You're listening to a podcast from News Talks EDB. Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
This is Sportsfix Howard by News Talks EDB.
Here we go again, Welcome int to Sports Fix. It's a Tuesday. It's the eleventh of February twenty twenty five. My name is Darcy Walter Grave and this podcast is all you need to know about sport of a day, tied up and presented in a charming bundle. On this podcast will be joined by Gregor Paul First, the esteemed New Zealand Herald sports writer, specifically in the rugby space. Today in z Are announced they were taking a billionaire to court because he hasn't paid his bills and doesn't
want to carry on honoring his contract. Ins and outs and ups and downs, and we'll talk about that with Gregor. Shortly joining us in the chamber is Clay Wilson. He's News Talk zbb's sports director. We've got a couple of issues to buy off and chew about, which we will do and he wants some opinion you I got some of that for you. Last night came Williamson scored a ton devon Conway didn't quite. The victory was secured, but
it was a low strength South African side. How good are the black Caps looking ahead of the champions trophy? All that more still to come, so let's buckle in and do it.
In other news.
And in Sport today, black Caps bat Devon Conway's happy to be back in the runs after a lean patch. The left handed opener replaced the injured Ruchen Revenger in New Zealand's six wicket Tri Nations win of South Africa in Lahore. After scoring a fine ninety seven, Conway revealed he wasn't fussed about missing out on a century.
I wasn't too stressed, you know. At the end of the day.
For me, as long as we win the game, it's all that matters.
I'm not really one for milestones or anything like that.
So I'm just grateful that the boys got us across the line and was great to have a nice partnership with Cain.
At the other end, NZIDA has launched legal action against sponsor Anios full breach of contract. Rugby editor Elliott Smith.
Reports, London Telegraph reports, and he asks have failed to pay the first installment due this year to New Zealand Rugby at the halfway point of a six year deal to sponsor the teams in black, including the All Blacks. A statement released by INZIDA says they view the non payment as in theos exiting the six year agreement early
and if no option but to launch legal proceedings. The deal worth eight million dollars a year to INSIDA, leaving a big financial shortfall to phil at short notice, and the ass who cut ties with the British America's Cup Syndicate last month have not commented.
And finally, the Hurricanes have named four skippers for this season ahead Brad Shields, the Plessy Currefee, Billy Proctor and suffer Old Mooer. Coach Clark laid Law says it reflects the rotational selections expected through the campaign.
Suffers already as an example, isn't playing at the start of the season, so you're going to the three. So maybe feels a little bit different in practice, it's not actually that different to what we've done the last couple of years.
Needing a vex, We've got just the ticket. It's Sports Vex News Talks Ivy.
The Fects welcomes now to the podcast in New Zealand Herald A Rugby scribe Gregor Paul Gregor, Hi, hi Dar. I trust you're well and are looking at the current situation with Jim radclifor should I say Surgeon and the All Blacks with some interest. The story out today around an eight million dollar deal that's been renegged on and there is no money being paid for services already exchanged, already rendered. This is a Is this a scary situation for the All Blacks?
It's definitely not a good one. I don't know if it's scary. It's commercially important. Two things are commercially important here. One deal itself is reasonably significant for them. I think it's slightly closer to ten million a year that they're taking from Minios, which is not an insubstantial amount of money for them. And if they lose it, which they have, you know, that will need to be found somewhere else. So that's going to be challenge number one for them.
But really the much bigger.
Challenge here is protecting their reputation and putting a message out to the world that says, look, we can't have billionaires decide arbitrarily or unilaterally that they don't want to carry on with an existing deal for whatever reason, spurious at best, and we need to protect ourselves and we need to say that we won't be bullied, we won't be pushed around, and if you renege on a deal for no good reason, we're going to take you to court and we're going to let the law decide whether
you have the right to do that or not.
So in essence, this is posturing that they would like some form of result, because as you've seen, close on teen million dollars, that's quite the whole and dig their way out of. But it's very much a scene of saying, don't with us, and we're going to go through the law. This is a stance.
I think primarily, certainly initially it's a message to not only to any OS, but to any other future potential commercial partners that this is where things will end up if we do not abide by the contract and if we do not you know, live by the law. I mean, anyone knows once you once you go to court proceedings, you don't know what the outcomes are going to be.
In a case like that, they will argue, any us.
