{"id":494690,"date":"2026-06-25T10:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T10:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/494690\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T10:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T10:29:11","slug":"change-continues-at-the-top-of-new-zealand-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/494690\/","title":{"rendered":"Change continues at the top of New Zealand Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Executive reform continues at New Zealand Rugby with the appointment of former Chiefs prop Michael Collins as chief rugby officer.<\/p>\n

Collins has held chief executive positions at Taranaki Rugby Union and at Super Rugby side, the Chiefs. He is currently at Bond University on Australia’s Gold Coast where he is the current director of sport.<\/p>\n

He played 82 games for the Chiefs, including a season as captain and played for Waikato in the NPC.<\/p>\n

New Zealand Rugby said Collins will “lead NZR’s professional rugby operations, tournaments and competitions, community rugby, and management of key stakeholder relationships and agreements across the game”.<\/p>\n

Collins is set to work closely with incoming high performance director Don Tricker, who doesn’t officially start until November, but was responsible for the recent signing Tony Brown as an All Blacks assistant coach from 2028.<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

Michael Collins in action for the Chiefs in 1998.<\/p>\n

photosport<\/p>\n

The NZR executive team has undergone plenty of change after a governance reform plan was agreed to by stakeholders in 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This came following an independent review into NZR’s governance in 2023<\/a> that found the model at the time “wasn’t fit for purpose”.<\/p>\n

The governance battle was divisive, with the Players Association (NZRPA) at one point threatening to quit New Zealand Rugby and form a new body to run the professional game if a proposal put forward by a group of provincial unions was adopted.<\/p>\n

Eventually stakeholders came to a compromise and the NZR board collectively stepped down in late 2024 so that a fully independent board could be selected.<\/p>\n

The board is now chaired by David Kirk, who has led the change at executive<\/a> and high performance level, including Tricker’s appointment.<\/p>\n

Chris Kinraid and Chris Brown were appointed as chief financial officer and chief commercial officer respectively last month.<\/p>\n

NZR is currently in the final stages of recruitment for an executive-level Kaihaut\u016b M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n

New Zealand Rugby chief executive Steve Lancaster said Collins has a vision that that aligns with the governing body’s strategies.<\/p>\n

“This is a critical role for NZR and Mike will lead a connected New Zealand rugby system which maintains a thriving community game and connects the structures that support our professional environments. It’s a broad and significant remit, one we know that Mike is committed to and well-equipped to advance.”<\/p>\n

Collins will start as chief rugby officer in September.<\/p>\n

“It is an honour to be given this opportunity and it’s a role I don’t take lightly,” Collins said.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been lucky enough to see this game from a lot of different angles – as a player in the amateur and professional eras, in game development, in high performance, and leadership positions.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Executive reform continues at New Zealand Rugby with the appointment of former Chiefs prop Michael Collins as chief…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-494690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}