New NZR CEO addresses growing Super Rugby Pacific player exodus

Newly appointed New Zealand Rugby CEO Steve Lancaster believes they can do more to keep players in Super Rugby Pacific, as he heads into his first full week as the organisation’s boss.

Reports on Monday have emerged regarding All Blacks and Blues first-five Stephen Perofeta, who, according to Sport Nation NZ and The New Zealand Herald, is the latest to head overseas.

Perofeta is linked with Leon MacDonald’s Yokohama Canon Eagles, joining the likes of Hoskins Sotutu, Braydon Ennor, Isaia Walker-Leawere, Sevu Reece, AJ Lam, Dalton Papali’i, Riley Higgins, Devan Flanders, and Fehi Fineanganofo as Super Rugby Pacific departures.

Speaking to The Breakdown on Sunday evening in an in-depth interview after his appointment, the former Crusaders player turned CEO says New Zealand Rugby can do more to help stop players leaving our shores.

“We can do enough, and we can do more, and we’re very focused on doing that too as generating revenue so we can invest into the game, both professional game and the community game,” Lancaster said.

“But look, you talk about the exodus of players, as you call it, heading offshore, and this is a constant challenge for us, and we’re incredibly focused, and we work really hard and are generally really successful in retaining the players that we do want to retain.

“But players do reach a point in their career where they feel like they’re ready to experience a new culture, try playing in a new competition, test themselves against different players. The other thing is when you look at a year out from Rugby World Cup, is that typically, after, we see a lot of All Blacks move on.

“So if you’re thinking technically as a player who’s looking at his position in the All Blacks and thinking, well, that looks like it’s pretty much locked up.

“This might be the year to move right? So there are a whole lot of factors that are at play, we don’t celebrate it. We work really hard to minimise that flow, but it is a fact of life, and players can earn a huge amount of money offshore, so we do need to keep generating revenue to feed that.”

Lancaster explained that New Zealand Rugby have “a lot of belief” in Super Rugby Pacific and its player development.

“Yes it is serving its purpose in that regard [development]. So we have a lot of belief in the product of Super Rugby and the product on the field is a strong product,” the new CEO said.

“All of the metrics that we track tell us that the right number of tries scored, number of minutes lost to match official intervention, they’re all tracking in the right direction.

“So those markers are really good. But what we don’t shy away from is that we don’t see the crowds that we would like to see in the stadium, right? We have, we have great viewership, we have incredible online engagement and Super Rugby is the most followed domestic Rugby competition in the world on social media.

“So the product, we believe, is really good, but we acknowledge that we need to do more to get crowds into stadiums and this constant talk about empty seats is a problem and something we need to work on.”

Many New Zealand-based Super Rugby Pacific coaches have spoken publicly about the issue, with Clark Laidlaw claiming that it’s becoming more and more difficult to keep players.

‘That is the juggle you’ve got. You know we have more than one good player in one position, it’s like a loose forward, it’s quite similar, how do you keep everybody happy? And the short answer is, you can’t,” Laidlaw said after the Riley Higgins announcement.

“They can probably offer more money than us, and he qualifies for Scotland. It’s like a Hoskins Sotutu too, I guess, isn’t it? Is he more worthwhile going to England because he qualifies for England? With the rules they have over there, then yes.

“So you know these teams, the countries are active, they’re aggressive. They know all the players are Scottish qualified or Irish qualified so they’re actively trying to recruit, which is part of the professional game, isn’t it.”