In 2023, Gregor Paul produced his list of rugby’s 30 most influential power-brokers. Two years on, he has updated the list to reflect who are the recent movers and shakers in New Zealand rugby.
30: Debbie Sorensen – Moana Pasifika CEO (new entry)
The first female chief executive of a New Zealand-based Super Rugby Pacific team says she doesn’t see herself staying at the helm of Moana Pasifika
for long.
Debbie Sorensen is currently juggling the role alongside her other duties as chief executive of the Pasifika Medical Association – which made a significant investment in the club midway through last year.
How long she remains may well depend on how quickly and successfully the club capitalises on the opportunity it now has to establish itself as financially viable, build an enduring brand, develop the requisite high-performance environment to continue to attract the best Pasifika talent and to start a culture of success.
Having struggled to attract players and fans in its first three years of operation, Moana pulled off a major coup by signing Ardie Savea this season.
His presence, and that of former All Blacks captain Tana Umaga as the head of a promising coaching team, has seen Moana start 2025 in promising fashion.
Crowds are building at their permanent home base at North Harbour Stadium, speculation is mounting that other big-name players want to join and the family of sponsors is growing.
Sorensen has an opportunity to build a genuine and reliable professional pathway for Pasifika talent to graduate from Super Rugby Pacific into the national teams of Samoa and Tonga, and establish Moana as a legacy club that changes the long-standing narrative of Pacific Island nations being poorly treated and exploited.
29: Clayton McMillan – Chiefs coach (new entry)
Clayton McMillan produced the highest-impact story of the year to date when, in early March, he announced he would be leaving for Munster after this Super Rugby Pacific campaign.
He’s been granted an early release from his Chiefs contract, signalling that New Zealand Rugby is now effectively endorsing an overseas stint as a recognised part of an aspiring coach’s pathway.
McMillan is New Zealand’s most promising emerging coach, having worked his way through Wellington club rugby, then from Bay of Plenty to the Chiefs. He’s taken them to two finals already – and they look on track to make a third in 2025.
He’d be a strong candidate – as would Vern Cotter at the Blues and Jamie Joseph at the Highlanders, who already have overseas experience at international level – for the All Blacks job, should it become contestable after (or before) the 2027 World Cup.
But it seems that by going to work in Ireland, McMillan is getting a message from New Zealand Rugby (NZR) that he will be a stronger candidate to coach the All Blacks.
NZR head of professional rugby Chris Lendrum said of McMillan’s move: “We’re not overflowing with high-level opportunities for people to work in fulltime senior head coaching roles, that’s why Clayton’s looking offshore to gain some further experience and we’ll see how that plays out.
“I think he’s going to go well but you can never predict anything with 100% certainty.
“I’m sure that at some point he would like to be in the running for the All Blacks head coach role, but you never know when that might come up.”
If McMillan does end up landing the All Blacks’ head coaching job when it next becomes available, it will send the most powerful message to other aspiring New Zealand coaches that they need to gain overseas experience as part of their development plan.
28: Greg Barclay – NZR board member (new entry)
The former chair of the International Cricket Council and New Zealand Cricket director has built the experience and knowledge in global sports politics to be seen as a key appointment to the New Zealand Rugby board, which he joined in February this year.
Greg Barclay’s presence on the nine-person NZR board has gone some way to lending credibility to the national sport’s governance capability – a subject that dominated media coverage last year amid a contentious and at times spiteful restructuring process.
Steeped in the commercial realities of professional sport, Barclay is understood to have been assigned a significant role in NZR’s ongoing broadcast rights negotiation.
He’s also replaced NZR chief executive Mark Robinson as one of New Zealand’s three representatives on World Rugby’s council.
The new NZR board wanted one of their own to be one of the three representatives assigned to New Zealand – Barclay’s background made him the obvious choice.
27: Ayesha Leti-l’iga – Black Fern (new entry)
The 2021 World Cup saw the Black Ferns and women’s rugby in general enjoy a massive jolt in popularity.
The tournament, hosted by New Zealand, set all sorts of records for crowd sizes, TV audiences and fan engagement.
But all those numbers are going to be smashed this year when England host the tournament in August-September. Ticket sales were at 220,000 last December – almost 50% more than New Zealand sold – and the organisers are confident they will sell at least another 90,000.
This is going to be a huge moment for women’s rugby to once again capture a new and enduring audience and sell itself as a sport that not only delivers genuine stars on the field, but also produces great characters off it.
