World Rugby

At 38, Carter’s retirement from the game will have surprised nobody, but it brings to an end an era in which the revered New Zealander walked the rugby world as a metaphorical god among men, the sport’s greatest of all time at 10.

Carter’s mark on the game will live on, but fans will no longer get the see him kick a ball in anger or fling an outrageous pass, at least not in a professional setting.

The game’s governing body on Friday (NZ time) released interim findings of an independent-led review into its operations, with a key recommendation being a target of at least 40 per cent of women making up their committees and “the promotion of women leaders in the sport”.

Last May World Rugby came under fire for appointing just one female to their executive committee of 12 for a second successive term.

Eight candidates were unveiled in May by World Rugby to contest the election for seven places on its executive committee.

Kean was nominated and proposed by the Fiji Rugby Union and seconded by the Federation Francaise de Rugby, whose president Bernard Laporte was seeking to become World Rugby’s new vice-president, a role he went on to clinch. 

The impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic meant the national men's side played just six matches this year.

But they were set to play more than double that next year, after NZR chief executive Mark Robinson provided an update on Thursday after the organisation's final board meeting of the year.

The proposed scheduled included an opener against Fiji and two matches against Italy in New Zealand in July, a return to a full rugby Championship and an end of year tour to Europe for games against Italy, Ireland, and France.

The Fijians finished third on last season's global circuit, which was cut short because of the global pandemic, while the first four tournaments of the 2021 season have already been cancelled.

Fiji's 23-man training squad goes back into camp on Wednesday and coach Gareth Baber said the players were handling a difficult situation as best they could.

The 2019 world player of the year beat out nine other finalists for the illustrious honour, including former Fiji teammate Samisoni Viriviri, Fiji-born New Zealand international Tomasi Cama and Samoan sevens icon Mikaele Pesamino.

The diminutive playmaker made his debut for Fiji at the 2014 Gold Coast Sevens and has gone on to win three World Series titles, an Olympic gold medal in 2016, and is a three-time world sevens player of the year nominee.

The landmark decision, taken by the Rugby World Cup board earlier this year, reflects the growing popularity of the women’s game globally through World Rugby’s transformational women’s strategic plan.

With interest and participation in the women's game continuing to climb, World Rugby has recognised that the increasing competitiveness in women’s international rugby.

This, in turn, has led to the World Cup being expanded, providing the opportunity for more teams to prove themselves on the biggest stage.

The full-time role comes after the TRU signed a tripartite agreement with World Rugby and the Tonga government in September, after the global governing body had threatened to pull all financial support.

The new joint management committee are taking charge until long-standing governance issues are resolved.

The General Manager of High Performance at World Rugby, Peter Horne, said he's confident TRU are on it's way to a successful future.

World Rugby is running a fan vote to decide the player of the decade, with the nominees, made up of all the players who won the Player of the Year award from 2011 to 2020.

World Rugby updated the results on Twitter saying Ireland’s Jonathan Sexton currently leads voting ahead of Richie McCaw and Dan Carter.

Sexton, who won the Player of the Year award in 2018, has 22 percent of the votes.

World Rugby had cut its funding to the union in May pending a review into governance and administrative concerns which included "outstanding domestic legal matters" and the lack of properly audited financial settlements.

A new committee will oversee a roadmap for the operating structure of the union until the end of 2024.

"The Tonga Rugby Union's challenges are well documented and we have been working with all parties to identify and agree a roadmap to return Tonga to where it deserves to be, on and off the field," World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont said in a statement.