Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: TJ Perenara's left problems behind for the All Blacks

So, it looks like the rugby bosses may have already realised how big a mistake they made with that haka, because we've now learned they've cut TJ Perenara's political bit in the version they've uploaded to their social media accounts.

And if they've done this because they realise they’ve made a mistake, they’re right.

Big mistake from the All Blacks, big mistake from Scott Robertson to say yes to TJ when he said he was going to do this.

Let's just clears something up first - TJ is entitled, like we all are, to have a political opinion. No one will be surprised that he supported the hīkoi, because we know where he stands on things. He's already supported the Ihumātao and supported the Wellington women's team when they did their anti-Government haka.

This is not a TJ problem, this is an All Blacks problem.

Because the All Blacks are not in position where they can afford to lose fans and viewers, especially when so many of us are already talking about how much more we prefer watching the Warriors.

The problem the All Blacks have got is that their most rusted-on viewers would be heartland New Zealand. Farmers, people from rural communities, old blokes who feel loyal to the game. And I reckon quite a few them would disagree with TJ on whether to support the hīkoi or not.

And given how intense this Treaty Principles Bill and hīkoi debate is, I reckon a few of them will feel quite annoyed at TJ presuming that he represents the views of the whole country with that haka, because he doesn't. 

He might find, based on the most recent polling, that almost twice as many Kiwis like Seymour's Treaty Principles Bill and therefore not the hīkoi.

So for TJ, well-known anti-meat, anti-Government chap - there's no problem at all as he heads off on a new career.

But for NZ Rugby fighting to retain its audience and Scott Robertson fighting to prove himself as the team's new coach - big mistake.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So it looks like the rugby bosses may have already
realized how big a mistake they made with that Haukker,
because we've now learned that they've cut the political bit
that TJ Petanada did. They've cut that out of the
version of the Hauker that they've uploaded to their social
media accounts. So if you went onto their Instill, Twitter
or whatever, you wouldn't even know necessarily that he'd done that.
And if they have done that because they realized that

(00:21):
they made a mistake to say yes to it, they
are right. Big mistake from the All Blacks, big mistake
from Scott Robertson personally saying yes to TJ when TJ
said he was going to do this. Now, before we
get into why I think it's a big mistake, let's
just clear something up first. TJ is entitled, like we
all are, to have a political opinion, and I don't
think anybody's going to be surprised that he would come

(00:42):
down with this particular political opinion right, that he would
be in support of the hikoy because we know where
he stands on things. I mean, he's already publicly supported
Igumato and he's publicly supported the Wellington women's team when
they did their anti government hucker. So what a surprise. Okay,
this is not a TJ problem. This is an All
Blacks problem, because the All Blacks are not in a
position where they can afford to lose fans and viewers

(01:03):
and piss people off, especially when so many of us
are already talking about how much we prefer watching the
Warriors at the moment to watching rugby union. The problem
that the All Blacks have got in particular here is
that I reckon that they're most rusted on the viewers
would be Heartland, New Zealand. So we're talking about farms,
rural communities, old blokes who feel really loyal to the game.

(01:27):
And I reckon quite a few of those rusted on
viewers I just described to you would actually disagree with
TJ as to whether or not they support the he
coy And given how intense this Treaty Principles and Hecoy
debate is, I reckon quite a few of them might
just feel kind of a bit annoyed with him that
he's presumed that he represents the views of the whole
country with that hakka, because he doesn't. And this may

(01:50):
be a surprise to TJR. I don't know, but if
he goes and has a look at the most recent polling,
he will find that almost twice as many key we
actually like Seymour's principles I do as oppose it. So
the support that the Hikoy has is probably a lot
less than the support that David Seymour has based on
that polling anyway, So for tj well known anti meat,

(02:12):
anti government chap, no problem at all with what he's done,
right because he's heading off on a new career and
his water off a ducks back and who cares. He's
made a statement and we're all talking about him. He's
probably stoked about that. For New Zealand Rugby though, fighting
to retain its audience, and for Scott Robertson, fighting to
prove himself as the new All Blacks coach, Big Mistake.

(02:32):
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