But that's all changed.

Yeah.

Look, I think it's just the environment, you know, like Rich Barney come from, where did he come from? I think it was, was it Newcastle? Newcastle.

Yeah, he come from Newcastle.

And he didn't have a good way, had a good attitude, but not the attitude he has today.

And he's grown so much in our club, being around Webby and being around the coaching crew.

And he's grown so much now to be an origin player at 30 years old and now being a leader.

Anything that you've done in your time there, any regrets at all?

So are you banning someone from being an All Black if they've played in the league, like while they're playing in the league, or if they've ever played in the league?

Look, no, this is not a change to anything we've done historically.

Our eligibility criteria remain exactly the same.

So we obviously select players out of our own domestic competitions, and if players choose to play their club rugby overseas, then they're not eligible for the Olympics.

Right, so this is the same as going to play for Japan? Yeah, it is.

I mean, the reason, I guess there's a bit of wider context here around joining as a signatory to the statement put out from national unions overnight.

It doesn't change our policy in this space at all, but why we joined the list was basically to signal some concerns and questions about the R360 competition and to put out a unified position from national unions.

can you explain to me why? Why is World Rugby, these rugby unions band together to take such a hard line on the Saudi-backed league?

Japan?

Yeah, it is.

I mean, the reason, I guess there's a bit of wider context here around joining as a signatory to the statement put out from national unions overnight.

It doesn't change our policy in this space at all, but why we joined the list was basically to signal some concerns and questions about the R360 competition and to put out a unified position from national unions.

A lot of those national unions haven't been... or aren't always as clear or public as we are because of the scrutiny that sits in New Zealand about this policy.

So they wanted to make sure eligibility was clear from their perspective.

can you explain to me why? Why is World Rugby, these rugby unions band together to take such a hard line on the Saudi-backed league?

Well, it's not a...

This is going to create, I won't say angst, but pretty stern competition in that first up super season of the year of the World Cup, isn't it?

Yeah, I mean, it's what fans want, isn't it? They want to see the best playing the best.

And we've got a lot of depth and talent coming through.

We saw that in Super Rugby this year.

We know that fans love seeing these very elite players and the emerging stars come through and compete against each other.

All the storylines you just talked to, all the speculation about Super Some of those possibilities are all what following Super Rugby is all about and then the anticipation of the All Blacks.

So it's fantastic for our environments.

Stephen wouldn't be aware of this, but we had a fantastic

What were the other most challenging parts of the role for you?

Oh, look, any time where we're working through COVID, significant change processes or doing things which were a departure from the way they'd been done historically and clearly taking an investment from an investment partner to invest in the future of fans both domestically and globally, and that's what the Silver Lake investment was about, really.

It was about creating opportunities to create differently and in a better way with fans.

That was certainly challenging.

Any change process, as I said, is, but certainly something that was that different was.

We worked through changes around the All Blacks, and we were very clear in our decision-making that preserving the best interests of the team and taking a team approach and getting the best performance out of them was where we had our major focus.

So we made some calls there, which we absolutely stand by.

What are you proudest of?

This is a sad day, a great loss for the community.

Yeah, I mean... covered it well, Darcy.

We're obviously incredibly sad to learn of this news earlier today.

He had a massive impact across the game at many, many levels.

He's obviously deeply respected in the North Harbour region where he's been connected to the game for a very long time and had an amazing tenure with New Zealand Rugby and the All Blacks where he looked after you know, a whole generation of players and served the team with sort of massive distinction.

So, yeah, he'll be sadly missed.

He's gone on, you know, since that time, you know, over 15 years with the All Blacks and then on to, you know, different sports.

He wasn't just sitting there watching.