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Rugby expertise set to be a winner
Where know-all is not a dirty word
National Business Review
Sporting business
Paul Verdon
New Zealand "exports" many hundreds, if not thousands of rugby players around the world each year, varying from former All Blacks earning $600,000 a season and more with English or Japanese clubs to others plying a humbler trade in the minnow-countries of the global game.
Such is the unmatched record the All Blacks have built over the past century and more, their profile allows a thriving industry to function on their reputation overseas.
But whereas for decades players – and since the advent of full professionalism in 1995 a stream of coaches – have left these shores to proselytise the game they've been nurtured on, a new feature with exciting potential for both import and export dollars is New Zealand's International Rugby Academy.
The academy provides tuition to players and coaches from throughout the world. Its alliance with the New Zealand Rugby Football Union allows it to have the best and most current coaches available in New Zealand, including a cameo session on continuity by All Blacks' coach John Mitchell.
The major mover behind it is former All Black now rugby commentator Murray Mexted. Another is former All Black coach Laurie Mains.
"The academy is a world-class product with a world-class group of people running it," summed up former NZ Trade & Enterprise officer Mike Summerell.
"It has considerable potential in a niche market, because there is nothing else like it anywhere else in the world."
NZ Trade & Enterprise (formerly Industry NZ) classified the academy as first equal in its Fast Forward scheme, which identifies companies that have the potential to thrive and helps them move forward.
Mr Summerell describes New Zealand's rugby reputation as "like that of Brazil" in soccer. To put that in context, statistician Geoff Miller, in his new book, The Reed Book of All Black Records, states the All Blacks' all-time test match-winning margin of 72% "would take a lifetime of poor results before it could be overtaken by another country."
The academy reads like a "Who's Who" of New Zealand rugby.
The management board is Mexted, Mains, former All Black captain Sean Fitzpatrick, former NZRFU chairman Eddie Tonks and Saatchi & Saatchi worldwide head Kevin Roberts, who while a member of the NZRFU council was instrumental in helping negotiate the fabulously rich News Ltd-Sanzar deal in 1995, which produced the Super 12 and Tri-Nations competitions.
Specialist coaches and players expert in each position include Mains, Graham Henry, Fitzpatrick, Richard Loe, Bull Allen, Murray Pierce, Ian Jones, Mark Shaw, Graham Mourie, Mexted, Dave Loveridge John Boe, Grant Fox, Allan Hewson and Jeff Wilson and former Wallaby greats Nick Farr-Jones and David Campese.
"We've had players and coaches from 12 countries this year," Mr Mexted said.
"There was a serious buy-in from the England and Scottish unions and clubs such as Harlequins, Leeds, Sale, Leicester and Bristol.
" Others came from the Korean, Fijian, Zambian, Romanian, and US unions and Toshiba (Japan) and Biarritz (France) clubs.
“Next year, the South Africans have come on board with applications from the Golden Lions.”
More than 40 coaches and 100 plus players were put through their paces.
Mr Summerell described the academy's first-full-year's activities as "not having reached the tipping point" where it would reach greater potential. Expansion depended on marketing and "the time available" by the coaches.
But he believes the concept and some of the personnel can be exported overseas, especially to the UK.
Organising the courses for English schools, for instance, by sending a group of the academy's coaches on short-term assignments and/or using the expertise of people already coaching there, was a more economic proposition than bringing large groups of young players to New Zealand.
"People such as Wayne Smith and 'Buck' Shelford (former All Black coach and captain respectively) are already there. The people would lap it up," Mr Summerell said.
However, the academy's operations manager Johanna Murray said the immediate aim was to consolidate on the gains made this year.
"We need to concentrate on quality, not quantity.
"The customised course market will grow the fastest where we organise training camps and matches for teams from New Zealand and overseas preparing for their respective competitions.
“In fact this year we hosted St Ignatius College Riverview from Sydney Australia. They returned home to win the Sydney GPS Competition unbeaten, drawing 18000 spectators for their final against St Joseph's College.
"Jack Clark, the general manager of Rugby US, observed our courses and said: 'Even if we poured millions of dollars into something like this at home, we would never, ever replicate what I have just seen here. We simply don't have the expertise and rugby environment that IRANZ can provide' "
It was also important that the academy was construed as being complementary to the academies and coaching schools run by the NZRFU and its provinces, Mr Summerell said.
"There has been a degree of envy in the provinces [about the academy's concept and its growth] but this is not in any way a threat to what they do."
Making the difference
The academy operates at the adidas Institute of Rugby in Palmerston North and the Royal New Zealand Police College in Wellington.
What is exceptional about its courses compared to previous coaching anywhere in the world is the elite personnel involved and the often one-on-one coaching methods used.
There is a high degree of focus on position specific, mental toughness, rugby intelligence and skill development.
A unique concept is the way the high-performance players' and the coaches' courses are run in tandem. This enables Mains, one of the world's most gifted practical coaches, to work intensively with coaches, who in turn work with and learn to analyse each player in position. For the young players, it's a once-in-a-lifetime chance to be coached by Mains in the build-up to their final match.
Asked what he "got out of it?" on a Sky Rugby Channel programme about the academy, I was intrigued to hear a young player say he'd "learned more in these few days than in the previous 15 years I've been playing the game."
Examples of courses include a high-performance players' course for three weeks ($7500 a player), student player course of seven days ($2995), high-performance coaches' course of two weeks ($6500) and a practical coaches' course of three days ($1300). There are also customised courses for teams and schools.
