IRB chief says All Blacks are ‘replaceable’ if they opt to boycott RWC

Mike Miller, the IRB chief executive, yesterday responded to a threat by New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive Steve Tew last week to boycott the 2015 World Cup if sending the All Blacks continued to be a loss-making event. “Does the World Cup need the All Blacks? It would be good for the All Blacks to be there,” Miller said.

When asked again, Miller said: “Everyone is replaceable.”

All Blacks assistant coach Wayne Smith said he couldn’t imagine a World Cup without them. “You’ve just got to see what rugby means in this country to think of it as inconceivable,” he said. “But I haven’t thought a lot about it.”

Winger Richard Kahui added: “You can’t have a World Cup without the All Blacks, without any of the top nations. They’ve all got to be there just to make it a legitimate World Cup.” Tew started the controversial debate last week when he said the NZRU was losing millions of dollars under the IRB’s financial structure for the World Cup, and may consider not sending the All Blacks, rugby’s biggest drawcard and top-ranked team, to the 2015 World Cup if the IRB did not change its model. The NZRU is losing $10 million at this World Cup, Tew said, because it couldn’t involve its sponsors and played fewer Tri-Nations matches. Miller said the timing of Tew’s comments, while New Zealand was hosting a successful World Cup, was “not brilliant”.

Miller added Tew was also aware of the IRB’s financial rules as a long-standing member of the IRB council which decides where the money goes.

“Of course, he doesn’t talk about the $12 million that the NZRU gets from the IRB over the four-year cycle,” Miller said. “We know what the issues are, which is why we had a conference on the economics of the game earlier this year, which Steve Tew was at.”