The New Zealand Rugby Union has announced a cautious budget approach for 2009 which will see changes to some teams and competitions.
The announcement follows last week’s unveiling of an additional funding package to assist New Zealand’s 26 Provincial Unions. NZRU CEO Steve Tew said last week that the NZRU had taken a “deliberately cautious approach” to its 2009 budget with an expectation that economic conditions globally and in New Zealand were likely to worsen further before they start improving. “While we have benefitted from some upside in 2008, based largely on favourable exchange rate movements, we are projecting a loss in 2009 and within that budget we still have significant revenue at risk. “As a result, we have taken what we believe to be a sensible approach to our budget and have proactively reduced activity while we can manage the impacts rather than have changes forced on us.” Mr Tew said the NZRU Board and Management had taken the opportunity to review all costs to ensure that spending was contributing to the key priorities and targets set by the Union.
The budget decisions taken for 2009 include:
· Discontinuing the Men’s B Competition involving the B sides of the 14 Air New Zealand Cup provinces;
· Reducing the budgets of the national teams programme by $1 million which includes spending reductions on the All Blacks assembly costs, the Black Ferns, age grade and development programmes, the New Zealand Heartland XV and the New Zealand Maori programme; and
· Suspending the $500,000 contestable fund from the $25 million four-year Community Rugby Plan.
New Zealand Heartland XV
The Heartland XV, which embarked on its most extensive tour to date to the USA in 2008, will not tour overseas or play matches in 2009. The Heartland XV team will now assemble every two years.
Black Ferns
The Black Ferns will have a limited programme in 2009, which will be geared at maintaining continuity and preparations for the Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2010. Women’s players will be in contention for the New Zealand Women’s Sevens team which will play at the first ever Women’s Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament in Dubai in March.
New Zealand Maori
The New Zealand Maori team will not assemble in 2009 and will instead be replaced in the Pacific Nations Cup by the Junior All Blacks, which last assembled in 2007.
The NZRU decided that, given the limited opportunities to assemble national teams in 2009, priority would be given to the Junior All Blacks as the second-ranked national men’s team, consistent with the NZRU’s High Performance Plan.
Mr Tew said while the long-term view was that the New Zealand Maori team was the best fit for the Pacific Nations Cup, the development of the top level of players as a pathway to the All Blacks was a more urgent priority in 2009. “However, it is important to remember that Maori rugby, together with other areas of our game, still benefits from the annual funding of Provincial Unions.” The NZRU is still exploring opportunities for matches overseas for New Zealand Maori which would be contingent on those fixtures generating revenue to cover the cost of the team’s assembly.
Other impacts
Mr Tew said that there had been budget reductions across most of the NZRU activity for 2009, including administration, but where possible funding levels were maintained for priority areas such as community rugby, core Provincial Union funding and development. "Some of these were very tough decisions as they impact on people’s rugby development, aspirations and opportunities,” said Mr Tew. "If economic conditions improve over time, we hope to be able to re-instate some or all of the programmes which will be affected in 2009,” he concluded.
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