In 2021, Ruby Tui won the hearts of Kiwis and overseas fans with her rare brand of honesty, humour and authenticity, but in 2025, it could be Ayesha Leti-l’iga who comes home as the game’s new mega star.
Not only is Leti-l’iga a try-scoring sensation and likely to enthrall crowds with her power and pace, but so too did she light up social media last year when, on an official visit to Buckingham Palace, she orchestrated a group hug with King Charles.
26: Bart Campbell – NZR World Rugby representative (28)
Former NZR board member and lawyer-turned-entrepreneur Bart Campbell remains the country’s most powerful voice at the highest places within World Rugby.
Bart Campbell is New Zealand’s only representative on World Rugby’s executive council – a position which puts him at the heart of the global game’s decision-making on issues such as the shape of the game, law amendments, financial initiatives and regional growth developments.
The balance of power does sit with the Six Nations, but New Zealand’s ability to advocate for common sense and important concessions has been seen in recent months.
The decision to trial the 20-minute red card at all levels of the game is a major win for New Zealand.
Another big win was getting Brett Robinson voted in as World Rugby chair at the end of last year.
New Zealand lobbied hard behind the scenes for the former Wallaby to be voted in as chair, because he’s a strong proponent of tweaking the laws and empowering referees so that tests are less collision-based and more aerobic.
25: Scott Hansen – All Blacks attack coach (new entry)
The former Crusaders assistant coach was little known outside of Canterbury when he was promoted to become part of Scott Robertson’s All Blacks coaching team in 2024.
A deep thinker and sharp communicator, Scott Hansen’s media interviews were must-see events last year as he used his passion and ability to articulate in simple language, delivering easy stories for willing hacks.
But Hansen wasn’t just impressing media, he was having a huge influence within the All Blacks, where he was effectively charged with the day-to-day running of the team, with Robertson elevating himself into a role he described as “culture coach”.
Hansen, it appears, is now the man responsible for not only building the All Blacks’ game plan, but also for delivering it on any given week.
24: Richard Dellabarca – Wynyard Point consortium lead (new entry)
The former New Zealand board director is the man in charge of the bid to build a new stadium and sports complex on Auckland’s waterfront and finally give the city the sort of facilities it needs to be a world-class venue for events.
In typical Auckland fashion, a vague and complex process was run last year to assess stadium options, with a revamp of Eden Park and an ambitious but almost unachievable proposal to build at Quay Park tagged as the two bids to explore.
Richard Dellabarca’s plan to build a sporting complex inspired by Melbourne was strangely rejected, despite appearing to be the most compelling proposal.
The complex would consist of a 55,000-capacity stadium, an 8,000-seat indoor complex and purpose-built spectator facilities to watch sailing on the Hauraki Gulf.
But despite initially being rejected by Auckland Council, the Wynyard Point bid may still end up getting the go-ahead, given the unpredictability of the process and the high probability that a revamp of Eden Park will ultimately be deemed too expensive, while the Quay Park plan has so many legal and planning obstacles to overcome that the cost and timeline may force it into the “too-hard basket”.
Dellabarca is the man, then, who may end up being the one to build the All Blacks a new home and deliver a world-class venue that changes the way the rugby experience can be delivered to its audience.
23: Conrad Smith – IRPA head of rugby operations (new entry)
Conrad Smith has a law degree, 94 test caps and a growing portfolio of experience working in rugby administration through his role with the International Rugby Players’ Association (IRPA) where he is the head of rugby operations.
He’s also on several World Rugby committees and becoming an increasingly respected and influential figure in boardrooms around the world.
Where he’s impressed has been in his advocacy for player welfare initiatives. In a recent article for FIFPro (football’s global players’ association), Smith highlighted some of the success he’s had.
He wrote: “Back in 2019, as World Rugby sought to expand its international competitions and proposed the first version of the Nation’s Cup, the players certainly saw the professional opportunities, but they understood the risks too. Rightly, they demanded greater consultation.
“The players had a clear position: if we are facing more games – and a higher risk of injury, including concussion and its possible long-term consequences – then we need universal safeguards that protect every player. We need clear guidelines on rest, recovery and rehabilitation.”
Academically gifted, emotionally intelligent, diplomatic and strategic, Smith – who also volunteers as a referee for grassroots rugby in Taranaki – is increasingly viewed within wider rugby circles as a potential chief executive of NZR.
22: Jack Mesley – CEO Super Rugby Pacific (new entry)
Super Rugby is enjoying a renaissance in 2025, with TV viewing figures showing the competition attracted almost 1.2 million viewers in the first three rounds.
