NZ Rugby CEO optimistic about the future of the game

New Zealand Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson says it has been an incredibly challenging couple of years for the organisation, but he is looking forward to a more steady period for the game.

A recent review found NZ Rugby's constitution and governance structure were not fit for purpose.

Robinson said the feedback had been valuable, and he was keen to work through recommendations and potential reforms.

He told First Up the organisation was doing a huge amount of work on what the future of club rugby would look like.

"We've certainly been really interested, really engaged and looking forward to working through it with stakeholders. The reality is the game has been through the likes of Covid and just an incredibly challenging couple of years," he said.

"There have been some challenges but we like to think that we're coming into a more settled period going forward.

"So the the review is quite timely, especially with the move into having an investment partner across across the organisation as well. It just felt like a really timely move to ask those questions."

Participation and engagement a challenge for NZ Rugby

Robinson said NZR was looking at the challenges it faced around participation and engagement in the game.

"We're doing a huge amount of work at the moment on what the future of a club will will look like. We're engaging with provinces right around the country at the moment and seeing a lot of positive engagement."

He said the organisation was seeing some "amazing stories" from clubs across the country.

"If we look at the participation rates for this year it looks like we'll be back up [to] well over 150,000 players," he said.

"That's probably - I think it's 14,000 or 15,000 more players than than last year.

"I think we're up over 152,000 at this count, and pre-Covid I think we were somewhere like 158,000 or 159,000, so definitely tracking back up in the community game, which is really exciting."

It was the first time "in a while" a small increase in teenagers was observed, and "obviously a big jump off the back of the World Cup last year in the women's and girls' space again, which is a great story", he added.

"So we're pretty heartened about where the game's tracking in the community back from the Covid years, but we've got to keep working at it. We've got to make sure that our clubs and schools have the right tools to be able to invest, to make sure they can make good decisions."

Robinson said they were "very close" to announcing what next season would look like for women's rugby.

"We just need a little bit more time, but it will be an increase in the duration of the campaign ... we just need some more time to finalise that," he said.

"Obviously the Black Ferns are back in action in Hamilton on Saturday, and I think ticket sales for that are going really well. So we're encouraging everyone from the Waikato and around the region to get along."

Australian rugby needs to be healthy

In a recent RNZ analysis piece following Australia's 40-6 loss to Wales, rugby reporter Jamie Wall wrote about the dangers for New Zealand with Australian rugby being in poor shape.

Robinson said New Zealand did need to help Australia.

"Obviously we want as much strength in southern hemisphere neighbouring countries as we can.

"So South Africa, Argentina, Australia, we're seeing the emergence of Fiji, which is hugely exciting, and we believe also the likes of Samoa and Tonga will continue to progress in the near future too.

"We absolutely do need great competitions here at club and international level. We want as many people engaged in the game as as possible."

He said he was feeling for the Australians at the moment and their struggles showed the "highly-competitive nature of international rugby at the moment".

"They'll work through that. It's not for [NZR] to comment in that space but we do believe there's opportunities around Super Rugby Pacific, and we saw the likes of the Reds and the Brumbies especially go really deep in the competition last year and challenge some of our leading teams," he said.

"So we know they've got some great talent here. If anything positive comes out of the last week or two, it's just an opportunity for them to reset. And we're always open for the conversation with them. If we've got a part to play in helping them, then we're always open to do that."

Will the All Blacks play more tests in the Pacific Islands?

Robinson said it was a priority to create more fixtures for the tier two teams.

"We've got Fiji locked in for next year ... There's been various conversations about other opportunities to play the islands. We've just got to keep working at that.

"The work I'm going back into with the likes of World Rugby, Six Nations and SANZAAR, there's a high priority around the way that we can create more fixtures for the emerging nations," he said.

"The challenge is we do have quite a restricted international calendar through the windows that we have. So it's just how we find time and space and we balance all of those needs around player welfare and making sure we're looking after our athletes as well as the commitments we have to the clubs."

Robinson said it had been great to see New Zealanders embracing the variety of major sports events recently, including the Women's Rugby World Cup, the FIFA Women's Football World Cup and the Warriors campaign.

"As we come out of Covid, we're remembering how for people sport is an important factor in growing our communities and connecting people."

But he did not think people were turning away from the All Blacks.

"I think that we shouldn't forget that we sold out two test matches pretty quickly and Dunedin and Auckland saw some amazing scenes in both those places.

"And playing Mt Smart Stadium ourselves in front of an incredibly healthy, boisterous crowd and some amazing scenes there," he said.

"We've seen scenes like the [All Blacks] training at Bordeaux last week where they capped the training run at 10,000 people and had many thousands more wanting to get in.

"So it's a huge amount of interest in rugby ... and we think there's hopefully enough success to go around for everyone in terms of support and engagement in rugby and other sports."

Robinson is on his way to France ahead of the All Blacks' match against Italy and said he was keen to get along to training.

"The team's been named for Saturday morning and we've got some guys returning from injury, which is great to see. I know they've been building nicely. That time away they had in Bordeaux sounds as though it's been a really rewarding time for them," he said.

"We'll get behind them and give it heaps."