Lack of accountability in Black Ferns saga leaves sour taste

Comment – New Zealand Rugby’s Black Ferns review has left a feeling that women’s rugby isn’t highly valued at all.

File image: Te Kura Ngata-Aerengamate.
Photo: Photosport

So what becomes of the broken hearted?

Where’s Te Kura Ngata-Aerengamate’s pathway back to the Black Ferns? Where’s her opportunity to benefit from the much-hyped review into the culture of that team?

Her team-mates now enjoy central New Zealand Rugby (NZR) contracts and have a world cup to look forward to. Ngata- Aerengamate’s reward for bringing the issues within that team to light is nothing.

I’m not big on reviews. In fact I’ve come to the point where I don’t even believe they’re well-intentioned.

Most are simply a waste of time.

We have a problem, which shows no sign of being addressed, with how female athletes are treated. The common denominator is men being put in positions of power over women.

It was utterly shameful that NZR didn’t make Black Ferns coach Glenn Moore front, when the findings from the review into his team were made public this week.

Where’s his accountability? Where’s his genuine expression of contrition? Where’s the opportunity for him to be asked questions he’d prefer not to answer?

No, he remains as head coach, having previously decided who within a team, which are reportedly very unhappy with him, would be awarded the female code’s first round of full time contracts.

Hey, but we’re not done there.

No, Wayne Smith has been brought in to hold Moore’s hand, in the newly-created role of technical adviser. Now we read reports that Graham Henry and Mike Cron have been in camp with the Black Ferns too.

Smith is regarded as a rugby genius and is beloved by those who’ve been coached by him. Cron, whose expertise is scrummaging and forward play, is regarded in the same light.

Henry is about the most revered man in New Zealand rugby, so we’re talking about some real luminaries here.

But they’re all old, they’re all white and they’re all men.

The Black Ferns review was not about rugby, although a large chunk of it should have been given how poorly the team performed last year.

Black Ferns coach Glenn Moore
Photo: Photosport

Instead, it was about culture and inclusion and diversity and yet here we have these esteemed gentlemen in and around the group.

I’m sorry, but that’s at odds with what NZR would have us believe about the review. That they recognise the sexual and ethnic and cultural make-up of the Black Ferns squad and are leaving no stone unturned in their attempts to create a safe and harmonious environment for these women to play in.

Again, and I want to stress this, this is no knock on Smith, Henry and Cron. You would struggle to find better rugby men anywhere and their willingness to get involved shows how deeply they care for the game and how much they want New Zealand players to succeed.

Cron is among the cast of thousands who’ve also been added to Ian Foster’s All Blacks coaching group and it’s just a shame Smith and Henry can’t join him. But that’s an aside.

The issue here is NZR and what they say on one hand but do on the other. The fact they say they’ve heard the Black Ferns and heard former players and care about their wellbeing, but then don’t appear to do anything to remedy the situation.

Or at least not the right things.

I can’t see how Moore’s retention enables meaningful change, just as I can’t see why he didn’t have to face the public this week.

I can’t see why NZR – and other codes for that matter – won’t appoint female coaches to coach female teams.

It’s not that dissimilar to what Sonny Bill Williams was going on about, when the All Blacks were knocked out of the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

He said the team needed a coaching staff that reflected and understood the playing group. People with the same background and life experiences, who the players could trust and relate to.

That fell on deaf ears and so has Ngata-Aerengamate’s emotional plea for change.

Whistle-blowers or trailblazers rarely remain to see progress first-hand. They have to content themselves with the knowledge that future players will have it better than they did.

But spare a thought for Ngata-Aerengamate today. She was the most obviously wounded party in all this and yet is the only one to suffer any repercussions.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: rugby, as a participation sport in this country, is struggling. It needs an injection of playing numbers and enthusiasm and new ideas and it’s female athletes and coaches who are most likely to provide that.

The same ideas, offered by the same types of people, aren’t getting us anywhere.

We need to promote rugby as a game that’s safe and inclusive for your daughter or sister or mum. A game where they’re valued and treated as if they matter.

I didn’t walk away from NZR’s Black Ferns review thinking women’s rugby in this country is highly valued at all.