The New Breed in rugby

Press, 28 June 1989, Page 32

The New Breed in rugby

All Blacks who played France in Christchurch in 1968 shared few similarities with the national heroes who banged heads with the Frenchmen at Lancaster Park this year. By today’s standards, Kel Tremain’s side of 21 years ago might best be called a bunch of country bumpkins — a talented on-field unit that pursued such inglorious jobs as farmer, freezing worker, stock agent, rubbish collector, farm adviser, student, off the field.

The modern All Black is essentially a different beast. Not only is he fitter, faster, stronger, he invariably is also a city slicker, with a job description, such as auditor, sales manager, policeman or owner-driver, to match.

The move from rural to urban All Black cowboy, however evolutionary, has much to do with the emergence in the late 1980 s of what many, in and out of rugby, now correctly label The New Breed. The New Breed consists not just of city slickers, but opportunist players who are aware of the amount of commercialism entering amateur rugby today, who fully appreciate the world of sports marketing, and who cleverly, and most importantly legally, are exploiting their high profiles for personal gain.

The New Breed is not only a better player, but a shrewder businessman.

Among the New Zealand first test team were five new breeders — superstars who are taking the lead in establishing direction for other players as rugby, like athletics and tennis before it, slowly masters the maze that is shamateurism.

John Kirwan, John Gallagher, Wayne Shelford, Zinzan Brooke, and another prominent national representative who prefers to remain nameless are, for want of a better job description, promoters. Essentially, their business is promoting themselves. Each is linked in some way to a promotional company, usually as a full-time, salaried employee, which enables them to be paid for endorsement work they do — work that no doubt comes their way exclusively because of their All Black profiles and which fits neatly into a lifestyle dominated by virtual year-round football. One time butcher’s apprentice, Kirwan, became the pied-piper of The New Breed when 2 l / 2 years ago he joined Forza Promotions, a company with contracts with Auckland Motors, Dominion Breweries, Corporate Investments, Holeproof, and Benetton and owned by a 32-year-old housewife and mother of one, Maxine Ramsey. Fourteen months ago

By

BOB SOUTH,

Brooke also joined Forza.. The pair are employees of Mrs Ramsey as opposed to shareholders of Forza — “servants of the company” is how she puts it. Neither receives direct payment for products they endorse or promotional work they do. They are paid a salary by Forza, Kirwan as a full-time employee, Brooke as a parttimer. All of which makes it legal for Kirwan and Brooke to make money as a result of being prominent rugby players. The secret to being legal in this game is making sure your employee, the rugby superstar, doesn’t receive any direct payment — only a salary as a company servant — for the work he does for you.

Forza operates above board in the eyes of the rugby union, thanks largely to its acceptance of Ramsey’s simple logic that “even All Blacks have the right to life and the right to support that life."

Gallagher left the Wellington police force recently on 12 months leave of absence to set up New Zealand Personality Force, a sports promotional outfit with four directors whose sole job is to promote one All Black full-back. Conscious of how sensitive this issue still is in rugby, Gallagher covered his back like the red hair that covers his head before jeopardising his amateur status. Hand-in-hand with a lawyer went Gallacher to

of the ‘Sunday Star,’ Auckland

the offices of the New Zealand Rugby Union earlier this year to “learn the dos and don’ts of this whole business.” Braced with the rules of the game from the mouths of the experts, Gallagher launched N.Z.P.F. six weeks ago. As an employee of N.Z.P.F. he is currently on lease to Tolan Print as a printing consultant, but already several endorsement negotiations are under way for him. Shelford signed with International Management Group, the same company that looks after Mark Todd, Bob Charles, Richard Hadlee and John Wright, two months ago after initially approaching it in October last year. He has an agent, I.M.G.’s marketing manager, Bill McCormick, and a personal speechwriter. The All Black skipper is soon to follow Gallagher and another unnamed current All Black by starting his own company. The process of company registration apparently has already started for Buck. “The promotion of Wayne Shelford is now Wayne Shelford’s full-time employment,” explains McCormick. “He has this macho image the commercial market is looking for and we plan to capitalise on that for him. His marketing acceptance is promising.” The catalyst for these latest actions by All Blacks is hard to identify. Certainly, it is not new that prominent players should be trying to make a legitimate buck out of

their rugby careers. Why else would books such as “Colin Meads — All Black,” “Fergie,” “Batty,” “Super Sid,” “Kirky,” “Ebony and Ivory,” “Dave Loveridge — Half-back,” “Graham Mourie — Captain,” “The Geriatrics,” “Mud in Your Eye,” “Boots ‘n’ All,” and “Pieces of Eight” come out in such a steady stream. Meads also broke ground by doing television commercials more than 15 years ago. Then there was Andy Haden, who sparked off much controversy in the late 1970 s and early 1980 s by cheekily listing his job as “writer” to pacify the rugby union and presumably allow him to legally earn revenue from books and newspaper columns he was writing. But basically, the impetus for The New Breed, and their new occupational pursuits, came much more recently, as recently as 1987. In 1986, New Zealand Breweries became the first sponsors of our national rugby team when the N.Z.R.U. consented to Steinlager providing fin-

ancial backing. This sponsorship deal proved popular among players and encouraged the then All Black captain, Jock Hobbs, an astute lawyer, to lobby for more aggressive marketing of the country’s top team. It is more than coincidence that not long afterward Kirwan joined Forza.

The New Zealand Breweries national sponsorship manager Peter Scott, who completed the Steinlager-All Black marriage at the time, said: “We became more aggressive in our approach as a result of requests from Hobbs.

“We committed a significant amount to the build- up to the World Cup and this aggressive marketing campaign behind the All Blacks has had the indirect effect of making players more commercially viable. They suddenly have become public figures like never before.” The former All Black selector Earle Kirton, a member of the 1968 All Black side that walloped France, 3-0, in the test series, agrees with Scott’s general analysis. “In our own way, we were looked after in our day,” says Kirton. “I can remember someone getting a 100 per cent loan from a rugby club for his first house purchase. “But today, the All Blacks are really hot property. They have much higher profiles and it is easier, without contravening any rules, to set up as companies and become PR men for themselves. Where our marketing opportunities were zip, today the world is there for thqm.”