Jack Mesley, who came into the newly created role of Super Rugby CEO in April last year, has made a strong start in firstly persuading all 11 clubs to work together for the common good of the competition, and picking a small priority list of initiatives that have had good bang for their buck.
Mesley has focused on delivering more ball-in-play time by empowering referees to make quick decisions and take a hard line on time-wasting, he’s delivered Super Rugby Pacific Fantasy, a product to grow fan engagement, interest and interaction, and he’s given the media a go-to person who can explain decisions, strategy and ambition.
For the first time in years, Super Rugby is consistently generating positive media coverage, amid what seems to be a deliberate strategy by Mesley to ditch all talk of expansion and possible geo-political alliances and get back to restoring the competition’s strengths of compelling, fast-paced, highly-skilled rugby, intense rivalries and passionate fans.
21: Sir Jim Ratcliffe – billionaire owner of Ineos (new entry)
Sir Jim Ratfcliffe, having agreed in 2022 to sponsor the All Blacks for six years, famously cut short that deal in January this year by terminating the agreement.
It has left a $21 million annual hole in NZR’s accounts and as such, the national body has lodged legal action in the High Court at Wellington to try to force Ineos into making some kind of compensation payment for unilaterally breaking the agreement.
This is a lot of money for NZR to lose and according to Ratcliffe, who says his petrochemical empire has fallen on hard times, it is a lot of money for Ineos to pay.
He recently told the Telegraph in the UK that he had no choice but to cut his funding to the All Blacks and other sports entities Ineos sponsors because: “I’m afraid life’s tough in trading in Europe, whether we like it or not.
“I know it’s easy to just carry on, but I’m afraid life’s tough in the outside world in trading.”
NZR will find a replacement sponsor, but it will take time – it probably won’t be agreed until next year – hence Ratcliffe retains undue influence on the game in this country.
If he holds his hard line that he won’t settle and that he is currently short of funds, then NZR could be drawn into a potentially long, expensive court case.
20: Yarnie Guthrie – NZRC general manager commercial (new entry)
Given that New Zealand Rugby Commercial (NZRC) exists purely to maximise the value of NZR’s revenue-generating assets, Yarnie Guthrie’s job title – general manager commercial of NZRC – is one word too long.
Guthrie is effectively NZRC’s general manager – responsible for finding and making sponsorship agreements, maximising merchandise sales and coming up with ways to ensure the money keeps coming in.
His ability to strike high-value, enduring commercial deals will have a significant bearing on the financial welfare of the rugby ecosystem.
Guthrie’s main goal in 2025 will be to find a replacement sponsor for Ineos to take up the naming rights to the back of the All Blacks’ shorts and training kit and to plug the $21m-a-year that has been lost by the British petrochemical giant pulling out of a six-year agreement three years early.
The process to find a new front-of-jersey sponsor – the current deal with Altrad (worth $40m a year) expires at the end of 2027 – will also begin this year.
Having worked with two billionaires running business-to-business companies, Guthrie’s brief will likely be to not only ensure the All Blacks retain or grow the value of their kit sponsorship, but do so through striking agreements with consumer brands.
19: Phil Waugh – CEO Rugby Australia (new entry)
As has been unequivocally proven in the last decade or so, New Zealand rugby’s overall health is affected by events across the Tasman.
As much as the game needs strong leaders in New Zealand, so too does it need a steady hand to be on the Australian tiller and for rugby there to be financially viable, growing its footprint and finding new fans.
The arrival of Phil Waugh, a former Wallabies flanker, as chief executive in June 2023 has been keenly felt.
He’s been brave enough to axe the Melbourne Rebels and former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones – both of which have lifted the performance of Super Rugby Pacific clubs across the board.
He’s also on the verge of securing an improved broadcast deal and – from being a total basket case at the 2023 World Cup – the Wallabies are shaping as a realistic prospect to win the tournament in 2027.
Australia’s resurgence is giving New Zealand’s best players stiffer Super Rugby competition and the NZR board a greater confidence that the game can build a viable future in the Pacific region.
Waugh has set performance goals for the period 2025-2029, which are for the Wallabies to win the upcoming British & Irish Lions tour; compete in the final weekend of both the 2027 and 2029 World Cups; for all teams in gold to improve their win rate to 70% by 2029; to claim medals at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics; and for Australian teams to win two Super Rugby Pacific titles.
18: Richie McCaw – NZRC board member (16)
Even now, 10 years since he finished playing, Richie McCaw wields significant influence purely by being who he is.