Will argue that whatever that you know, they were let down by the terms of the agreement, they'll say and said, oh I didn't fulfill them, and said I will say it did, and a court will try and determine, you know, who's right, who's wrong, and what the solution might be.
Now, that could take a long time.
That could rack up, you know, significant legal fees for the union with limited possibility of what they will get in return or what a settlement might look like with any of So you're going to weigh up the risk and the reward. You know what that might look like, and how long do you want this to carry on for,
you know, before you're willing to pull the pin. And you get the impression that when you're a billionaire and you've got sort of infinite debt to your pocket, you're probably going to gamble that an organization like nz R isn't going to want to have a prolonged, expensive legal battle with you because they can't afford to do that in the way that you can.
That's why I said, scary. We know that there's not a lot of cash on the ground for n z R. Should they engage. I suppose they can walk if it gets too expensive, But this could be long and pricey Yeah.
It could be.
And maybe what they're hoping is by filing the court action, by going public with it, maybe that will bring any ofsen Sir Jim to the table to say, look, okay, what would it take for this to come out of the courts?
Can we make a settlement here? What would you agree to?
You know, maybe they agree a full and final payment that says, okay, you don't want to be a partner anymore. How about you pay you eighteen months of the contract and we'll let you out the other eighteen months.
It's fifty fifty percent of what.
You as and we could we do a deal round about that sort of price point and leave it in a state that doesn't take both organizations time, effort, money and cause them reputational damage.
Gregor Paul joining us? Gregor, how long does it take to replace someone like Anios? They've got a three year deal, they haven't paid up for service has already been rendered by inz R. I'm talking about that in a minute. But how do they cover this? And how long does it take to get a Jersey sponsor? Because what they've got at to make them they've got altrad and they've got Anyos This is fairly rare territory, isn't it.
Well, both Ultrad and Inios were actually signed on sixty year deals in twenty They began in twenty twenty two. So look, it took the better part of two years to secure both of those partners. That's the sort of length of time it takes to run a global tender for deals with the size this magnitude roughly, that's how
long it was. So my understanding is that even though if you look at the front of Jersey Sponsor, which is all tried, even though that's in play until twenty twenty seven, end of that, they will begin the process now of putting that out to tender, because that's how long it will take to secure the next partner or or in you with I'll trad if that's what it is that they're going to do. So that's the sort of time frame that you'd be looking at.
So they'll be ond that now. I'm presuming that they know after they walked, after any I said now we're not doing this anymore, they would have put everything in motion.
Well, I think it depends only if you're talking about formal or informal. My understanding would be that there would be informal conversations going all the time with potential partners, because that's what they should be doing, the commercial guys sort of sounding out people not just about front of but this, that and the other.
So they will have a network of people that they've been talking to.
And look, yeah, I think from why I can gather, Inyos were signaling late last year that this was a possibility, that they that they were struggling with the partnership for whatever reason. I don't know the answer to that why, But I don't think that the letter that arrived at the end of January this year to formally announce that Inos reneging on the partnership came as a massive surprise to New Zealand Rugby, so that they've probably had a couple of months head start aware that this is where
it would probably end up. Whether that's any use to them or not a couple of months don't know, but at least now they've got clarity that they're definitely going to be without Aniols, and they've got a bit of clock ticking, which is never a bad thing when you're trying to do a deal. We've actually got some a real time frame now to move as quickly as you can to get something else on the table.
So will we see ineos on the shorts and the training gear this year? We have to wait to the court case finishes. How does that operate?
Do you know? No, they won't my understanding again, they won't appear.
So the invoice was sent to any else at the end of last year for the second half of what you were twenty five, So when were in second half of twenty four. That invoice was due on the first of January. That hasn't been paid, so you would now say their account is in arrears.
Within say it are. So there's two issues here.
One they haven't paid for services delivered that relate to twenty twenty four, and now they've cut the deal arbitrarily, you know, actually cut that three years ahead of its natural expiry date. So that's the second part of the legal challenge. So I guess if nothing else new, Zealand Rugby would expect that invoice that they filed late last year, they would expect that to be paid minimum, you know, as part of this action.
Next stop Riard. I say that were pung firmly in cheek, but you never know Gregor Paul. It is a pleasure. Thanks very much for your time.
Thank you.
