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Six favours the All Blacks need from Santa's little helpers
I only have a few things on my list of rugby Christmas wishes from Santa this year. None of them are too much to ask, either.
Let’s start at the top.
Leadership: I need someone to lead New Zealand Rugby (NZR) and the All Blacks.
Mark Robinson’s successor as chief executive of our governing body is yet to be confirmed, but the job to me is simple. Be in charge, give an air of actual authority. Let everyone with a stake in this great game know that you have a plan and are executing it. Don’t just muddle along and make decisions on a reactionary basis.
The same applies to the All Blacks. Scott Robertson doesn’t appear to command respect from anyone.
Brian Lochore, Alex Wyllie, John Hart, Laurie Mains, Graham Henry and Steve Hansen are but a few of the All Black coaches of my lifetime. They had presence and charisma, they led their teams, and they took the rest of us on the journey with them.
Robertson risks coming and going as an All Black coach without ever owning the role. I have no idea what he’s waiting for.
Discernible improvement: The All Blacks are treading water, and that’s hardly surprising, given the leadership vacuum at NZR and the team’s coaching ranks.
The team doesn’t seem to know what it’s doing, because those in positions of responsibility above them don’t either. You can’t prosper in that situation.
Players need structure and boundaries. They need achievable tasks to tackle. Give a man a defined set of expectations, and he’ll do his best to meet them.
All I see is a muddle.
Ditch sabbaticals: This would be leadership. This would be saying to Ardie Savea, for instance, your presence at Moana Pasifika again next season is more important than another stint in Japan.
The success of that franchise and the whole Super Rugby Pacific competition relies upon your continued participation, and that trumps whatever the reasons you’ve returned to the Kobe Steelers. NZ Rugby are his primary employers, after all.
I’d certainly sit up and take notice if the greater good was given preeminence over the whims and fancies of a prominent player.
A reputable trans-Tasman opponent: I don’t care if it’s a Super side or the Wallabies themselves, our teams need stiffer competition from Australia.
Our rugby is tied to Australia’s, but I don’t feel we get much benefit from that relationship.
A Barrett-less team: I’ve hesitated about this, but I think maybe, just sometimes, it would be okay for the All Blacks to play a few games without the Barretts.
Fine players that they’ve been — and hopefully will continue to be — our reliance on the talent and leadership of one family doesn’t say a huge amount for the depth of our rugby.
One’s the captain, another a vice-captain, with the third running the team from first five-eighth. When fit, they all play. I just wonder if, from time to time, we might risk having a look at what others could do in their place.
It wouldn’t be up for discussion if the All Blacks were a dominant force. Unfortunately, they’re not.
If you desire different outcomes, sometimes you actually have to pick different people.
All Blacks to be proud of: I want to like the All Blacks, and I want them to win.
I can handle the odd loss, as long as I feel the team is playing good rugby or showing character.
I’m afraid I find the All Blacks a tough watch a lot of the time, and sometimes I wonder how invested the players are in the whole thing. I assume they enjoy being All Blacks and would like to do well, but I don’t get a sense that defeats wound them too much.
They’ll still get paid, most of them will continue to get picked, and there’s always next week.
I doubt men such as Sean Fitzpatrick, Wayne Shelford and Zinzan Brooke were quite that philosophical about failure.
Merry Christmas.
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