‘Personal circumstances’ a key factor in NZ Rugby’s short-term release of Chiefs star Shaun Stevenson

Wednesday, 15 January 2025

New Zealand Rugby have revealed “personal circumstances” played a key part in their decision to grant Chiefs star Shaun Stevenson a unique short-term release to play offshore.

The 28-year-old one-test All Black jetted out on Tuesday to link up with the Kubota Spears for a brief stint in the Japan Rugby League One competition before he arrives back for Super Rugby Pacific action from round four.

Stevenson had been requesting a release from the final year of his NZR contract after Kubota came knocking with a lucrative offer when Wales veteran Liam Williams made a surprise exit due to a desire to return to the UK to be closer to family ahead of the birth of his first child.

It made for a tricky call for NZR, who wouldn’t have wanted to stand in the way of a player who clearly saw his future elsewhere, having fallen out of the All Blacks frame in 2024, but at the same time wouldn’t have wanted to compromise the integrity of a contract they already had in place, along with losing a marquee player of a Super Rugby competition they are a 50% owner of.

In the end, they came to something of a middle-ground decision, allowing Stevenson to take up the overseas offer, but only through till March 1, which will allow the silky fullback a maximum of six matches for Kubota, potentially as early as this Saturday, and see him miss just the first three rounds of the Super season.

And it was a call NZR general manager of professional rugby and performance, Chris Lendrum, was not concerned would set a dangerous precedent and have plenty more players knocking on his door for similar requests.

“I’m not worried about it opening a can of worms,” he told the Waikato Times.

“He’s pretty unique, Shaun. He’s been a professional player for 10 years, he’s played for all of our national teams, including the All Blacks. And we’ve just had a grown-up, mature conversation, and found a workable outcome.

“It’s a pretty strong benchmark to set for anybody else who’s thinking they can do what he’s been able to do here.

“We don’t think it’s going to materially change the way things are operating currently.”

And in what Lendrum said was not a NZR board decision but rather an employment matter decided on by executive management, but which also canvassed All Blacks coach Scott Robertson, he noted circumstances would differ on each occasion, from player to player, with Stevenson’s own personal situation being a key consideration.

“He’s been open with us in discussions, and some of that is able to be talked about publicly and some of it’s not, unless he wants to,” Lendrum said.

“That’s the nature of employment, we don’t have a right to talk about that stuff publicly. But it’s clearly stuff that weighs in on a decision.

“You want to be able to understand when we will make these decisions and when we won’t, but the reality is that it’s not black and white, and each case can be slightly different.”

Lendrum, who noted that with 270 full-time professional men’s and women’s players in New Zealand it was “not uncommon” to field release requests every year, wouldn’t go into detail around how they arrived at the length of Stevenson’s Japan stint.

“In the end it’s a balance,” he said. “Super Rugby’s a relatively short competition, and we clearly wanted him back to participate in the bulk of it. So this is where we’ve ended up. We’re very appreciative of Kubota and how they’ve approached this as well.”

Likewise, via a translator, Kubota Spears general manager Hironori Maekawa told the Waikato Times that while disappointed they weren’t able to get Stevenson for the remainder of their campaign, he was very grateful to New Zealand Rugby and the Chiefs for releasing him for the time they have.

“Obviously we would have loved to have him for the full season, but we do have some up and coming young fullbacks in our team,” Maekawa said. “Unfortunately at this moment they are all injured and they are all meant to be coming back at the end of February. This is something that makes us glad that he is available for the next block of games.”