New Zealand's teams are getting worse and a good deal of that is down to coaching
A mate of mine played for the Chris Boyd-coached Wellington Bs in 2001.
Boyd, who’d come to the job after a successful stint looking after the Tawa club team, presented each squad member with a detailed playbook.
The new coach was a bit of a thinker on the game and wanted the players, some of whom went on to become All Blacks, Samoan internationals and Super Rugby stars, to start thinking too.
Some of the plays worked, some didn’t, but that’s not the point.
No, what’s relevant is that it was 2015 before Boyd ascended to the Super Rugby stage himself.
By then he’d helped coach Natal, run a successful sporting goods franchise, mentored aspiring national and provincial coaches and crafted and honed his own philosophies.
Boyd knew how to manage players, knew the game he wanted the Hurricanes to play, knew what moves and styles worked, knew how to deal with the media and, just as importantly, knew exactly who he was as a man and a coach.
He’d served a long and worthwhile apprenticeship and wasn’t Robinson Crusoe in that regard either.
Peers, such as Dave Rennie at the Chiefs, had spent just as long in the coaching game, working with the Wellington Colts, Bs and Lions sides, Manawatu.
These men came to their Super Rugby roles as almost the finished article. Men who’d made their mistakes away from the spotlight and were ready for the rigours of high-performance rugby.
A bit’s been made of the last couple of rounds of Super Rugby Pacific and what they tell us about the strengths and weaknesses of New Zealand and Australian rugby.
Much of that’s been talk for talking’s sake. This is a competition of increasingly little import or interest and comparing the merits of the two nations is what you do when there’s literally nothing else to talk about.
Wake me up after the Bledisloe Cup tests have been played. Until then, little that’s said now is particularly relevant.
Are Australia’s teams improving? Who knows and who cares?
But I can tell you that I reckon New Zealand’s are getting worse and a good deal of that is down to coaching.
I’ve written before about the player drain and that whole tier of New Zealand talent that’s been lost. Those guys, in their mid-20s who were regular Super Rugby starters and maybe even All Blacks from time to time, but now ply their trade elsewhere.
In their place we have boys, who would be better served in franchise development teams or provincial footy, alongside All Blacks who are playing because their contracts demand it.
And that might be workable, if so many of the coaches weren’t doing on-the-job training too.
New Zealand Rugby (NZR) have created a closed shop. If you’re not already on the All Blacks’ staff then, barring catastrophic World Cup failure, you’ll never be head coach.
Even the team’s dismal performance at the 2019 tournament wasn’t enough to dissuade NZR from succession.
If you’re a successful and seasoned coach in their 50s or 60s, you’re wasting your time in New Zealand.
And so we have Leon MacDonald of the Blues, mentioned in All Blacks dispatches. Should it all go wrong in 2023, would MacDonald head or form part of the next national coaching group?
Not so long ago, MacDonald would be a 1st XV or club coach. He’d maybe be getting invited to do some specialist coaching for a provincial team and generally learning his trade.
Once the path to elite coaching was a gradual one. Now it feels as players simply wander down the corridor from the dressing room and into a coaching office.
I’m told that rugby is so complex now that Boyd and Rennie couldn’t ascend to the top. That only guys already within the system can understand the game and the apparatus around it.
Retiring players have that institutional knowledge and are, therefore, better qualified to assume assistant and head-coaching roles.
Maybe.
But I don’t believe that’s enhancing the product. I don’t believe the skill development, execution and decision making of players is getting any better.
Guys, at least to my untrained eye, rarely appear to improve at all. They might be bigger and stronger, but they’re no better at rugby than when they arrived.
Time and again, it’s individual brilliance that wins New Zealand teams games.
I’ve heard people wondering aloud about where our ascendency has gone. I’ve seen them worrying that we might only be the third or fourth-best nation around.
Why aren’t we as good as we used to be?
The answer to that question, at all levels of our game, is coaching.
