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An improbable All Blacks jersey sponsor has emerged as NZR look to plug financial hole

(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

As New Zealand Rugby look to cash in on a controversial private equity deal, a left field potential All Blacks jersey sponsor has emerged – at least according to reports in France.

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The NZR are currently in the midst of a potential 15 per cent sale of the revenue-generating side of their business, with American Tech Giant Silver Lake tabling NZ$465m for what amounts in effect to a roughly one-seventh share of the All Blacks.

The deal is currently been met with opposition by the NZRPA, the players’ union that represents professional rugby players in New Zealand, who count a number of top-level All Blacks on their board. Players fear a number of things with the deal, including a loss of connection with the grassroots of the game and the commercial influence such a deal would have on future decision making.

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Wayne Smith raised eyebrows last week when he said: “We need the money”.

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Wayne Smith raised eyebrows last week when he said: “We need the money”.

Now Midi Olympique are reporting that Mohed Altrad, the billionaire owner of Top 14 side Montpellier, is in a dialogue about becoming the All Blacks’ jersey sponsor as part of a new multi-million dollar deal.

Altrad, a building materials company, already sponsors France Rugby, a deal that is apparently worth €7m a season. A similar deal with the All Blacks would be worth significantly more.

Last year current jersey sponsor – AIG – announced it would be ceasing their sponsorship in 2021, ending a partnership which began in 2012. Their latest deal was purported to be worth NZ$120m to the NZR, or €71m . In 2020, it was reported in New Zealand that the NZR wanted to raise NZ$300m (€180m) with their new jersey deal.

Landing a $300m jersey deal would certainly help lower the financial necessity of bagging Silver Lake’s NZ$465 deal, and wouldn’t involve the sale of equity.

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With television deals and ‘bums on seats’ no longer cutting it in terms of revenue, private equity deals appear to be new reality in rugby union. CVC’s deals with the Six Nations, Premiership Rugby Ltd and the PRO14 have set a new standard in the sport, which other stakeholders are surely now likely to follow.

Renowned All Blacks guru Wayne Smith raised eyebrows last week when he said: “We need the money” when asked about the private equity play. “We need to get the capital.” Whatever deals the NZR gets over the line, it’s interesting times ahead.

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Flankly 49 minutes ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
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Nickers 59 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

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