He rarely speaks publicly about the big issues impacting the game, but when he does, he clearly moves the dial and changes opinion.
In 2021, he spoke up to voice his concern about the speed and direction of the first private-equity deal with Silver Lake that was proposed.
And then last year, he spoke again to urge the provincial unions to deeply consider how they were reacting to an independent review to change the game’s governance.
The public had largely been ignoring the debate until McCaw spoke to the Herald and said: “I have been trying to say to people that in 30-40 years, when people look back, you want them to be able to say, ‘jeez, whoever was involved made a good decision’.
“They had a fork in the road, and they took the opportunity to get it right or get it wrong and wherever you sit, we are in those shoes now.
“The big thing I would urge people that make the decision is to not just think about their own patches, but to step above that and think what is right for New Zealand rugby in the long term so it caters for the game, no matter where you sit in the ecosystem.”
But just as importantly, he has a significant role to play as the only former player on the board of New Zealand Rugby Commercial.
As the need to grow revenue becomes ever greater, someone needs to be protecting the All Blacks from signing yet more deals that compromise the value of the brand.
NZR is currently taking legal action against former sponsor Ineos, while the All Blacks’ front of jersey sponsor, Altrad, has also come with legal dramas.
The French building services conglomerate’s owner, Mo Altrad, is on a suspended prison sentence for bribery and corruption charges relating to a deal he did to win the rights to the front of the French jersey.
McCaw’s role is to ensure that commercial initiatives don’t negatively impact the team – to help his fellow board members understand how a desire to make money can get in the way of the team’s performance and how certain associations can cause internal ructions with players.
17: Katelyn Vaha’akolo – Black Fern (new entry)
The 24-year-old Black Fern has shown herself to be an incredible athlete, having starred in league, sevens and rugby.
Katelyn Vaha’akolo comes with a humility and vulnerability which makes female rugby players so compelling to their audience and to potential commercial backers.
She already has a sizeable following on social media, one that she is prepared to mobilise, as she recently showed with a post in which she tried to boost the number of people coming to Super Rugby Aupiki games.
“I don’t really feel like it’s a job for me to have go and promote our game, but I want especially young girls to be able to experience what it’s like to be at a live game because it’s exciting to watch and it’s fun to be a part of,” she wrote.
“If you look at the crowds at our Aupiki games – there’s no crowds because not many people come, lol. Any support we receive helps grow our game and the future of women’s rugby. So, if you are able, please come to a game, promote it on socials or invite your fam/friends. I will volunteer to visit any school, rugby training or sports team in Auckland if you can bring your team, club or family to a game.
“It doesn’t even have to be a Blues game, just go to an Aupiki one! If you do, message me and we can organise something.”
A powerful runner with fast feet and good instincts, she will not only be a critical player for the Black Ferns at this year’s World Cup, but she has the sort of engaging profile that could light up the tournament and win admirers all over the world.
16: Jason Ryan – All Blacks assistant coach (17)
In New Zealand, there has been a strong push to speed the game up – to return it to being more aerobic than anaerobic and lose the obsession with power players.
But in Europe and South Africa, they are working a different angle entirely where they believe the game can double down on its raw power and yet still produce aerobic contests.
South Africa’s strategy of putting seven forwards on their bench was used throughout the Six Nations by the French and both teams are showing that total domination of the set-piece and tackled-ball area is the best way to control a test.
Far from restricting the attacking options, picking 14 forwards in a match-day 23 is proving a way for France and South Africa to increase their attacking repertoire.
And herein lies the challenge for Jason Ryan in his fourth year as All Blacks forwards coach. He has to keep building a multi-faceted pack that can outpower the Boks and France in the scrums, match their physicality at the breakdown and yet do so with enough left in the tank to facilitate the continuity game New Zealand are trying to master.
Rugby’s greatest truism is that test matches are won and lost in the forwards, but the game has now gone next-level in this regard – anyone who takes on France or the Springboks without a depth of power athletes and the ability to maintain their set-piece grunt for 80 minutes has no chance of beating them.
15: Simon Paterson – managing director Silver Lake (22)
Simon Paterson, alongside his Silver Lake colleague Stephen Evans, is one of the two directors the US fund manager has sitting on the NZRC board following its purchase of an equity stake in NZR last year.
When the Power List was first published in 2023, Paterson was written up as being a key figure in shaping NZR’s broadcast strategy, vetting its sponsorship partners and likely being a key voice in determining where and against whom the All Blacks play additional test matches.
But two years on and it is unclear what influence Paterson – and by extension Silver Lake – has had.
