About that letter...

Where some see crisis, others might see opportunity (for $ subscribers)

Rebel rebels. Getty Images

On the surface, the threat of the players to secede from New Zealand Rugby appears a stunning development, yet while unprecedented the “nuclear option” has been more than a year in the making. 

It might also be the very thing the game here needs to shake it from its moorings.

For all its rebelliousness, the NZ Rugby Players’ Association letter surely has at the very least tacit support from five-ninths of the NZ Rugby board, from NZ Rugby Commercial (sometimes referred to as CommCo), the Super Rugby franchises and, perhaps surprisingly, from several NPC general managers.

According to one well-placed source, the only key stakeholders that were fervently behind the stance taken by the provincial unions (PUs) in tabling the governance review counter-proposal (Proposal 2) for vote at this month’s Special General Meeting, are the PU boards and chairs themselves.

“Those at PUs on an operational level realise this [governance model] is not working,” the source told The Bounce, “but this [Proposal 2] is being driven by the men in blazers.”