Pat Lam blasts 'archaic' process that lost the All Blacks Tony Brown

Pat Lam has put New Zealand Rugby on blast for what he describes as “archaic” practices that he believes are holding the All Blacks back from returning to the top of the international rugby mountain.

The former Blues and Samoa coach, who has been leading Bristol Bears since 2017, didn’t hold back in his criticisms of Kiwi administrators, reflecting on his own experience of coming close to an All Blacks gig nearly 20 years ago and suggesting the same flawed process occurred in 2023, when Scott Robertson was appointed as All Blacks head coach.

While All Blacks head coach of the day Ian Foster took issue with the timing of the appointment process, citing it as a distraction during a World Cup year, Lam’s point of contention narrowed in on what he understood to be the process’s premature factional split as it relates to the respective assistant coaching groups. The year 2007 had thrown something similar Lam’s way.

After enjoying the mentorship of Sir Graham Henry in the early 2000s, Lam’s Auckland outfit was thriving in the NPC, and his coaching was recognised in the race for the All Blacks head coach role following the 2007 Rugby World Cup. He told Kiwi radio host Martin Devlin the story on the DSPN platform.

“One of the things that was archaic that New Zealand Rugby had, and from what I’ve heard, it still exists; I was part of it in 2007 when Robbie Deans rang me out of the blue and asked me if I could go be his assistant coach for the All Blacks. Wow. He needed to put his name into the hat,” Lam recalled.

“Now, I’ve never coached with Robbie Deans. I mean, it’s crazy. He’s going to the All Black job, and he’s asking me. But the reason he was doing it was that New Zealand Rugby wants to know what your coaching team will be before they pick it.

“And when Jamie (Joseph) and Razor (Robertson) went for it, they decided Razor is the best coach, but they still made them do the same thing.

“The best attacking coach is Tony Brown, 100 per cent. I couldn’t believe it. And naturally, Tony went with Jamie, but Tony’s also good mates with Razor. The New Zealand Rugby Union, what they should have done is chosen who they believe is going to be the best to lead; Razor. Okay, off the back of it, who do you think is the best defence coach? Well, let’s interview and find out. Who’s the best attack coach, from everyone in New Zealand, everyone around the world? Just go methodically through it.

“In the end, Rassie saw it. Bang. Let’s get Tony Brown, put a four-year deal in front of him. And New Zealand Rugby didn’t talk to Tony Brown.

“That’s the worst thing that’s happened for New Zealand, the best thing for South Africa. Because I’ve always said this, and I’ve been up here and coached, and know a lot of the South African boys, and they’re impressive men, all they needed was to play a bit more expensive rugby.

“Some of the English guys I’ve got here, I talk about 1000 touches a week. We do so much skill work. I asked the owner to build a barn so we can work inside and improve their skills. People are waxing lyrical about our attack game, but you look at the players, we’ve got a lot of rejects. We just upskill them.

“As I said, if the South Africans ever get upskilled to play a game outside the big bosh, which they’re good at, watch out. And Tony Brown, the Kiwi, All Black, has gone in there, and he’s doing a brilliant job for them. You can just see it, you’re watching them, ‘That’s Tony Brown’. And you know what he’s teaching them.

“New Zealand Rugby missed out on that because of their behaviour. They still believe they are the best in the world, rather than making any changes to some of their behaviours, because I was shocked that it still happens when it happened years ago.

“Start making changes to go, ‘Right, we’re not the best in the world. We know that. We want to be the best in the world. How do we fix our development? How do we fix their competitions? How do we ensure that the All Black coach has the best possible coaching?’

“The only reason I’m saying this is because everyone’s complaining about it. But why don’t we look at that and not be afraid to make decisions?

“We used to complain about the English, and it still happens a little bit up here, that they’re the hardest people to change history; ‘That’s the way we’ve always done it’. Whereas sometimes I feel, and what I hear, that New Zealand Rugby are still making some of the same decisions that they did many years ago on some things. Of course, we change things, but we’ve got to look at how we make New Zealand the best team, and we’re not happy with second.

“But certainly, if they feel that Razor needs a stronger coaching team, well, give him every possible chance to do that.”