NZ Rugby was panned for overlapping the Black Ferns and the All Blacks on the pitch - and on TV - at the same time this weekend - but it wasn’t the first international double-up during the Women’s Rugby World Cup. Meanwhile, some top Auckland schools don’t want their top players on TV any more at all.
Scotty Stevenson hosting Spark Sport coverage of the Women's Rugby World Cup. Photo: screenshot / Spark Sport
When the Black Ferns kicked off their home Rugby World Cup match against Australia earlier this month, TVNZ’s sports bulletin began with the crowd filing into Eden Park for the biggest game of women's rugby ever played here.
“The Black Ferns take to the field against Australia with the weight of a nation on their shoulders,” presenter Abby Wilson told viewers.
The nation on their couches watching that were then urged to stay there and stay tuned to TVNZ 1 to watch the Black Caps T20 international versus Pakistan live.
“Cricket straight after the news so settle in,” she said.
Another sporting code is under no obligation not to put a match on at the same time, but that decision split the sporting audience for a major milestone in women’s sport.
There was no uproar about it then but it was a different story this week when NZ Rugby managed to schedule the Black Ferns’ quarter-final and the All Blacks vs Japan simultaneously.
“We've known for more than a year that this was always going to be the quarterfinal the Ferns play. New Zealand Rugby has designed a clash between the Black Ferns and the All Blacks and that is scarcely believable to me,” Scotty Stevenson told RNZ’s Morning Report.
Whether that was really by design or because NZ Rugby couldn't design a booze-up in a brewery became the awkward question.
“We were aware of it - but the right people weren't aware of it,” NZ Rugby’ Chris Lendrum told Newshub’s Ollie Richie, admitting a mistake The Spinoff’s Anna Rawhiti-Connell said could have been avoided with a $3.99 wallplanner from the Warehouse.
“People coming to the game can only watch the Black Ferns. The rest can watch the All Blacks' replay later,” senior Black Fern Sarah Hirini told a press conference earlier that day which was, as The Spinoff co-editor Madeline Chapman pointed out, made more awkward for them because NZR had not yet owned up to the fact they “basically forgot that the Black Ferns were playing”.
Hirini’s timeshifting solution was called a “cheeky suggestion” in a Stuff headline that wasn't online for long before it was replaced by headlines about more ropable reactions.
It got noticed overseas too.
“I'm really gutted because . . . you're fighting against almost a society of people that think that women shouldn't play rugby and trying to become role models when you haven't got the backing of the union it’s like you're fighting against people that should be on your side,” former Wales player Alex Donovan told BBC’s news and sport station 5 Live
First XVs off the screen
But last Wednesday, TVNZ sports department was preoccupied by another surprise story concerning rugby on the screen.
“The days of top-level first XV rugby being broadcast live are over, in Auckland at least, with principals of the 1A schools banning coverage for next year,” announced presenter Chris Chang.
“We heard murmurings of this this morning. We put in calls to those directly involved, who pretty much shut it down,” reporter Abby Wilson explained.
“Then three o'clock rolls around and school bell goes - and an email turns up in our inbox,” she explained, waving a piece of paper in the TVNZ newsroom announcing the top rugby schools’ principals in Auckland have pulled their top teams from TV coverage.
“The negative impacts that the high scrutiny and increased pressure can have on these players,” was the reason cited in the statement.
Shortly after that Scotty Stevenson told Newstalk ZB most people would agree with this move to cool down “overheated and overhyped schoolboy rugby”.
ZB’s Darcy Waldegrave was among them, reckoning that young players are “probably better off dealing with acne and puberty”.
But not everyone commenting on the media was onside.
“More woke, more cancel culture. The decision is incomprehensible. What are they going to do now?” Ken Laban - ‘the voice of college rugby’ - told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking.
“If you've got a son or you have got a grandson who's playing, we use a phone to record the kid playing, are we going to have security throw family members out of the ground?” he asked
No-one was suggesting that, but while he saw no harm in TV coverage of the games, disquiet about live coverage on TV and online isn't new - and not just for Auckland school rugby.
Two years ago around 50 sports organisations did a deal with Rob Waddell’s New Zealand Sports Collective company, giving them exclusive sponsorship and marketing rights.
Sky Television backed the project with $10 million over three years and the online platform Sky Sport Next.
Sky chief executive at their time, Martin Stewart, said this was “a way to give back to our communities and support sports that didn't get a whole lot of media exposure”.
But other people didn't want kids’ sport commodified like that. Sportscaster Martin Devlin at the time said that he and other “psycho parents” were prepared to even disrupt the broadcasts.
“What are you going to do to stop us? Call the police? I have every right to protest against this. And I will,” he said on Newstalk ZB.
Two years on there are still plenty of junior and high school sports on Sky Sport Next.
The principals who forced the issue this week by pulling their First XVs out have refused to comment, but not escaped criticism over the many years they and their schools seemed happy to allow Sky to broadcast games.
But while they now concede that was a mistake, the All Blacks head of professional rugby Chris Lendrum, informally called the ‘NZR’s Mr. Fixit’ in the media - told Newshub eventually the All Blacks vs Black Ferns scheduling was an error too.
“It’s only a mistake if you make it twice, right? I think we're testing the boundaries of that saying that here,” he told Newshub’s Ollie Ritchie.
Not exactly an excuse you’d expect to hear from any professional sportsperson.
