket is due for a shake up.

For some time now, the Black Caps have been faltering. They are abysmal in tests, and even their strongholds, their t20 and ODI form is definitely suffering.

I thought it was good when Dan Vettori had taken more power, and Mark Greatbatch was to be in more a manager role.

That now though has to be questionable.

Vettori can only do so much. He can be our best bowler, best batsmen, captain, selector, but coach on top of that? Not a chance.

The next sensation, BJ Watling has failed miserably. I’m not going to look at the exact figures of his time in Bangladesh, but throughout the series he must have an average close to zero, or thereabouts.

Along with Jamie How, Aaron Redmond, Tim McIntosh, and Daniel Flynn, he represents the current problem with New Zealand cricket, which is lack of investment.

What is clear is that New Zealand has not invested enough in high quality coaches, high quality equipment to make cricket pitches stable enough for batsmen to feel confident, and high quality administration running the game.

There is no point investing in these players at the top level of the game, if they haven’t been properly nutured throughout the lower levels.

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What to do?

Firstly, an independent review of New Zealand cricket.

Secondly, run with the recommendations. It is not pick and mix.

Thirdly, start growing a backbone, and drop players who aren’t playing well. There is no point in keeping them in there for 10 ODI matches for them to get a 30 or a 40 in one of them.

It destroys their confidence.

And fourthly, if I was the ICC, an anti-corruption unit would be on its way to Bangladesh right now.

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Talking about dream tours, we'll have Pakistan down here this summer.

That'll make for amazing viewing, and also a Bookies dream. Which team can manage to score the lowest, and still manage to win?

47 all out being trumped in the same game by a 36 all out?

Think I'm being outlandish? 5 for 20 was a pretty good start.

SBW.

Sonny Bill Williams has the potential to overtake Ma’a Nonu by the Rugby World Cup 2011. There I have put it out there.

I put it out there to Sumo Stevenson about a week ago on twitter, to which he replied ‘Ma’a is the Man fullstop.’

After seeing SBW put Tana to the sword yesterday though I am not so sure about Sumo’s comment.

It is a sentiment I see echoed by Frank Bunce today in his article.

Granted Tana is ageing, and he was up against the most up-and-coming centre pairing in New Zealand in SBW and Fruean, but surely any sceptics have to be looking at themselves in the mirror about SBW’s potential.

His attack has never been in question, his offloading skills make him the most tantalising prospect in the ITM Cup. He is now starting to score tries with frequency – none better than the one he used to bust open the game for Canterbury against Wellington back in round 9

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The 65m effort against Otago also showed his deceptive pace.

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His defence however at the start of the competition was lacking. This though over the past month has started to shore up, and he is starting to read the game much better.

Against Counties he was on fire. It was a fine performance, the razzle-dazzle offloads, the key tackles, none more so than a full length dive to clip Sherwin Stowers (who otherwise would have been away for a try), and the general nous to be in the right place, at the right time.

The only aspect of sonny’s game which I have not seen yet is his big defence.

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This was on the blindside flanker. I suspect though that as with his vast repertoire of skills which he has been unleashing week by week, these are coming.

For camp SBW, this PR exercise has gone basically to plan. Apart from his skiing trip - it has been very much smooth sailing.

The most pleasing aspect of SBW has been his humbleness, and his demeanour.

Stories from the Christchurch earthquake tell of him making sure everyone in his building was alright.

Pictures, and videos after games do not lie either.

To see him mobbed after the Otago game underlines his star status. Yes, he did get mobbed, but no, he didn’t get angry, frustrated, annoyed, he patiently signed autographs, did all the right things.

Brand SBW still does not have much credibility across the Tasman in many NRL circles, after the PR disaster which was his exit from the Bulldogs.

Brand SBW in New Zealand, and for the most part in Europe however, will have stocks rising all over the show. If he was an investment opportunity, I'd get a lot of my money (that is, coming off my student wage) in it right now - as he is about to soar.

Today he will be confirmed as an All Black. He is sure to fit into that setup with just as much ease as he can offload a ball while being tackled by two defenders. Now that is class.

Peter 'trainwreck' De Villiers

The first question here is does the South African Rugby Union have a PR team?

The second question is why have they not given the most ridiculous coach in rugby history some media training?

Or, gone to the extreme lengths of writing his comments in the post match press conferences for him?

Paul Henry must be thinking why he ‘resigned’ when over in South Africa, you have a guy who publicly says that he ‘100%’ supports a murderer, but ‘not his actions.’

Yes, there is a long line of De Villiers gaffes.

In a 2008 interview, he managed to totally confuse the reader and interviewer with his first line:

‘It has been challenging. When you walk through the shadow of the valley of death, sometimes it’s difficult to know which side your bread is buttered.’

Make of that what you will.

That comment is from the coach that also claimed he was like Jesus, made racist comments about a player on his own team, and earlier this year that suggested the All Blacks’ victories in NZ were a conspiracy to boost ratings before the RWC 2011.

De Villiers, now isn’t respected anywhere in the world, and South Africa’s media training, monitoring, and censoring machine seems unable to do anything about it.

Yes, in my view De Villiers is more of a train wreck than his predecessor Rudolph Straeuli, who presided over the infamous Kamp Staaldraad debacle.




It is obvious that

A. South African Rugby Union does not have a PR Plan, seemingly taking things day-by-day, and operate under no real authority.
B. The practitioners have been rendered so ineffective by the ruling body.
C. After the Jake White Era, South African rugby infighting is at an all time high.

Is the PR department reflective of the state of South African Rugby as a whole?

