'Fortunate four' happy to work with Tew

Embattled NZRU boss Steve Tew has the support of the disenchanted provinces as they try to work a way forward with a new domestic competition format.

The NZRU's decision to stick with the status quo for next year came as a relief to the under-pressure Air New Zealand Cup unions but at enormous frustration to chief executive Tew and NZRU chairman Jock Hobbs who were pushing for the 14-team top division to be reduced to 10.

The four unions most likely to be affected – Counties Manukau, Manawatu, Tasman and Northland – had held a gun to the NZRU's head with appeals and legal threats to any proposed changes.

That effectively killed any hopes of changes because the legal battles would have dragged on till at least next March.

It was another significant slap in the face to Tew who has been driving a bulldozer of change without getting very far. It raised the question of whether he should continue in the job?

Tew was bullish when fronted on that: "They (the provinces) said one of the things that might stop it was a failure of leadership from the NZRU. I'm happy to be accountable for that, absolutely. Should I take more blame than that? I guess other people can answer that question."

So Sunday News put that question to the four provinces who have stalled the changes, asking them if they could work with Tew going forward?

There were no calls for his head. In fact, the opposite. They were unanimous that he was the right man to try to sort out this tangled web.

"I would rather work with Steve than with somebody I don't know. It's better the person you know than someone who is totally green and doesn't have as good an understanding of rugby as Steve Tew does," Counties-Manukau chief executive Phil McConnell said.

"Steve and I are in the same situations. He's the CEO of New Zealand rugby and carries out his board's wishes and I'm the CEO for Counties-Manukau rugby and I carry out my board's wishes.

"We have to take a pragmatic view of this going forward. We have to sit down and say what's best for the competition structure and what's going to be acceptable to any team that is going to drop down. We just have to work a lot more closely together. Most of the issues that came out of this were due to the uncertainty. No union will sign up to anything with such uncertainty about it."

Northland chief executive Jim Smillie echoed that.

"There's no personality problem with Steve Tew from our point of view, not at all," Smillie said.

"We don't have any difficulty with Steve. I just think there has to be a common way for all of us – the unions and the NZRU – to try to come up with something that is workable and that we can all live with."

Manawatu chief executive John Knowles said Tew was "never an issue with us".

"We enjoy working with both him and Jock Hobbs. Things just need to be thought through a bit more than they have been and I'm sure they will be," Knowles said.

Tasman chairman Nick Patterson believed his unions relationship with Tew was "still workable". "We are prepared to stare him down and get on with the business as usual," Patterson said.

"But I sincerely hope that there is something to be learned out of this process. I do accept that they (the NZRU) have put themselves in a very difficult position but I still think there are opportunities to approach this in a more inclusive and organised manner."

It was clear in a 30 minute debrief to media following the decision to stick with the status quo, that Tew and Hobbs were unhappy at how their hopes had been undermined by a minority.

It reflects a flawed decision-making process hampered by the political correctness of the current era. It's just too hard to please everybody.

"That's the challenge we have," Tew said. "There are a group who are always going to be in the premier division no matter how big it is. They don't mind what its like as long as its going to work for them.

"Then there are a group who are in danger of not being in it and they want survival. That's why we cant ever get a unanimous decision."

Sooner or later, the NZRU is going to have to come down hard and make the inevitable changes because of the corner they have backed themselves into by expanding the Super 15. There simply isnt enough time on the calendar to squeeze a 14-team round-robin tournament into the season.

Hobbs and Tew reiterated that those changes would be made for the 2012 season. They believed the one good thing to come out of the process being held up was that they now had enough time to work through the changes, even allowing for further appeals.

Much will depend on the new Players' Collective agreement that is being worked through now and includes delicate issues like a new salary cap and a player payment model. The players could also be the kingmakers. They favour the 14 teams being split into two seven-team competitions believing that would produce a more meaningful middle-tier competition.

For now, its more of the same and Tew brought some reality to that when he said: "Can the four who were in danger of going down survive in the long term? That's up to them. They have said yes, their fans want that opportunity. They have now got it and good luck to them. I will go back to Manawatu and have my ham sandwich again and get caught on camera. Bring on the Bucketheads!"

- © Fairfax NZ News