11 Years Running All Blacks Rugby: Protests, Earthquakes And 6 World Cups

Steve Tew was chief executive of New Zealand Rugby from 2008 to 2019, and ran the Crusaders and the Canterbury Rugby Union from 1996 to 2001. He is now Director of High Performance at High Performance Sport New Zealand.

This week, he joins the podcast to talk about a career that started with a box of files inherited from a volunteer and ended up running the organisation behind the All Blacks — and about the decisions in between that he still thinks about.

That includes protesting the 1981 Springbok tour while his own family sat on the other side of it, taking Rugby World Cup matches away from Christchurch after the February 2011 earthquake, backing a coach the media wanted gone, and the review that put New Zealand Rugby's own culture under outside scrutiny.

WHAT'S COVERED

How he ended up in sporting governanceThe 1981 Springbok tourWhy New Zealand Rugby apologised to players it never selectedThe February 2011 earthquake, and telling a city it had lost its World Cup matchesHow the Crusaders went from last to first in three seasonsAppointing Wayne Smith, and backing him when the results hadn't arrivedThe Respect and Responsibility ReviewWhat he looks for when he's assessing people for leadershipThe performance conversation he's never started too early

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