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The $4,000,000 man - Why Rieko Ioane will earn more than Kieran Read

How much will it take to keep Rieko Ioane in New Zealand?

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The 21-year-old is off contract with the NZRU at the end of the year. His world tour last year showcased his talents to all the clubs in the Northern Hemisphere, driving up his market value with every performance.

At such a young age, the NZRU would like to secure their primary strike weapon for the long-term. A four-year extension would retain Ioane until 2022, whilst an unprecedented five-year deal would include the next Rugby World Cup in 2023.

Negotiations have been ongoing since the start of the year but the pen has not been put to paper. In the past, only proven performers over a longer time frame earn top dollar contracts with the NZRU. With the increased competition from overseas markets, the NZRU is being forced to reward earlier or risk losing – see Charles Piutau.

In exchange for top money, they want longer commitment. NZRU’s head of professional rugby Chris Lendrum told the NZ Herald recently that “if we can agree on healthy long-term deals they will be rewarded well by anyone’s estimations”. Although these long-term deals can be a case of buyer beware.

After the 2015 Rugby World Cup at the height of Julian Savea’s market, the NZRU handed out an estimated $3.2 million to lock him in until 2019 at somewhere around $800k a year. Savea had just turned 25-years-old before that Rugby World Cup, whereas Ioane has just turned 21. The All Blacks historically replace wingers at around 26, so when you look the lifespan of a winger, Savea’s deal seems loaded with far more risk. They couldn’t let him walk after a sublime World Cup showing, but were unable to agree a shorter term to hedge against a potential slump at the backend. That deal now hasn’t panned out for NZRU and shows the risk in playing long.

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Should the NZRU retain Rieko Ioane, they will secure his prime years as an athlete. They will be forced to pay a king’s ransom given his play at the international level already. Ironically, this contract would be a lot cheaper for the NZRU if Savea had blocked Ioane’s path into the All Blacks for another year.

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“Guys like Rieko and Damian [McKenzie] are exactly the sort of players that will challenge our thinking, and the heat in the international market which is greater than I’ve ever seen it also challenges that,” Lendrum said.

“We have to continue to be flexible and think about how we reward those players at a younger age.

They will likely have to pay over a million dollars a season to keep Rieko Ioane, and over four years this deal should be in excess of NZD$4 million. Even with a three-year deal, it could come close to that. And that’s with a discount. With pounds and euros on offer in the North, is it not conceivable that Ioane would command a similar price tag to Charles Piutau at £1 million per season (NZD $1.9 million)?

The All Blacks captain Kieran Read is thought to be the first player to reach the $1 million per season threshold when he signed a two-year extension last year, Ioane should leapfrog that. The market resets fast, and Ioane is going to benefit hugely from his timing.

In other news:

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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