League 4 Life

Yesterday, the League 4 Life Foundation was officially launched.



The Foundation has been set up to support those who have been seriously injured in rugby league in New Zealand, as well as help rugby league players, and their families who have fallen on hard times.

Basically it is the league version of the New Zealand Rugby Foundation, with one main difference.

This is another area where in PR, League is light years ahead of Union.

The New Zealand Rugby League has committed to the Foundation, is hugely prominent around it, and is not afraid of any ‘turn off’ public will have about making the public more aware about injuries.

They do not see injuries as a "darkside," which will hugely impact on playing numbers in the sport. And Rightly so.

The New Zealand Rugby Union are starting to recognise this more, the Ben Leia dinner.

This is a good start, but the Union has to be proactive rather than reactive. It’s important for the players, spectators, and stakeholders of the game. They have the Foundation sitting in wait, it is time to put real impetus on looking after ‘rugby’s own.’

A ‘Rugby’s Own’ ITM Cup round could be the start. Designer Jerseys for the captains, signed by all the players, and auctioned off in support of injured rugby players – as well as donation boxes, media coverage on skysport, news, print etc.

That would be a good start.

From my point of view, injuries do happen. They happen in every sport. Any sport can have a life-changing injury.

Soccer, Surfing, Rugby, League, Cricket, Equestrian, Track & Field, Ice Hockey, no sport is exempt from life changing circumstances.

There is no reason then why a Union body cannot be behind a charity aimed at helping these players out.

It is important for a sport to have information readily available about care for injured players.

So here, I take my hat off to the NZRL, for taking the initiative and responsibility through creating awareness around the rehabilitation and work they do in their own sport.

New Zealand may be a bit behind the times but...

Using the mobile phone application Foursquare is a great idea for the World Cup, and New Zealand Rugby as a whole.

Basically Foursquare is an application which focuses on users sharing places that people have been, and then recommending them to others. It has worked overseas, catching on rapidly, and there have been thousands of Facebook posts, tweets, and uses of the application, all with one common goal - to become the mayor of a certain place.

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Example: Lets say that I was a huge fan of the pub down the road. If I went there more than everyone else, and logged in to foursquare everytime I was there - I then would be the 'mayor' of that pub.

The pub may have a promotion going on, where the mayor of the pub gets $1 or $2 off drinks, or something like that.

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With all the influx of tourists for next year's World Cup, why not utilise Foursquare.

Have points set up in different stadiums at the start of next year.

The more the Foursquare app users visit the stadium and sign in (it does not matter what code they are watching) the greater the chance they have to be 'mayor' of that stadium. (I mean, how awesome would it be to be 'Mayor of Eden Park?')

As an added incentive, by the time the RWC 2011 tournament starts, whoever is 'Mayor' of that stadium gets a double pass to each of the games at the applicable stadium. Easy.

Members of the public, who do not necessarily follow rugby as a first sport still want to be a part of this World Cup.

With rugby taking the spotlight next year, this would provide an incentive for these people to attend more Super 15 and also ITM Cup games, in the hope of winning a double pass, and of course the honor of being 'Mayor.'

It also provides a unique angle for news, and lots of local coverage.

We are seeing more and more uses of social media in Sports PR every day, why can New Zealand not become an innovator in that aspect.

The use of such an idea for other sports is certainly applicable.

Celebs and All Blacks burn rubber at wheelchair rugby match

High-profile celebrities and sporting heroes competed chair-to-chair with the Wheel Blacks today at the No8 Celebrity Wheelchair Rugby Match to raise funds for the New Zealand Rugby Foundation (NZRF).

Hosted at the Auckland Spinal Unit in Otara, players included All Blacks Keven Mealamu and Benson Stanley, past All Blacks Buck Shelford and Tana Umaga, along with Shortland Street’s Robbie Magasiva, Ido Drent and many more.

Go Girls star Joe Naufahu was named ‘Player of the Match’.

It was exciting, well fought, and as expected the Wheel Blacks outpaced, outclassed, and outmuscled the celebrities.

All Black Keven Mealamu says, “It’s amazing how disabled we, the able-bodied, feel when put outside our comfort zone."

"I have huge respect for the guys in the Wheel Blacks. The way they live life to the full, and what they have gone on to achieve post-injury is truly inspiring.”

All proceeds raised from the No8 Celebrity Wheelchair Rugby Match go directly to the NZRF to enable continued support for the Wheel Blacks, along with providing care and resources to seriously injured rugby players and their families, and funding to other areas of need within New Zealand rugby.

No8 Patron Buck Shelford says along with raising funds, he hopes the match shows life doesn’t stop for injured rugby players.

“With rehabilitation and the right support, players who have been injured in our game can still go on and compete at the highest level,” he says.

“It’s a testament not only to their physical strength, but to their mental strength as well. These blokes are tough where it counts.”

NZRF CEO Andrew Flexman hopes that the campaign has helped to educate people about serious rugby injuries.

“Rugby is about the camaraderie and spirit that comes from playing, watching, coaching, or just being part of the team. Support post-injury is no different. The players need a strong, stable community around them, and we look forward to continuing to provide that. It’s about taking care of rugby’s own.”

Rugby supporters can get involved with the wheelchair-rugby action online, make a donation, watch all the big hits, and bid to win signed playing shirts by logging onto www.no8.co.nz.

The NZRF launched www.no8.co.nz in order to create an online community for passionate rugby supporters that would celebrate New Zealand’s best-loved sport, as well as serve to benefit seriously-injured rugby players.