Comments on RugbyPass
The value he brought to the crusaders as an assistant was equal to what he got out of being there. He reflected not only on the team culture but also the credit he attributed to the rugby community. Such experience shouldn’t be overlooked.
3 Go to commentsGood luck Aussie
10 Go to commentssmith at 9 / mounga 10 / laumape 12 / fainganuku 14
37 Go to commentsBar the injuries, it’s pretty much their top team …
2 Go to commentsDon’t disagree with much of this but it appears you forgot Rodda and Beale, who started at the Force on the weekend.
10 Go to commentsExcept for the injured Zach Gallagher this would be Saders best forward pack for the season. Blackadder needs to stay at 7, for all of Christies tackling he is not dominant and offers very little else. McNicholfullback is maybe a good option, Fihaki not really upto it, there was a reason Burke played there last year. Maybe Havilli to 2nd five McLeod to wing. Need a strong winger on 1 side to compliment Reece
1 Go to commentsTo me TJ is clearly the best 9 in the competition right now but he's also a proven player off the bench, there's few playmaking players who can come off the bench as calm and settled as he is, Beauden can, TJ can and I doubt any of the scrumhalves in contention can, if they want to experiment with new 9s I want him on the bench ready to step in if they crumble under the pressure. The Boks put their best front row on the bench, I'd like to see us take a similar approach, the Hurricanes have been doing similar things with players like Kirifi.
37 Go to commentsROG has better chance to win a WC if he starts training and make himself eligible as a player. He won’t make the Ireland squad but I reckon he may get close with Namibia (needs to improve his Afrikaans) or Portugal. Both sides had 1000:1 odds to win the RWC in 2023 which is an improvement on ROG’s odds of winning a RWC as a coach. Unlike Top 14 teams, national teams can’t go shopping and buy the best players - you work with the available talent pool and turn them into world beaters.
3 Go to commentsthat backline nope that backline is terrible why would you have sevu Reece when he’s not even top 5 wingers in the comp why have Blackadder when there’s better players no Scott barret isn’t an automatic the guy is more of a liability than anything why have him there when you have samipeni who’s far far better
37 Go to commentsAh, good to find you Nick. Agree with everything about Cale. So much to like about his game
49 Go to commentsNot too bad. Questions at 6, lock and HB for me. The ABs will be a lot stronger once Jordan and Roigard return. Also, work needs to be made to secure Frizzell back for next season and maybe also Mo’unga; they’re just wasting time playing in japan
37 Go to commentsOn the title, i wonder for many of those people it is a case something like a belief in working smarter, not harder?
1 Go to commentsForget Sotutu. One of those whose top level is Super Rugby. Id take a punt on Wallace Sititi Finau ahead of Glass body Blackadder.
37 Go to commentsI’m a pensioner so I've been around a bit. My opinion of SBW is he is an elite athlete and a great New Zealander and roll model. He has been to the top and knows what he's talking about. To all the negative comments regarding SBW the typical New Zealand way, cut that tall poppy down.
17 Go to commentsI'm not listening to a guy moralise over others when this is the guy who walked out mid season on Canterbury RLFC when he had a contract with them, what a hypocrite. All the Kiwis sticking up for this unprincipled individual because they can't accept justified criticism, he has zero credibility or integrity. Those praising him are a joke.
17 Go to commentsI’d put Finau at 6 instead of Blackadder but that’s the only change I’d make. Can’t wait to see who Razor picks.
37 Go to commentsTamati Williams, Codie Taylor, and Same Cane? Not sure about Hoskins Sotutu at test level. Wasn’t that impressive last season. Need a balance between experience and talent/youth.
37 Go to commentsInteresting insight. Fantastic athlete, and a genuine human being.
17 Go to commentsThey played at night in Suva last weekend and it’s an afternoon game forecast for 19 degrees in Canberra this weekend. Heat change is a non issue.
2 Go to commentsWishing Rosie a speedy recovery
1 Go to comments