This is Sportsfix, your daily does of sports news, how news talks.
On the face of it, there was a tremendous win overnight to the black Caps. But if you did slightly deeper, actually you don't even have to scratch the surface. Did it really mean anything?
No?
And that was the thought that went through my head at one in the morning, when I was still up watching it. What am I doing here? This is a tri series that means nothing except a bit of a warm up run. But I'm an addict when it comes to cricket and it was on, so I watched it until sense prevailed. There were some positives. Great to see Daddy Conway back in the runs again three short of
a tone, dare there was a massive partnership. Amazing to see Kine Williamson not only not chup seven thousand one Day International runs but chop himself yet enough the century watching O'Rourke scare everybody in sight, although the scariest thing for me was the way the subcontinental commentators chose to pronounce his name. Oh Rourke's not that hard, really, is it? And of course Tom Latham another duck. That's three in
a row. That was all so scary. In the wash up, the black Caps had a win, but they had a win against let's say it, substandard opposition. They had four debutants. One of those debutantes scored one hundred and fifty runs. That's the highest one danged national total on debut by anyone. We got smacked by a rookie and then when it comes to scoring the required runs, we got it done, but only just again against a team of rookies. So
what do we actually learn out of that game? Yep, we had the wherewifore to actually win, but really we should have smashed that. Let's see what happens in the final of the Try series and maybe we can glean slightly more out of cricket, which, for all intentsive purposes is pointless. But it's cricket, so you'll watch it anyway.
The chamber is now in session on Sportsfix.
Joining me in the chamber now is the Director of Sport. For news talks, there'd be mister Clay Wilson. Greetings to you, sir, Welcome into the cave.
Hello Darcy, thank you. Always a pleasure to dive in here.
Interesting story released today that we were I suppose flagged last week about four captains being named for the Hurricanes. Now, Co Captaincy was one that a lot of people struggled with. He's jumped the third and gone for four. Clarks made an interesting call here, where do you use it on this one?
I just said to you off here, and I have to say it while I'm here. A great line from one of our colleagues, Adam Koober this morning who wrote the story four Plumes of Smoke Hurricanes HQ, which I thought was a brilliant way to kind of first address this story. Yeah, four cokept I.
Told on what's he saying that? Basically that Wellington is the Vatican City. That's what he's saying. He's saying, this is God's team, is the Hurricanes.
That's fresh after all. I'm happy with that. You might have a few more disputes with that. I'm more than happy with that analogy. Yeah, like we've seen co Captaincy before. I'm thinking I've seen three, but I can't recall four.
And I think Clark Laidlawa is kind of well aware that how people are going to perceive this and has been it pains to explain that it's not how it appears, and there is solid logic behind it in terms of the players that they've got in their leadership group and that some of them might need to not necessarily be starting each week. So this way it gives them the ability to pick two co captains each week.
And players get broken, let's face it, and players get suspended, let's face it, and players get egged off because they're all blacks, let's face it. So it is quite You.
Understand the logic behind it as well as I do. But to me, I think, for you know, we're seeing a lot of kind of fan initiatives in Super Rugby on the back of the new commission coming in. We've seen the fantasy competition, a few other things happening, and I think for fans, fans want to know who the captain is and leadership groups are. Leadership groups are fine, all well and good, and every team nowadays is not going to have one leader, right, They're going to have three, four, five,
six leaders in a team. But just name one captain. That's for me, Just name one captain to.
Me quatering the disappointment when the Hurricanes get rolled in the final right, they've got to word each and their step down speech for the way that goes. And there's also the theory that everyone gets a certificate for participations. So next week the Islanders are going to say our whole team captains.
You know that, Oprah Winfrey meme, you get a you get a captain c umband and you get a captain's ben. And that's the first thing that came to my mind. Look like I say, I understand internally the logic. I just think wonder, I wonder if if it was me, whether I would say internally talk about it and have the system externally say so and so is our captain.
The fans need someone to blame someone, and someone like the one of the broadest shoulders. Let's get away from that. Let's get to a slightly more serious rugby story. We know that Sir Jim Ratcliffe, he's not broke. He's a billionaire. It takes a lot of time to run out of a billion dollars, right or a billion pounds. But he's decided to ah bother paying me all blacks. What's the point? Yeah, so they wore my jersey. It was last year. It doesn't matter. In fact, I don't want to play games anymore.
