About this latest chapter in the transformation of the All Blacks

Gilbert Enoka gets the All Blacks. Heck, he’s as much a part of the culture of that team as some of the great men who’ve worn the jersey themselves.

Enoka’s appointment as the All Blacks Leadership and Mental Performance Coach is yet another sign that the side is headed in the right direction. It’s no guarantee of wins, but this team is definitely being given every chance to succeed.

With appointment after appointment to the All Blacks’ staff, New Zealand Rugby (NZR) shows that it has a plan. The first step, obviously, was selecting Dave Rennie as head coach, but the choice of his assistants and the addition of Enoka to the management group is in stark contrast to the overall incoherence of the Scott Robertson years. Both the national body and national team appeared to be making things up as they went along. If they had a pathway to prosperity – on or off the park – it was circuitous at best. Most of the time, it looked like no one knew the destination, let alone how to get there.

The All Blacks are a little bit out of sight, out of mind at the moment. The Moana Pasifika situation and the perennial complaints about Super Rugby Pacific are tending to dominate the news cycle at the moment, but those will soon be forgotten. There’s the usual week-to-week team news and speculation about an All Blacks bolter or two, none of which is remotely interesting. No, what’s not just interesting, but in fact absolutely fascinating, is the quiet, methodical transformation of our flagship side.

As I’ve often said, rugby in New Zealand is built entirely around the All Blacks. Every team makes do with less so that the All Blacks can have more. A few weeks ago, I would’ve said that model was hopelessly flawed and the game in this country was potentially in terminal decline.

On that score, I want to offer a few words of praise for NZR’s interim chief executive Steve Lancaster. I first came across him years ago, when he had some kind of development or community role with the Canterbury Rugby Union. Lancaster was hugely impressive. Logical, smart, caring; he was everything you’d want in a person charged with transitioning players from the participatory part of the game and into high performance. Most of all, he was a rugby man. Not a pen pusher or a babbler of sports management mantras. Not a corporate guy, thirsting after selfies with the star players. No, Lancaster was exactly what a sports administrator should be.

I don’t know if he’ll eventually shake the interim tag at NZR and assume this position outright, but I’m sure it’s not a coincidence that these off-field developments have occurred on his watch. Men such as Rennie and his lead assistant, Neil Barnes, come to their new jobs with huge rugby and man-management expertise, but Enoka brings the institutional knowledge the pair potentially lack, plus a proven track record of helping prepare title-winning All Black teams.

At the start of his illustrious career as a mental skills coach, Enoka was viewed with suspicion. Not so much personally, more the role he was seeking to perform. Even now, I imagine some fans regard sports psychology as mumbo jumbo and label players as weak for requiring it. Nothing could be further from the truth. But Enoka’s not just elite in that field; he helped build the 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cup-winning sides that we knew and loved.

That experience, the relationships he has with many of the current players, and those tried and tested methods will be absolutely invaluable to a team with a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it in. Enoka’s yet another seasoned campaigner on an All Blacks management group that’s not going to be learning on the job. At the risk of being a broken record, it’s just so good to have some adults in the room again.