The Social Organisation of Rugby Union in New Zealand
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i Unions, Leagues and Franchises: The Social Organisation of Rugby Union in New Zealand ________________________________________ A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology at the University of Canterbury By Camilla Obel _________________________________________ University of Canterbury 2001 ii Til min mor og Matthew i ABSTRACT The amateur game of rugby union is analysed by focussing upon the struggles for control between national and local unions and players. Using historical material and interviews with administrators, current players in the New Zealand national team, the All Blacks, and Canterbury, a local provincial union, I show how the game of rugby union consolidated as the national game. I follow these actors through the shift to a global professional game sponsored by television networks and show how the local advantages in the New Zealand game come to be reconfigured in this context. In the first half of the thesis I argue that a contested and continuous process of indigenisation secured both the national popularity of the amateur game, against the threat of the rival code of professional rugby league, and maintained all-important competitive ties between the national team and Britain. Protection against threats from the rival code was secured by the centralised New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU) creating two national teams, the All Blacks (1905), composed of both ‘white’ and Maori players, and the New Zealand Maori team (1910) composed only of indigenous Maori players. Further, the establishment of a national challenge competition, the Ranfurly Shield (1902), and the formation of a national league, the National Provincial Championship (1976), secured local and national publics for the amateur game. Both developments may be seen as ways in which an amateur game draws upon elements of professional competition. In the second half of the thesis I show how the NZRFU mobilises against a threat of players exiting to a professional, transnational media-sponsored league. In conjunction with its own television sponsors, the NZRFU introduces professionalism through the transnational, professional Super 12 competition (1996) featuring franchised teams together with teams from Australia and South Africa. This competition, like the Rugby World Cup (1987), successfully cultivates new transnational publics and provides players with further opportunities for international mobility. ii To protect the new game against the increased bargaining power of players the NZRFU introduces regulations to restrict both players’ movement between local provincial teams and All Black selection for those contracted to its franchises in the new transnational competition. These controls enhance the NZRFU’s authority over provincial unions and players but in the context of a global professional game organised to secure competitive balance between teams, the success of New Zealand rugby is no longer guaranteed. The new professional era is revealed as one of threats as much as opportunities for the national game. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study was made possible with the participation of former and current rugby union players and administrators. To the staff at the Canterbury Provincial Union, thank you for volunteering your time and resources during a period of many challenges. Likewise, I want to thank NZRFU administrators and staff for your involvement and interest in this study. Thank you to the players for your openness about an aspect of your lives that has been a subject of controversy over the last decade. Thanks to my friends and colleagues in the Sociology Department. Specials thanks to Liz Tully for your hours of editorial work, academic advice and for sharing many humorous moments over the last years of our PhD trials. Thanks, Suzanne Phibbs, for your interest in rugby, your generosity and willingness to discuss thesis ideas while they were still in the making. To Antoine Monti, thank you for your technical help and creativity which added colour to the thesis. And to Belinda Mortlock, thank you for your friendship and encouragement. I owe much gratitude to my supervisors, Terry Austrin and Jan Cameron. Thank you, Jan, for your encouragement, wisdom and trust in my abilities. I am especially grateful to Terry. I have benefited immensely from your ability to shape sociological ideas and for challenging me to work harder. To my families in Denmark and New Zealand I am grateful for your understanding, caring, concern and love. My partner, Matthew, thank you for your love and support and for putting up with this unwanted house guest for so many years. iv CONTENTS ABSTRACT i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ix PREFACE x CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER TWO: ADMINISTERING THE COLONIAL ENTERPRISE: CLUBS V NATIONAL UNIONS 8 2.0 Introduction 8 2.1 Games and Rules: the formation of the Football Association and the Rugby Football Union 10 2.2 Rules and Games: National and Regional Settlements 13 2.3 International disputes over rules and Welsh centralised authority 19 2.4 Cultural transmission and local variation in Australia 24 2.5 Amateur inclusiveness and the success of rugby networks in New Zealand 28 2.6 The establishment of a centralised rugby union authority 33 2.7 Summary 41 v CHAPTER THREE: RULES OF INDIGENISATION: THE NEW ZEALAND MAORI TEAM 45 3.0 Introduction: Race and class in the ‘colonial ecumene’ 45 3.1 Professional Rugby in the Southern Hemisphere 50 3.2 The exclusion of Maori and the Maori ‘solution’ 56 3.3 The Maori contribution to the indigenisation of rugby 61 3.4 All Black teams touring South Africa and the institutionalisation of an ethnic rugby structure 67 3.5 The New Zealand Maori teams and the constitution of ‘ethnic’ Pacific teams 71 3.6 Rugby Sevens 73 3.7 Summary 75 CHAPTER FOUR: CULTIVATING PUBLICS FOR AMATEUR TEAMS: INTER-PROVINCIAL COMPETITIONS 78 4.0 Introduction 78 4.1 Amateur ‘friendlies’ and local cups and leagues 81 4.2 The Ranfurly Shield 85 4.3 The Canterbury provincial union and the Ranfurly Shield 91 4.4 The introduction of an inter-provincial ‘league’- The National Provincial Championship 97 4.5 Increasing sponsorship and television involvement in a restructured league 101 4.6 Centralised control, performance inequality and the increasing threat from televised rugby league 109 4.7 Summary: A model for popular ‘amateur’ competitions 112 vi CHAPTER FIVE: EXPANDED MARKETS: PROFESSIONALISM, LEAGUES AND TRANSNATIONAL TELEVISION PUBLICS 116 5.0 Introduction 116 5.1 Television, renewed rugby rivalries and the introduction of the Rugby World Cup 119 5.2 Broadcasting deregulations and national television publics 125 5.3 A centralised solution to competition for ‘pre-season’ television viewers: The transnational ‘Super 10’ competition 132 5.4 Global media sponsorship and player revolt in Australia and New Zealand 136 5.5 Summary: Building renewed and new national and global audiences 144 CHAPTER SIX: DILEMMAS OF A CENTRALISED SYSTEM: SUCCESS, FAILURE AND UNEVEN GLOBAL MIGRATION 148 6.0 Introduction 148 6.1 Making a career in an amateur game: The emergence of ‘Star’ players and off-season rugby jobs 150 6.2 Promotional contracts and amateur player contracts 156 6.3 The Super 12 ‘television league’ and centralised contracts 161 6.4 “Tiered” NZRFU contracts and All Black aspirations 169 6.5 Northern hemisphere migration and declining All Black aspirations 180 6.6 National eligibility criteria and the ‘deskilling’ of Pacific Island rugby 188 6.7 Summary: Systems, success and failures 197 vii CHAPTER SEVEN: REGULATING RELATIONS: THE NZRFU, PROVINCIAL UNIONS AND PLAYERS 200 7.0 Introduction 200 7.1 Sponsorship dependence and independent boards: creating rugby business networks 202 7.2 Controlling provincial unions’ off-field competition: the player transfer system 210 7.3 ‘Farm systems’ and player transfers: opportunities in the market for players 216 7.4 Consolidating player strength: Super 12 host unions and player transfers 222 7.5 The ‘franchise’ business: Cultivating new publics for Super 12 teams 224 7.6 Summary: Super 12 success, economic divisions and centralised solutions 234 CHAPTER EIGHT: CONCLUSION 239 APPENDIX: Player transfers and distribution of NZRFU-contracted players 247 PRIMARY SOURCES 250 MEDIA SOURCES 251 REFERENCES 252 viii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Tables: Table 4.1 Gate-takings and spectator attendance for Ranfurly Shield matches at Lancaster Park 1926-35 92 Table 4.2 Gate-takings and spectator attendance for Ranfurly Shield matches at Lancaster Park 1950-57 94 Table 4.3 Gate-takings and spectator attendance for Ranfurly Shield matches at Lancaster Park 1967-74 95 Table 4.4 Gate-takings and sponsorship income for the Canterbury provincial union 1976-1986 107 Table 4.5 Gate-takings and sponsorship income for the Canterbury provincial union 1987-1995 112 Table 7.1 Super 12 host unions’ overall share of NZRFU-contracted players 1996-2000 223 Table 7.2 Canterbury provincial union - attendance, gate-takings and sponsorship income 1993-98 233 Appendix: Table 1. Provincial unions’ player transfers (1996-2000) 248 Table 2. Distribution of NZRFU-contracted players (1996-2000) 249 Figures: Figure 4.1 Map of provincial unions’ geographical areas 88 Figure 4.2 Boundaries of provincial unions and NPC ranking (2000) 102 Figure 5.1 NZRFU income 1986-1997 126 Figure 7.1 Boundaries of provincial unions and NPC ranking (2000) 220 Figure 7.2 New Zealand Super 12 regions (1999) 227 ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AB - All Black