‘Club versus country’ in rugby union: tensions in an exceptional New Zealand system

Abstract

In contrast to the global reach and popularity of the association game, rugby union enjoys the position of being the national sport of New Zealand. This position is sustained by an exceptional model of governance with central control by the national administration. It was established before the turn of the twentieth century and has remained New Zealand's governance model in the new professional era. A comparative discussion of the different organizational structures in the northern and southern hemispheres shows how the sport is vulnerable to the contrasting governance systems characterized as ‘club – versus – country’. Drawing on Leifer's account of the transformation of the major leagues in North America, the article investigates how the tension between hierarchical control by a central authority and the drive for local autonomy by clubs is resolved. It details the early establishment of local and national amateur rugby union competitions in New Zealand and argues that these ‘professional‐like’ competitions represented a strategic compromise by the NZRU. In the global professional era, the NZRU has retained central control over the sport and players through the establishment of NZRU contracts to players and coaches in the five New Zealand Super 14 teams. While the wealthy English clubs exercise a considerable degree of control relative to the English RFU on the issue of player releases for national representation, the current tension in the New Zealand system resides in the saturation of the local player/coach labour market and the ability of players and coaches to exit for better‐paying contracts in the northern hemisphere.

Notes

1. The NZRFU dropped ‘football’ in its name in 2006. I use the new shorter abbreviation.

2. R. Thompson, Retreat from Apartheid; Fougere, ‘Barbed Wire and Riot Squads’; S. Thompson, ‘Challenging the Hegemony’; Nauright, ‘Race, Rugby and Politics’; Richards, Dancing on our Bones.

3. Torres and Hager ‘Competitive Sport, Evaluation Systems’.

4. Richardson, ‘Rugby, Race and Empire’; Sinclair, A Destiny Apart; Phillips, A Man's Country?; Nauright, ‘Sport, Manhood and Empire’; Zavos, Ka mate! Ka mate!; Fougere, ‘Sport, Culture and Identity’; Perry, ‘Cinderella and the Silver Mercedes’.

5. Leifer, Making the Majors.

6. The term ‘exceptional’ is drawn from the argument about the absence of soccer in the North American sports space in Markovits and Hellerman, Offside. Soccer and American Exceptionalism. Here the term is used to explain the different institutionalization of the game of rugby union.

7. Markovits and Hellerman, Offside. Soccer and American Exceptionalism, 29.

8. Dunning and Sheard, Barbarians, Gentlemen and Players; Collins, Rugby's Great Split.

9. Vamplew, Pay up and Play up the Game, 63.

10. Williams, ‘Rugby Union’, 315.

11. Ibid., 316.

12. Carman, Ranfurly Shield Rugby, 225, 238.

13. Gallaher and Stead. The Complete Rugby Footballer; Palenski, Chester, and McMillan, The Encyclopaedia of New Zealand Rugby, 2–3. David Gallaher was the captain of the All Black team that toured the northern hemisphere in 1905 and captained all tests except for the one against Ireland, due to injury, which was captained by John William (‘Billy’) Stead. Gallaher retired from playing after the tour and served as the sole Auckland selector between 1906 and 1916 and as New Zealand selector between 1907 and 1914.

14. This section draws on the work by Leifer, Making the Majors. Leifer distinguishes between enduring publics and infrequent crowds of the North American major leagues. He argues that the large number of people who daily pay attention to major league sports either by attending or viewing games on television or by reading the sports pages in the daily newspaper, listening to sports radio or buying major league products constitute a sports public by the regularity with which they are reactivated. He distinguishes these publics from the crowds or gatherings of earlier times who attended to major league sports on an infrequent basis. His shows that the changes to the North American leagues are characterized by the constitution or creation of publics.

15. Coffey, Canterbury XIII.

16. Only three All Black teams toured Britain between the establishment of the NZRU and World War II. The first two, which toured Britain in 1905–6 and 1924–5, were later affectionately branded as ‘The Originals’ and ‘The Invincibles’. In 1935 a third All Black team toured the northern hemisphere.