I'm out on gone, insid Ira gone, We'll see you in court. That's brave from enz Art because fighting a billionaire in court probably not the greatest man. But they had no choice, did they?
Yeah? And you say brave, and I tend to agree, and not necessarily from a from a financial standpoint, more from a time standpoint, because to me, a legal process like this, against a company like this, against a man like that who has so much money, this is a legal process that could drag on forever. But I guess they sort of left with no other option. You know, they may get if they win, they get their they get their money back, they get you know, all their
legal costs paid for. But how long does that process take?
Said?
Yeah? Like I said, I suppose they had no other option, did they? I mean, how else could insid Are have approached this?
Do you think rolled over and said, we're really sorry, would you like some more and feed them back money? You see, Jim is, you know, plainly an upset man. He's got us problems with this America's Cup team. That's what it is. He's got as proverbials in a Tangleester United, they well, I know if we won't even go to that, you're worse than the Glazers. What all that was from
the fan base? And who took it over? Nazi America's Cup team New Zealand beat him, and he's just packing a hisssy foot because his money got speed and got sunk off the coast of Spain. So he's like, that's it. Oh, it's a lively theory. I could get funny anything at the moment, you know, anything to do that. But they are in a situation where as Gregor Paul pointed out to us at the start of the program, they can't
do nothing. They have to be seen to do something they otherwise everybody is going to go ah.
And eight million dollars to Sir Jim Ratcliffe is a lot different than eight million dollars to New Zealand Rugby. That's a lot of money. We know about the financial situation the game in this country has been in in recent years and is still in. That's not an insignificant
amount of money. And this is money that goes into all the New Zealand, the teams in black, as they say, the all Blacks, black Ferns, the seven Sides, the junior teams, I would assume, So what gets what gets kind of crossed off the wish list for this year at least because you don't you think you're not going to see that money for even if you do win in court. How does that affect the All Blacks? How does it affect the Black fans, the sevens teams do?
How does it to support staff, the hotels in first class air tickets off to conferences on the other side of.
The world for the fish heir, Well, these are the questions we wanted to ask New Zealand Rugby answer. They've put out a quite a strongly wirded statement, but you know, as they is there will sometimes have decided not to put anyone up to talk about it. But that's the first question that came to my mind, And yeah, where where does where does the where does that kind of that money get cut off the wish list for twenty twenty five at least because yeah, likes going to play.
I'm more interested in what happened between Jim and the All Blacks, why he actually pulled in the first place. You sign something up goodwill, it promotes your petrol chemical company, so they knew what they were doing it, but to walk away not pay it seems.
It's very odd. It seems like with everything that's going on with Sir Jim Ratcliffe with the America's Cup thing, like you say, his involvement now with Manchester United, there's got to be some other factor at play here with that company, with himself to make them because it's it's too much of a coincidence for the America's Cup and New Zealand rugby thing to happen around the same time
and then withdraw from those deals. So who knows. Maybe maybe down the track we're going to find out, but for now it's a bit of a mystery as to why they would do this at all.
Tell im, I'm pointed out to him and Jimmy spent all this money and you just got your name across the ass of the All Blacks. Maybe finally he worked out how silly he looked at me.
That's it.
I'm out, I'm gone, and on that you're out, You're gone. Clay Wilson, Director of Sport for News Talk CB, thanks very much for.
Your time, no worries thanks to us.
Dissecting the sporting agenda.
It's Sports Fix with Jason fine and Darcy Waldgrave.
The habit Sports Fixed for another that day being Tuesday, the eleventh of Fab twenty twenty five. I'm Darcy walder Grave. Thanks very much for listening. If you've enjoyed it, please subscribe and that means this will turn up in your inbox Monday through Friday at around about the same time. If you really liked it, tell your friends, tell your
family and get them to subscribe as well. And if you want some interact with sports talk, well, you can get that on Sports Talk seven to eight Monday to Friday on News Talk ZB with Jason Pine or myself, and it's all about weekend sport. Well, Jason's got that show. Weekend Sport is from twelve to three Saturday and Sunday on News Talk ZB. I hope you've enjoyed the Fix and we'll look forward to catching up with all the sport again tomorrow.
For more from News Talk zed B, listen live on air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you go with our podcast on iHeartRadio.