There has been a disastrous launch of a standalone streaming platform called NZR+, negotiations to improve the current broadcast deal have stalled and one key sponsor, Ineos, has pulled the plug early on its $21m-a-year deal.
Paterson has risen up the power list, primarily because the pressure has intensified on him to deliver tangible proof that Silver Lake can radically transform NZR’s revenue profile as was promised when the merits of the transaction were being sold to stakeholders.
14: Beauden Barrett – All Black (new entry)
When Beauden Barrett returned to New Zealand in May last year after a sabbatical season with Toyota Verblitz in Japan, few were expecting him to have much impact with the All Blacks.
No one was entirely sure who All Blacks coach Scott Robertson was going to back as his preferred playmaker, but there certainly wasn’t any sense that it would be 33-year-old Barrett.
But here we are one year on, and Barrett has not only retaken possession of the All Blacks No 10 jersey, he’s installed himself as the favourite to keep it through to 2027.
What was learned last year is that Barrett still has all the right skillsets, energy, desire and physical qualities to lead the All Blacks backline.
More than that, he established with his calm head, tactical control and dedication to look after himself that New Zealand are not the same team without him.
It’s this simple – the All Blacks can reclaim the No 1 spot and win the 2027 World Cup with Barrett, but probably not without him.
13: Chris Lendrum – NZR general manager professional rugby (3)
Chris Lendrum is NZR’s point of contact with the elite playing group and the man responsible for leading negotiations to keep the best players in the country.
In a tough world of ever-changing market conditions where the Japanese clubs have grown more powerful and players’ career plans have become more complicated, Lendrum has done an outstanding job in ensuring New Zealand has access to a talent pool that is as good as any in the world.
He’s been a largely flexible thinker in how he’s approached contract talks and the likes of Beauden Barrett, Ardie Savea and Jordie Barrett have been persuaded to give their best years to New Zealand on Lendrum’s watch.
Lendrum has also been influential in drawing up New Zealand’s All Blacks eligibility policy and continues to be the strongest advocate for retaining it at its current settings.
Whether he will hold that position beyond the current World Cup cycle is the critical question, as the power of Japanese clubs to lure the best players from New Zealand is going to become almost irresistible, and the usual carrot of offering the best and longest-serving talent a one-season sabbatical offshore may no longer be enough to keep them all here.
12: Simon Porter – Halo chief executive (15)
New Zealand’s ability to succeed on the world stage remains inextricably linked to its ability to retain the best players and coaches.
And this task has not been made any easier by NZR’s insistence that its current All Blacks eligibility rules are fit for purpose and right for the game in New Zealand.
To successfully navigate this landscape, players need expert advice from people who know global labour markets and who have strong and high-trust relationships with NZR.
This is where Simon Porter has proven himself to be so valuable. He has administered strategic and nuanced career advice that has been instrumental to keeping some of the country’s best players – Dan Carter, Richie McCaw, Kieran Read, Beauden Barrett, Sam Whitelock and Aaron Smith – in New Zealand for most of their careers.
There is an alternative universe where these players weren’t as well-managed or as well-advised and left New Zealand in their mid-20s without building enduring legacies as All Blacks.
And in this universe, the All Blacks are sitting on a 60% win ratio.
11: Mark Robinson – NZR chief executive (10)
There was a time, maybe even less than a decade ago, when the chief executive of NZR would automatically be considered the ultimate powerbroker in the domestic game.
But the landscape has changed so dramatically with the arrival of private-equity investor Silver Lake, the creation of NZRC and the Super Rugby commission and the rise and rise of the New Zealand Rugby Players’ Association (NZRPA).
All of this has seen the role of NZR CEO diminish in its influence, as Mark Robinson must be one of the few if only leaders of an organisation of comparable size to not be directly responsible for growing revenue.
He’s also been depowered further by the decision of the new board to replace him as one of the country’s three World Rugby representatives.
Such has been the speed and impact of change in recent years that the question is being asked internally at NZR about whether a restructure is needed to take the running of NZRC in-house, and what the role of NZR chief executive should look like.
Change, it seems, is coming but that said, Robinson remains an influential figure in driving the union’s overall strategy, overseeing long-term projects such as the competitions and pathways review, managing stakeholders and maintaining strong international relationships.
He’s also heavily involved in the current broadcast negotiation, as well as the decision to take Ineos to court in search of a compensation payment.
10: Len Blavatnik – owner of DAZN (new entry)
The brand name DAZN – pronounced da-zone – is not one with which Kiwi consumers are overly familiar. Yet.
