Twice Jock Hobbs was instrumental in the restoration of rugby union’s reputation when the national game of New Zealand was under threat. His reward was the applause of a packed Eden Park in Auckland last October when, struggling against crippling disease, he presented a celebratory 100th cap to Richie McCaw as the All Blacks, led by McCaw, made their way to success in the 2011 World Cup.
It is given to few individuals who reach the heights as players to surpass those achievements as sporting administrators but Hobbs did so with ease. In 1995, with rugby turning professional and leading players from every nation receiving overtures from a breakaway organisation, Hobbs travelled the length and breadth of New Zealand in a six-week period to ensure the All Blacks remained tied to the traditional authority, the New Zealand Rugby Football Union.
Eight years later, in the wake of his country’s loss of sub-hosting rights to the 2003 World Cup, Hobbs became chairman of a largely discredited NZRFU and later led the bidding process which resulted in the award, against the odds, by the International Rugby Board of the 2011 tournament to New Zealand.
He was aware that the over-commercialisation of the elite game had led to something of a rift, in the eyes of the New Zealand public at least, with the grass roots. “There was a public perception that we strayed too far towards the corporate world,” Hobbs said. “There may have been some truth in that ... but we are a small country, a long way from the main markets, and we can’t afford to get too many things wrong.”
Michael James Bowie Hobbs was born in 1960 in Christchurch and went to that city’s Christ’s College before studying law at Canterbury University. He broadened his horizons by spending the 1982-83 season in England, playing for the Vale of Lune club, before making his international debut in the back row of the New Zealand side that beat the 1983 British Lions 4-0.
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In between his first and second internationals, he was admitted to the Bar. Hobbs went on to play 21 internationals for New Zealand, leading the side in four games in 1985 and 1986; he was a member of the rebel Cavaliers squad that toured South Africa in 1986, a participation he came to regret. But a series of concussions led to his early retirement at the age of 26 at a time when he was a candidate to lead the All Blacks at the inaugural World Cup of 1987.
He re-emerged as a New Zealand councillor in 1995, while his career was moving from the law towards business. Immediately he found himself fending off the advances of the World Rugby Corporation — backed by Kerry Packer — which wanted to buy up the world’s best players. His success meant little because a year later he was voted off the NZRFU council, turning instead to a directorship with Strategic Investments, a property finance group of which he later became chief executive.
He returned to rugby as chairman of the union in 2002 and, three years later, his people skills and emotive oration led to the award to New Zealand of the 2011 World Cup, for which he was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2006. A short time afterwards leukaemia was diagnosed. In 2010 he was found to be suffering from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and as a result stood down as NZRFU chairman and from involvement with the World Cup organising committee.
In the same year Strategic Finance was placed into receivership and remains under investigation by the Financial Markets Authority. Hobbs was able to attend several World Cup matches last autumn and was regarded as an inspirational figure by the present generation of All Blacks. When the tournament ended he received from the International Rugby Board the Vernon Pugh award for distinguished service.
He is survived by his wife, Nicki, a son and three daughters.
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Jock Hobbs, CNZM, rugby player and administrator, was born on February 15, 1960. He died of cancer on March 13, 2012, aged 52