Attention to Detail

The Terms and Conditions around media accreditation for the Rugby Championship is a big thing at the moment.

There was the ban on rugby reporting by Fairfax this week, but that has been semi-resolved with a slight softening of the Terms and Conditions for accreditation for the series.

NZR are very staunch about all of this, which makes the e-mail signature on the subject a bit curious.

It’s all well and good to have strict guidelines and processes in place for the behaviour of “bona fide news-based internet sites” but how is this for a footer of an e-mail imposing theses regulations.

That last sentence.

The All Blacks: With a history extending back to the 1880s, New Zealand’s national rugby team, the All Blacks, is not only the most successful international rugby team of all time but also one of the most successful teams in world sport, with a winning Test record of more than 76 percent and more than 90 per cent since 2012. The All Blacks play European opponents every year in the Steinlager Series and again at the end of the year, and play Argentina, Australia and South Africa annually in the Investec Rugby Championship. The All Blacks were crowned Rugby World Cup Champions in 2011 to add to their Webb Ellis Cup win in the inaugural Tournament in 1987 and in 2013 became the first international team in the professional era to go through the season unbeaten. The team has been named the IRB Team of the Year a record eight times. The All Blacks are competing in Rugby World Cup 2015 in the UK this year.

Seriously, these are the e-mails they send out to show who’s in charge.