New Zealand Rugby will not publicly comment on Sir Steve Hansen’s scathing attack on the national body as he thinks it’s best to say nothing.
In an email to staff, which was leaked to stuffchief communications and brand officer Charlotte McLauchlan acknowledged Hansen’s comments, but explained that sometimes the best course of action is to “say nothing.”
Former All Blacks coach Hansen on Thursday accused New Zealand Rugby of leading a string of failures in an astonishing attack who labeled the relationship between the All Blacks players and the board as “the worst it’s ever been”.
ROBERT KITCHEN/Things
Former All Blacks coach Steve Hansen fell for NZR.
Hansen came out in an interview with Today FM’s Tova O’Brien after weeks of fierce public criticism of the All Blacks, with coach Ian Foster taking on all the flak while NZ Rugby kept quiet.
Hansen accused NZR of airing its dirty laundry, pointing to the recent assessments of Ian Foster and former Black Ferns coach Glenn Moore, the latest to leave the team in the World Cup year. He was also destructive to NZR’s powerful unit.
Sources within NZR say that many employees are not happy with this chief executive Mark Robinson, who is in Birmingham for the Commonwealth Games, has essentially left Foster to face the music alone since the series loss to Ireland.
Ella Bates-Hermans/Stuff
Mark Robinson has been relatively quiet since the series’ loss to Ireland.
In the email to staff, McLauchlan said: “Many of you will have seen Sir Steve Hansen’s comments in the media today and spoke to Robbo (Robinson) and Lendo (Chris Lendrum, General Manager, Professional Rugby and Performance at NZR), we wanted to give you all a bit of an idea of where we stand.
“We appreciate and understand the wide range of views on the game at the moment – including Sir Steve’s – but our priority now is to support the All Blacks and their new coaching line-up to ensure a successful series in South Africa – as well as our Commonwealth Games teams and our domestic competitions that started at home.
“While many of the things Sir Steve has said are unfair and hurtful to many, we don’t think entering into a media debate with him is the right thing to do – going back to our priorities, which is that our teams must win with Mana, we think this will only serve to create a new media cycle and possibly more distractions.
“The level of passion around our game right now is obviously a blessing and a curse. Sometimes it’s appropriate to comment and sometimes not, and while we do our best to be an organization that is fundamentally open, honest and transparent, sometimes the most powerful thing to do is say nothing – and then understand that the story ‘NZR’ is ‘refusing to comment’ is sometimes simply the ‘least worst’ option because it offers no fuel.”