'We've probably taken the fan for granted': NZR aim to bridge gap between players and public
New Zealand Rugby’s General Manager of Professional Rugby and Performance, Chris Lendrum, has admitted the governing body has “taken the fan for granted” but is taking steps to prioritise the audience’s engagement with players moving forward.
Lendrum discussed the 2023 Super Rugby Pacific season and referred to it as an opportunity to play the tournament “in the way it was intended to be run” now that Covid restrictions have eased and teams are able to run a more conventional preseason leading into the competition.
2022’s Pacific expansion teams, Moana Pasifika and the Fijian Drua, were the teams most affected by Covid in Super Rugby Pacific’s maiden year. Moana Pasifika were especially hard done by, having a handful of games postponed early in the season only to have to make up for them with mid-week fixtures throughout the competition.
Anticipating fewer obstructions for the 2023 Super Rugby Pacific and Aupiki seasons, Lendrum noted New Zealand Rugby viewed the year as “a chance to really grow the competition from a fan’s perspective.
“I think if we’re really self-critical about Super Rugby,” Lendrum told The All Blacks podcast. “It’s been an amazing competition from a high-performance perspective for its entire lifespan, but we haven’t collectively as rugby invested in the fan and we’ve probably taken the fan for granted a little bit.
“We’ve got a lot of catch-up work to do, people are very discerning these days, we’re all time-poor as you know so we’ve got a lot of effort to put in there and we’re now ready to roll up our sleeves. We’ve got a definite product, a great competition, everything’s in regional timezones so if you want to watch all six games every weekend, then you can.”
Fans’ engagement with the game has of course suffered throughout the pandemic, with Super Rugby’s postponement, restructuring and various levels of crowd restrictions being imposed for public safety.
Pinpointing exactly where New Zealand Rugby’s relationship with the fans may have faltered, Lendrum said the drive to win at the international level had potentially distracted the Union from investing in the fans.
“I don’t think it’s been anything too intentional, nobody sets out saying ‘we want to cut the fans out’.
“But we’re very focussed on performance and frankly there’s been some advantages to that, at the international level we’ve performed really well, actually all the SANZAAR countries have performed really well internationally in the lifetime of the competition, so we’ve done some good stuff there but we just haven’t invested in bringing that competition to the fan.
“We’ve got a lot of the world’s best players playing in this competition, in fact, you’d argue now that a lot of them are going to play in Super Rugby Aupiki so there’s more stories to unpack of those players as individuals and as teams that we can take to the public. You can see people want to engage and understand people’s individual stories, we’ve got great colour in the game, in rugby in New Zealand, it is a game for all New Zealanders, we get all types of people from all walks of life and background into our game and let’s really show that.”
Comments on RugbyPass
At this point I can’t watch him without thinking he’s a dirty slimebag. He should have been banned for the same amount of time that Quinn was out. It took Tupaea near on a fricking year to get fit enough to play again and his leg will never be the same. The other crap thing is that he was at ABs level and now he has to claw his way back there when he could have had several games under his belt.
3 Go to commentsThe Black Ferns 7’s have been without Captain Sarah Hirini now since Dec 23 in Dubai where she suffered a bad ACL injury - hopefully she is on the road to recovery for Madrid and Paris. Now also have Tyler King and Shiray kaka on the Injured List but the Team still found a way to win in Singapore and claim the overall Title.
1 Go to commentsUtter grub, hope he gets his leg broken. Shocking he is still playing after intentionally breaking quinn tupaeas knee
3 Go to commentsGreat to see NZ 7s teams finally coming into form and playing at the level that is expected of them.
2 Go to commentsChief Cheapshot on the market again.
3 Go to commentsCrusaders went all in to buy Hotham and Kemara staight from Hamilton Boys. Then they picked up Reihana and Hohepa; all have been dropped for superstar Havili, who is a very good fullback, that’s it. Ennor and Goodhue were schoolboy stars too but went backwards at the Crusaders. Maybe they have finally decided to give another poach Levi Aumua the ball?
11 Go to commentsJoe S has some talent to pick from. The Reds loosies look the best in Super? Aus might just give Razor a headache this year. Int. experience v Cantab greenhorn:) Should be fun.
11 Go to commentsEnd to end play, “THE FANS” this game was entertainment of the best. The conditions added to the spectacle.
1 Go to commentsSorry to say, but sadly the sadas were just ordinary and havilli at 10 as an abs selection just won’t cut it. He’s better suited in the centre’s and is a victim of past charge down kicks, he’s too slow under pressure. There’s better talent further north and I don’t mean dmac however I believe razor will sort him out. A feature of his presents on the park is the fact that the guys will follow him.
11 Go to commentsMarler was brilliant throughout both in the scrum and open play. His slap made virtually no contact with Ramos who milked it for a penalty when he could have been a decent sportsman and laughed it off, it was non-violent and shouldn't have been penalised. Smith failed repeatedly to kick when necessary and put up a couple of bombs into the TLS 22 that just handed back possession at key moments to the other side.
3 Go to commentsCros was outstanding and rightly awarded France TVs player of the match award. Mallia was brilliant as usual (the y is below the 6 on a UK keyboard and he deserves better than that). Level also seems to have been scored harshly as he walked the ball into touch under pressure from a Lynagh kick from well outside his own half which should never have led to a 50-22. Agree with BullShark that Dupont, while class at times, seemed to go missing for patches in the second half with props, hookers and wings frequently filling in at 9 as he couldn't get off the deck and up to the next ruck on time. A 7 by his standards at best, his kicking was also too long, too often. Kinghorn's overall contribution was worth well more than a five.
3 Go to commentsThe Harlequins team must be in minus figures. Did the reporter actually watch the game?
3 Go to commentsHow on earth did Walker escape a red card? Not dangerous? Dupont has his face in a mask earlier this season. Shocking decision. What is the point of TMOs? We had the Fassi ‘non-penalty try’ yesterday and now this.
2 Go to commentsCould have been a different result but yet again French tv able to affect the result by not showing the very clear high shot on harlequin centre if this would have been on a French player would have been on screen at least five times
3 Go to commentsAmazing. The losing team’s ratings are higher than the winning team’s. Mallia definitely didn’t deserve a y. What game were you watching? Should have got a w or an x. ADP hardly featured in that second half. At one point I wondered when he’d been subbed. Seems to me as if he gets an automatic 9 just for getting onto the team sheet.
3 Go to commentsI’m sorry. That second half was far from enthralling. It was painful to watch.
2 Go to commentsVery generous! If you’d missed the game, reading this you’d conclude that it was the Quins front row that cost them the game. Marler getting a blanket 6 for his demented contribution to the game. Puzzling.
3 Go to commentsCan’t see Toulouse beating Leinster at this rate.
7 Go to commentsADP was having a very average game until winning that penalty for Toulouse, sticking his big head in the way. “The head of God”?
7 Go to commentsHarlequins doing their best to do as little damage as possible with all the possession. Looks like they skipped catch and pass drills this week.
7 Go to comments