That could all change because the British-based streaming platform is making a bold and definitive play to become Australasia’s premium sports broadcast channel.
DAZN is in the throes of buying Australian broadcaster Foxtel and is also deep in negotiation to buy the media rights to NZR’s content portfolio.
If it can pull off the latter, then the whole broadcast landscape for rugby will change.
And the question of whether it can succeed is where Len Blavatnik comes in.
Blavatnik was born in Ukraine, brought up in the Soviet Union and is now a citizen of both the UK and the USA.
He is estimated to have personal wealth of around US$29 billion ($50b), having first made his fortune in aluminium and oil when the Soviet Union collapsed.
But Blavatnik has shown himself to be a skilled entrepreneur. Having bought and revived Warner Music Group, he is now building DAZN into a serious and viable broadcast platform.
He’s bankrolled DAZN’s growth to date, but the company recently took investment from the Saudi Arabia sovereign wealth fund and there is no doubt that the cash reserves are there to offer NZR a deal that it can’t turn down.
The Herald understands that incumbent rights holder Sky has offered NZR about $85m a year to renew – a figure DAZN has the financial grunt to match or better if it decides that the All Blacks are a property that can add significant value to its business.
9: Hannah Porter – NZR head of women’s high-performance (new entry)
Women’s rugby remains rugby’s great and only growth story, but questions are also mounting about whether that can be sustained and whether New Zealand capitalised on the feel-good factor that swept the nation after the Black Ferns won the 2022 World Cup at Eden Park in front of a record crowd.
The potential for the women’s game to grow is enormous and if it is resourced correctly – and the right pathways are built, the right competition structures embedded and the right fixtures organised – it could also become commercially lucrative.
Hence, Hannah Porter, the former Black Fern, has a critical role to play in laying the foundations for the women’s game to thrive in New Zealand.
Her challenge, however, won’t be to just build the right high-performance pathways and environments for elite female players, it will be to become a voice that can’t be ignored internally within NZR.
For all the talk of investing in women’s rugby and the excitement that brewed three years ago, there remains a sense that not much has changed.
Super Rugby Aupiki has not bloomed into a bigger and more compelling competition and commercial sponsors have not flooded in for the Black Ferns – and while the Black Ferns Sevens have been the most successful team in black for the last six years, there is still no recognised pathway for players to follow or even a domestic sevens tournament for them to play in.
When the Herald last produced the Power List, NZR had just created a new position of head of rugby for women. But the incumbent, Clare Beard, was gone six months after starting.
Beard’s words to the Herald when she came into the job remain as true now as when she spoke them two years ago.
“It is a complex change-management process,” she said of growing women’s rugby.
“The player base, the commercialisation of the game, the growth of the fan base, the people at the board table, keeping girls safe in rugby with age-appropriate talent programmes – you can see the complexity and the inter-dependency of all these things that need to be done.
“Over 75% of our player pool are under 18. How do we move more of those girls safely and effectively into having an awesome experience into the senior rugby framework?”
8: Ian Narev – NZRC chair (5)
NZRC has been operating without a chief executive since November last year after Craig Fenton left by mutual consent, amid concerns he was not taking the business in the direction the board wanted.
It was a big play by the NZRC board, which is led by Seek chief executive Ian Narev, to part company with Fenton, having picked him only 10 months earlier from a strong field of candidates for the role.
The decision to part ways with Fenton also came at a time when NZRC was deep in negotiation with Sky about renewing broadcast rights for another five years and at a time when All Blacks sponsor Ineos was making it clear it wanted out of the six-year deal it had signed.
The long-term future of NZRC is no longer clear as it was set up specifically to enable the Silver Lake transaction – the US firm couldn’t buy into an incorporated society – and there is talk that it may be folded into NZR.
But until that happens, Narev remains a hugely influential figure in providing oversight to the key commercial decisions and driving home a broadcast agreement that at least brings in as much revenue as the existing deal.
7: Scott Barrett – All Black (26)
Scott Barrett made the Power List in 2023 on account of the probability he was going to be named All Blacks captain after the World Cup.
Now that he has taken on that role, he’s become a real rather than potentially influential figure as he faces an enormous task in leading an All Blacks side who struggled to find their way in 2024.
Everything about the team was new last year – the coaching group, the management, the style of rugby and many of the players.
Nothing quite gelled though and by the end of the year it was hard to tell what the team was all about.
Their rugby lacked authority and definition, the culture was hard to determine as there were off-field incidents that went unpunished and TJ Perenara was able to sidestep the senior leadership group into politicising the haka.