17. Dunning and Sheard, Barbarians, Gentlemen and Players; Collins, Rugby's Great Split.

18. Leifer, Making the Majors, 59.

19. Whitson, ‘Circuits of Promotion’, 58.

20. Fougere, ‘Sport, Culture and Identity’.

21. O'Brien and Slack, ‘Analysis of Change’; Malin, Mud, Blood and Money.

22. Smith and Williams, Fields of Praise, 474; Howe, ‘Professionalism, Commercialism and the Rugby Club’, 167; Williams, ‘How Amateur was My Valley’, 253; Williams, ‘Rugby Union’, 317; Collins, Rugby's Great Split, 165.

23. Ryan, Forerunners of the All Blacks.

24. Gallagher and Stead, The Complete Rugby Footballer, 37.

25. Ibid., 38–9.

26. Malin, Mud, Blood and Money; Malcolm, Sheard, and White, ‘Changing Structure and Culture’.

27. Smith and Williams, Fields of Praise, 171.

28. Dunning and Sheard, Barbarians, Gentlemen and Players, 245; Williams, ‘Rugby Union’, 320–1.

29. Gallagher and Stead, The Complete Rugby Footballer, 40–1.

30. Ibid., 42, 47.

31. Vincent, ‘Practical Imperialism’.

32. Gallagher and Stead, The Complete Rugby Footballer, 36.

33. Richardson, ‘The Invention of a National Game’.

34. Swan, History of New Zealand Rugby Football 1870–1945; Swan, History of New Zealand Rugby Football Volume 2.

35. Gallagher and Stead, The Complete Rugby Footballer, 51.

36. Palenski et al., The Encyclopaedia of New Zealand Rugby, 230–6.

37. Dunning and Sheard, Barbarians, Gentlemen and Players, 263–4; Williams, ‘Rugby Unions’.

38. Garland, Fields of Glory, 2.

39. Day, ‘Sport, the Media and New Zealand’.

40. Becht, A New Breed Rising.

41. FitzSimons, The Rugby Wars; Hutchins, ‘Rugby Wars’; Rowe, ‘Rugby League in Australia’; Rowe, Lawrence, Miller and McKay, ‘Global Sport?’.

42. Obel, ‘Local and Global Publics’.

43. Markovits and Hellerman, Offside. Soccer and American Exceptionalism, 29.

44. McGovern, ‘Globalization or Internationalization?’

45. NZRFU, Handbook, 89.

46. Misa, ‘The Monday‐to‐Friday John Kirwan’; Howitt and Haworth, Rugby Nomads, 286, 288.

47. Jones, ‘Full‐time League’.

48. Dabscheck, ‘Trying Times’.

49. Obel, ‘Local and Global Publics’.

50. Rugby Union Players' Association.

51. Pengilley, ‘Super League’.

52. Houlihan, Sport, Policy and Politics; Cameron, Trail Blazers; Whitson and Macintosh, ‘Rational Planning’.

53. Boston Consulting Report, Taking Rugby Union. The NZRU commissioned the report from the Boston Consulting Group in 1993 the significance of which was that the union had gone to an independent firm to gain advice on how to protect the national position of the sport. Many of the recommendations in the report, not surprisingly given the centralized structure of New Zealand rugby union, were modelled on North American professional leagues rather than the community‐based club model of European professional sports such as association football.

54. Robson, ‘Crunching the Numbers’.

55. Obel and Austrin, ‘End of Our National Game’.

56. Morgan, ‘Optimizing the Structure’.

57. Cleary and Griffiths, Rothmans Rugby Union Yearbook.

58. Trelford, ‘Brisbane Debacle’.

59. Baldock, ‘Rugby Union’.

60. Cain, ‘Peace Deal puts England’.