World Cup Fall-Out Continues in New Zealand

The decision to ask the board of directors of the New Zealand Rugby Football Union to stand down was made by the chairmen of the 27 provincial unions after they had met in Wellington. It was agreed that a special meeting of the NZRFU be convened on September 17 and a new board elected.

The call has come about because the Provincial boards are still seething over the manner in which the World Cup hosting rights were handled with New Zealand eventually being ruled out as a venue for some of the matches.

NZRFU chairman Rob Fisher said he would recommend to his fellow board members that they tender their resignations and he has also intinmated that he would not be seeking re-election at the September meeting. Speaking to the New Zealand Herald, Fisher said. “”The decision of the provincial union chairmen to call for a special meeting is a clear signal to the NZRFU board that we should stand down and hold elections for a new board. I will be recommending that course of action to my fellow board members when I speak to them in the next few days. If they accept my recommendation, which I believe they will, then we can set in train the constitutional requirements to elect a new board.”
Following the publication of he Eichelbaum report, which was highly critical of the board’s role in losing the sub-hosting rights for next year’s World Cup, the provincial boards felt that the NZRFU board’s response was indequate and therefore the call for resignation has not come as a great surprise.