The best All Blacks teams have had talismanic captains, undisputed giants of the game who have imposed their will and personality on their teammates – not necessarily by what they say but by how they train, how they play and how they conduct themselves.
Barrett, one year wiser, has the power to shape this All Blacks team into one that can win under pressure, just as he did when he was captain of the Crusaders.
He’s not charismatic or ebullient, but he can build the brand and influence of the All Blacks on the world stage, by being a strong, commanding presence on the field.
6: Sophie Moloney – Sky chief executive (6)
In December last year, Sky looked to have all but secured the rugby broadcast rights for another five years.
The pay-TV operator – which has been the only host broadcaster New Zealand has known in the professional age – was supposedly about to pull off a deal its shareholders would have loved. Sky was about to win the rights again at a near $26m per annum discount on what it currently pays.
The savings of around $130m over the lifetime of the contract, and the reduced production costs of cutting some content such as the Farah Palmer Cup, would have transformed Sky’s balance sheet.
But as the Herald has been reporting, the deal Sky thought it had in the bag is slipping away as NZR doesn’t like the $85m price tag being offered and is now deep in discussions with British-based broadcaster DAZN and TVNZ.
Sophie Moloney now finds herself between a board of directors that wants Sky to win the rights, but not at any price, and an NZR board of directors that is actively and aggressively pursuing other broadcasters in pursuit of a better financial offer.
Can Moloney find a way to adapt Sky’s offer to appease NZR and yet retain the confidence of her board and shareholders?
It’s not hyperbolic to suggest Sky’s future as a viable media player now rests entirely on Moloney’s shoulders. Few analysts would see Sky as having any kind of growth prospects should it not win the rugby rights.
But Moloney can also determine what rugby’s future will look like from a consumer’s perspective.
Sky’s chairman Philip Bowman recently told Media Insider: “Increasingly, people are recognising that the consumer is getting fairly irritated by the fragmentation of sports rights, the fact you have to subscribe here, and here, and here.
“The concept of bundling suddenly looks rather more attractive than it did before. It’s interesting if you look at the viewership figures for many of the sports codes that have gone direct in certain markets – it has not been what it was cracked up to be by a long way.”
5: Melodie Robinson – head of TVNZ sport (20)
Tracking the fortunes of TVNZ as it attempts to become a serious player in the sports broadcast market has, in the last two years, been exceptionally difficult.
The Government-owned entity inherited cricket rights from the now-defunct Spark Sport, then lost the cricket rights and was also forced into making $30m of cost savings last year as revenue plummeted amid the recession.
But against the odds, TVNZ has somehow found itself at the heart of NZR’s current broadcast rights negotiation and seems likely, no matter which pay channel wins the bulk of the content, to pick up significant rugby inventory.
As a sign of how close TVNZ thinks it might be to winning some rugby rights, it was recently revealed that Melodie Robinson is now reporting directly to interim chief news and content officer Brent McAnulty.
Robinson is a hugely respected figure within domestic and international rugby circles. As a former Black Fern, she has played at the highest level and she now sits on various committees at World Rugby level.
She is the trump card in the TVNZ negotiating team as her presence provides NZR with confidence about how their product would be treated by the Government-owned broadcaster.
The bottom line is that NZR would trust Robinson to put rugby back into every living room in New Zealand.
NZR not only wants greater exposure through a free-to-air agreement, it wants refreshed content and new ways to package the game outside of live broadcasts to grow engagement.
Robinson could be given a free reign to use her background as an elite player, trusted journalist and now skilled executive to reimagine how rugby is presented to consumers.
4: Ardie Savea – All Black (14)
Ardie Savea missed out on the All Blacks captaincy last year, but he remains the highest profile – and most influential – player in the country.
On the domestic front, Savea’s shift from the Hurricanes to Moana Pasifika may have changed the career aspirations of a whole generation of young men with Pasifika heritage.
There has been no bigger or better endorsement for Moana than the signing of Savea – and in time, history may come to show that his decision to join may have saved the club.
Moana CEO Debbie Sorenson said recently of Savea: “We understand what a gift he’s brought to the franchise, we’re incredibly grateful for that.
“We’re learning so much from him, every day. It’s not only his ability as the world’s best rugby player, it’s the way he conducts himself personally. He’s authentic with his values, he’s in an environment where he’s able to practise those.
“For some of those young men to see that role-modelled, to say ‘you can bring everything to work every day, this is what excellence looks like, and you can be like this’ is exciting.
“The Ardie effect is strong and alive inside the club. We’re incredibly grateful he’s made that choice.”
