Following the All Blacks’ devastating quarter final loss in the 2007 Rugby World Cup, Michael conducted a review of the NZ Rugby Union’s 2007 world cup campaign. This culminated in the making of several recommendations for future campaigns (the All Blacks’ world cup win in 2011).

On 4 December 2007, NZRU asked Michael Heron to conduct a review of its RWC 2007 campaign with the objective of determining and documenting the material learnings, both positive and negative, for the benefit of future campaigns. Michael and his team considered 360 degree feedback from players, coaches, management, sponsors, media, the New Zealand Rugby Players Association (“NZRPA”) and others as part of the review process.

The review concluded that the NZRU had over-emphasised a world cup win, and that the team lacked quality game time in the lead up to the world cup. In addition, the conditioning programme ought to have been consulted on and better implemented, and the high performance plan needed to be better integrated.