Party poopers
Remember when the international sevens tournament was a must-see event? Richard Knowler reports on New Zealand’s loss of hosting rights.
‘‘It will have a huge impact on our female players.’’ Honey Hireme former Black Ferns sevens player
When it was revealed New Zealand would be expunged from the Sevens World Series circuit, it was difficult not to reminisce about the glory days when the late Jonah Lomu and Christian Cullen cut vapour trails around the stadium in Wellington.
Twenty-three years ago the first world series tournament was held in the capital city. And what a rugby rave it was. Over two days around 53,000 spectators flocked to the Cake Tin to watch All Blacks Sevens aces such as Eric Rush, with contributions from All Black stars Lomu and Cullen, in action. Those days are well and truly over.
The event relocated to Hamilton in 2018 because interest in the Wellington event eventually waned, and that’s where the final World Series tournament in New Zealand will be held next month.
When, or if, New Zealand will return to the World Series itinerary is anyone’s guess.
World Rugby’s decision to ‘‘remodel’’ the series into combined men’s and women’s tournaments, to be played in seven yetto-be disclosed countries from late 2023, has meant New Zealand has been left in the cold.
NZ Rugby general manager professional rugby and performance Chris Lendrum said his organisation ‘‘expressed interest’,’ and had several discussions with World Rugby about New Zealand remaining one of the host nations.
Those talks proved fruitless. Not surprisingly the All Blacks and Black Ferns Sevens teams, currently playing in a tournament in Cape Town, were ‘‘gutted’’ – according to Lendrum – to learn New Zealand was going to be axed from the fixtures list.
World Rugby’s aim is to play across seven months, with the number of men’s teams reduced from 16 to 12, and has bold ideas of how to build the brand, and engage with younger people.
But for New Zealand fans, and the All Blacks and Black Ferns Sevens
players, it means having to suck a lemon. The tournament in Hamilton on January 21-22 will be the last time our teams will get to perform in front of their supporters.
This, especially, is a spiky tablet for the Black Ferns Sevens to swallow, given the female arm of the sport has never been more popular in New Zealand after the recent World Cup success for the 15s team, and the sevens side winning Olympic gold and Commonwealth bronze medals.
Lendrum says NZ Rugby remains committed to ensuring the national teams can play at home – but it won’t be in a world series: ‘‘And with that in mind, we are now beginning to explore other potential avenues to achieve this.’’
Former Black Ferns Sevens player Honey Hireme says NZ Rugby must deliver on those promises to ensure the momentum is not lost for the women’s game.
‘‘It’s a huge setback,’’ Hireme says. ‘‘Because if we want to promote the game of sevens, which is always the entry level into the 15s, we need those world series tournaments here.
‘‘I think it will have a huge impact on our female players, especially our sevens girls. They are Olympic champions, and we need to be seeing them here, at home.’’
Hireme urged NZ Rugby to do more for the women’s game, by creating more domestic tournaments to create pathways for teenage athletes leaving school. She hopes changes to the NZ Rugby board, which will involve Dame Patsy Reddy replacing Stewart Mitchell as chair on January 31, leads to better outcomes.
‘‘Sevens had taken a backwards step, which is disappointing. Because sevens is what has opened the world’s eyes to women’s rugby.’’
Dallas Fisher, the managing director of 37 South, the co-promoter of the Hamilton sevens, was confident NZ Rugby did its best to retain the tournament.
‘‘For New Zealand to lose it, I am very disappointed,’’ Fisher says. ‘‘It is a real shame. You can understand how things move between cities, but I do not understand how an iconic rugby country like New Zealand has lost this event. The fans are a huge loser in this.’’
Covid-19 prevented the
tournament from being played last year. In 2020 around 38,000 people attended across both days at FGM Stadium Waikato in Hamilton.
The question no-one can answer is whether New Zealand will get a world tournament again.
Fisher isn’t confident: ‘‘I think it’s unlikely. And the question is, at what point do World Rugby support these Pasifika nations?
‘‘That is the question I have been asking right from the start.’’
Fisher says the advantage of holding the event in Hamilton was that it was close to the big Pasifika population up the highway. Now they, like others in New Zealand, will be starved of games to watch.
Sir Gordon Tietjens, who coached the All Blacks Sevens team to 12 series crowns (they have won 13 in total) between 1994 and 2016, hopes NZ Rugby pulled out all stops to retain the tournament. To see a genuine rugby nation excluded by World Rugby doesn’t thrill him: ‘‘It is quite sad.’’
Tietjens will never forget when crowds flocked to Wellington to watch his team, especially in the early 2000s when tickets sold out within hours of going on the market. He, and his players, loved the atmosphere and pressure of performing in front of their supporters.
‘‘It has also taken away a player’s opportunity to actually perform on the bigger stage in New Zealand.
‘‘It’s quite special and that’s going to be taken away from them.’’
Eric Rush, who captained the men’s team under Tietjens and now has a son, Brady, in the current squad, questioned what World Rugby was trying to achieve by hacking back the itinerary.
He, like Tietjens, believes the decision will sting the Kiwi players who will have to hope friends and family are prepared to travel to see them play in the flesh.
‘‘To me it seems like a moneysaving decision,’’ Rush said. ‘‘You will have these guys training all year, and they can only play seven weekends. I don’t know where it goes from there. The sad part is these guys [the New Zealand players] are not going to play in front of their fans and family. That’s the worst part.’’
A team-mate of Rush’s, Craig de Goldi, hasn’t forgotten what it was like to walk out of the tunnel in Wellington and be greeted by parochial fans in a festival atmosphere.
‘‘You would run out, and the roar was just unbelievable,’’ de Goldi said. ‘‘We would just be smiling at each other, going ‘how good is this?’’
Lendrum says NZ Rugby is ‘‘realistic’’, that it understands World Rugby are driving a commercial model to raise more revenue and reinvest in the game.
That will be of little comfort to the All Blacks and Black Ferns Sevens teams as they get their heads around this bombshell.
‘They love playing at home, there is no greater thrill for them than running out in front of a home crowd,’’ Lendrum admitted. ‘‘They will miss out on that from ‘24 onwards in the World Series, and our fans will miss that as well.’’