But Savea is also a huge part of brand All Blacks – the one player who consistently remains internationally recognised and revered. When the All Blacks played in Turin last year, the locals all wanted to take selfies with Savea.
He’s a world-class athlete who plays with a rare combination of power, pace and precision, while off the field he’s changed perceptions of All Blacks having to adhere to what many may feel is an image of toxic masculinity.
He’s a fashion ambassador, a father, an advocate for men’s health – both mental and physical – and the sort of player who could inspire literally thousands of people to play rugby.
3: Rob Nichol – head of NZRPA (1)
Rob Nichol has dropped two places in the power list since it was first published in 2023, but he remains a massively influential figure in the game.
It was Nichol who advocated and successfully persuaded NZR to conduct an independent review of its governance structure last year.
It was Nichol who then worked behind the scenes to persuade the various stakeholders to adopt and implement the findings of the review.
And it was Nichol who fought all the way to the High Court to try to stop NZR taking another $60m of Silver Lake funding at the end of 2023.
There is no doubt that some observers and analysts believe Nichol has become too powerful and that New Zealand’s professional players are paid too much and able to have too much say in too many matters.
But the counter-argument is that New Zealand’s financial ecosystem needs a successful All Blacks team and it needs a professional cohort that is content, well-looked-after, well-paid and willing to commit long-term to stay here.
Nichol’s advocacy and smart negotiating has created an environment that players like and his role in helping New Zealand retain talent can’t be overstated.
2: Scott Robertson – All Blacks coach (12)
Last year was supposed to be the start of the great All Blacks rebuild. A team that had seen its win ratio drop from 88% between 2012 and 2019 to not quite 70% between 2020 and 2023 was going to be redirected and reimagined under what was being sold as the innovative and maybe even unorthodox leadership of Scott Robertson.
The sales pitch that came out of NZR HQ was that Robertson, or Razor as he is universally known, was going to deliver not only a new and magical brand of rugby but also change entirely the way the team interacted with the public.
What New Zealanders were asked to believe was that the Robertson regime would look nothing like that of his predecessor, Ian Foster. It was believed the All Blacks would start winning again at the same rate the public had come to expect, and the appeal of the brand would grow internationally to pave the way for bigger and better commercial deals to be signed.
But one year on and the jury remains out on whether Robertson is the revolutionary he was advertised as being – and the All Blacks look much the same on his watch as they did on Foster’s.
The All Blacks lost four tests in 2024 (for a winning ratio of just over 71%) and never established their identity or gave a clear sense of what they were all about.
The public remains unsure about the national team. It is still well-supported, but there remains a sense Robertson hasn’t won the hearts and minds of everyone.
He hasn’t sold the country on his vision or given them reason to be excited, and if the All Blacks are going to fully reconnect with their domestic fans and find the millions of new ones that the commercial thesis is predicated upon, then this is the year Robertson has to establish himself as a visionary leader.
1: David Kirk – chair of New Zealand Rugby (21)
The 1987 Rugby World Cup-winning captain of the All Blacks has become the most influential figure in New Zealand rugby by agreeing to jump ship late from the NZRPA to NZR.
It was a game-changing move because for 20 years David Kirk had been the chair of the NZRPA, building it into a powerful and important body that has done an incredible job of looking after the professional players. Also, famously, the NZRPA protected the game from signing what would have been a catastrophic initial private-equity deal with Silver Lake.
And it was partly the fraught way that the Silver Lake proposal was handled which gave Kirk a first-hand glimpse of what he and the NZRPA believed was a dysfunctional NZR governance structure.
The NZRPA pushed for NZR to commission an independent review of its governance structure and when that process finally yielded a new system to appoint board directors, Kirk was willing to put his name forward as a candidate.
He now finds himself as the chair of a new board that has been put in place with a mandate from stakeholders to drive strong, dramatic and positive change.
NZR has posted significant financial losses in the last three years; it has lost a key All Blacks sponsor in Ineos, is in the midst of a protracted negotiation to secure an improved broadcast deal for 2026, and has seen little to no revenue growth since Silver Lake came on as an equity partner in 2022, promising to deliver transformational income streams.
In the past five years, the All Blacks have seen their win ratio drop from around 87% to 70% and Kirk and the new board have been tasked by stakeholders to start a major rebuild. They must bring financial sustainability, improved relationships between all stakeholders and a more powerful and aligned mission statement as to what rugby’s role is within New Zealand. They also need to rebuild a sense of unity and excitement about where the sport is going.
