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How New Zealand Rugby is losing faith with ongoing drama surrounding All Blacks coaching appointments
Can New Zealand Rugby not get anything right?
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People will argue long and loud about whether Ian Foster should have succeeded Steve Hansen as All Blacks head coach.
All Blacks, and NZR, apologists will say Foster is a fine coach. That he’s a seasoned and canny international operator who’ll flourish in command of New Zealand’s flagship sporting team.
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They probably don’t even believe that themselves, but when you’re beholden to NZR or need access to Foster, then you can almost convince yourself of anything.
What can’t be in dispute here is that the process to appoint Foster was a sham. Poor Scott Robertson was taken in, and has been tarnished as a result, but all the other potential candidates saw this for the coronation it was, rather than a contestable position.
Ultimately NZR are entitled to appoint whoever they like. The problem they have here is that the public don’t particularly like or rate Foster and they sure as eggs don’t approve of the way he came by his promotion from assistant coach.
Such is the dissatisfaction with NZR that an environment has been created where people will be happy to see Foster fail and that’s very unfortunate indeed.
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A number of top All Blacks have back-pedalled dramatically in a respected annual top 50 list of players from around the world.https://t.co/noAgBo0X4s
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 16, 2019
What has almost been as bad as Foster’s succession, was the fact his support staff couldn’t be confirmed. We were told plenty about what diverse thinkers they were and how much they’ll refresh the team, just not who they are.
Not that it’s a secret, of course, that John Plumtree, Scott McLeod, Brad Mooar, Greg Feek and David Hill are the men in question. Only problem is that no-one from NZR had bothered to make sure they were all teed up and ready to go.
That’s left us with the embarrassing spectacle of Mooar, having to publicly hum and haw about whether he’ll come back to New Zealand and join the All Blacks’ staff or see out his two-year deal with Scarlets.
A bit like Foster, Mooar should never have been put in this position by NZR. They knew they were appointing Foster, they knew Mooar was going to be on his staff and they should have sorted out a release from Scarlets weeks ago.
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If nothing else, this further diminishes the standing of the All Blacks and the mythical silver fern they all like to talk about. It’s bad enough that blokes like Dave Rennie and Jamie Joseph, who have strong track records and real standing in the rugby community, preferred to accept jobs elsewhere, without a relative nobody such as Mooar now saying he’s “torn” about what to do.
At the risk of labouring the point too long, it really is amateurish to appoint a coach and staff and not ensure everyone’s actually available first.
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Not that we should be surprised. We’re told the All Blacks are one of world sport’s most iconic teams and yet only Foster and Robertson appear as if they wanted to coach them.
That says a lot about how NZR must be regarded.
They then make a mug of Robertson, by making him believe he’s actually in the running, only to appoint Foster. That was partly due to the strength of Foster’s assistants who, unfortunately, we’re unable to name at this time.
It’s hard to know if it’s arrogance or incompetence on NZR’s part, but the main thing is that it hasn’t gone unnoticed. Fans are furious and, while those with a vested interest tell us all to pipe down and get in behind the great ‘Fozzie’, the lack of faith in our governing body only increases.
You expect missteps from NZR on issues such as player behaviour, equality, diversity. It’s just not in rugby’s nature to be on the right side of those things, but at least they’re slowly learning.
What you don’t expect is decisions that hamper the All Blacks or diminish their standing and, on that score, NZR have badly let themselves down.
In other news:
Comments on RugbyPass
Amazing. The losing team’s ratings are higher than the winning team’s. Mallia definitely didn’t deserve a y. What game were you watching? Should have got a w or an x. ADP hardly featured in that second half. At one point I wondered when he’d been subbed. Seems to me as if he gets an automatic 9 just for getting onto the team sheet.
1 Go to commentsI’m sorry. That second half was far from enthralling. It was painful to watch.
1 Go to commentsVery generous! If you’d missed the game, reading this you’d conclude that it was the Quins front row that cost them the game. Marler getting a blanket 6 for his demented contribution to the game. Puzzling.
1 Go to commentsCan’t see Toulouse beating Leinster at this rate.
7 Go to commentsADP was having a very average game until winning that penalty for Toulouse, sticking his big head in the way. “The head of God”?
7 Go to commentsHarlequins doing their best to do as little damage as possible with all the possession. Looks like they skipped catch and pass drills this week.
7 Go to commentsSeeing pictures of Jacques high-fiving it with Irish players breaks my heart. Too soon. I need more time.
1 Go to commentsquins is all over the place. The minute they get the ball they panic. Quins can still win tho just need to win all rucks otherwise just don't bother.
7 Go to commentsGreat wins for the male & female kiwi sides. Ireland not far away..
1 Go to commentsWhy is this dude getting so much coverage? Usually knobs like this get cancelled.
2 Go to commentsWow. What was that? A 3 million word meandering article about what exactly?
2 Go to commentsNice piece of writing. And yes the Sharks pulled a rabbit from the hat and were a little lucky with that penalty try that wasn’t given… however the Sharks (with their resources) should be way more consistent and should be putting teams like Claremont away for breakfast. I expect more from them and hope they kick on now.
8 Go to commentsJust what the Sharks needed to get things going in the right direction Defence on the outside really creates havoc for the whole team and needs to be addressed.
8 Go to commentsWell done guys both teams will be ready to play knockout rugby.
1 Go to commentsSurprised that Ramos isn't starting at 15. But what a squad of galacticos!
2 Go to commentsWhy is it a snub? What journalistic garbage is that? Sure the guy is a great player, but there are plenty of loose forwards and not all of them can be Springboks. Also, I know of no-one who doubts Rassie’s judgment. South Africa has a conveyor belt of loose forwards that just keeps producing, so the competition is intense. I certainly wish him well, but there is no entitlement and there is no snub.
17 Go to commentsSkelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
6 Go to commentsSpot on Ben. Dead right. Havili looked great at 10. Easily the highest rugby IQ of any NZ player these days. Getting a kick charged down is a result of getting used to adjusting your depth to the line at 10, which he will sort out with time. But other than that it was an outstanding first effort in that position this year. I think the NZ media has misunderstood this directive from Razor. Havili might rank behind B Barrett this year, but Beuden is 33 this month and won't last much longer. DMaC is great but flaky and not really a test match animal (his efforts in Dunedin versus Aus last year for example). If Razor can't have Mounga, DMaC is too unstructured for Razor (and is just too small for test rugby). Havili will end up our first choice first five, and in partnership with Jodie will be excellent. Two triple threat operators in tandem, and big bodies and tough tacklers to boot. Jordoe will be the ABs goal kicker. I am an Aucklander and Blues (and Warriors) fan, but Havili at 10 is going to be sensational in time… he can be the best first five in the world by the end of this year. No question.
6 Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
8 Go to commentsGood riddance
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