Why the All Blacks need the support of the New Zealand public now
There’s talk of a disconnect between the All Blacks and the public.
Just a tick over 25,000 fans attended Saturday’s 57-22 win over Australia, in the second of two consecutive tests at Eden Park.
Of all the things said and written in the wake of that match, the most interesting came from All Blacks head coach Ian Foster.
While keen to accentuate the positive and commend those who did come and applaud the performance of his team, Foster said the crowd number was ostensibly not his problem.
That’s where Foster is wrong and, partly, why he is ill-suited to the role of All Blacks coach.
Among the many duties Foster has inherited is to become the team’s carnival-barker-in-chief. To be the team’s spruiker and to encourage those outside the All Blacks’ tent to want to come in and take a look.
The private part of the national coach’s job is clearly the most important. The hours in the dressing sheds, on the training paddock, in selection meetings and team rooms ultimately decide your coaching fate.
But there’s a public role too – one not dissimilar to that of a political leader – in which you need to win the hearts and minds of the public.
Steve Hansen was always charismatic. Among people he trusted and rated, Hansen was a popular figure.
But it’s fair to say that in his days as All Blacks assistant coach, he didn’t care greatly for the media and public. He neither trusted nor rated them and his public utterances provided ample examples of that.
But, partly with the help of media trainer Ian Fraser, Hansen softened. He became less quick to take offence or to be suspicious of outsiders and quickly won fans and journalists over.
If it’s true that supporters aren’t so attached to this All Blacks team, then that starts with Foster. And, far from Saturday’s turn out not being his problem, it absolutely is.
For as long as he dismisses the relevance of those outside the team bubble, the players themselves will follow that lead.
The connection between the fans and the team is important right now.
There’s every indication that Saturday’s game was the last we’ll see of the All Blacks this year and that the remainder of their test schedule will be played overseas. Starting in Australia, on August 28 and then onto the United States and Europe.
At this stage, every fit All Black is said to be available for that elongated tour and the various quarantining periods that it will demand.
But what if a player decides three months away from his family is too many? What if a player gets away and finds it too tough on him and the family he’s left behind?
Will the public begrudge him sitting the trip out or returning home before it’s finished? Or will he be labelled a snowflake, who’s paid handsomely to play rugby and simply needs to get on with it?
These are unique times for modern athletes. It’s not often they’ve had to pursue their careers to the exclusion of everything else.
Far from being the frolics that previous overseas trips have occasionally been, touring life has changed markedly since the onset of Covid-19.
I’d like to think the public would be sympathetic to the players. That they’d realise the sacrifice these men are making and not judge them harshly if they find being on the road too much.
Increasingly we are seeing that athletes can be vulnerable to mental health problems. That the pressures of high-performance sport are harder to absorb without the usual balance that family or freedom can provide.
When your world shrinks to hotel room, team room, bus, training venue, dressing room and playing field, it’s easy to feel as if the walls are closing in.
There’s lots of reasons why there needs to be a rapport between the All Blacks and the public, with gate receipts just one of them.
When you cease to be relatable or touchable or even admirable, then it’s easy for fans to turn away from you. Worse still is when those fans suddenly decide to turn on you.
Ian Foster needs to sell the idea that he’s just one of us. That he’s an ordinary bloke who doesn’t always have the answers and is just battling away like we are.
Rather than be irritated by or suspicious of us, he needs us to feel like he’s a relatable and likeable guy.
If he’s slightly more vulnerable and approachable, then the players are more likely to adopt that stance too.
As a team – and individuals – the All Blacks really need our support right now. And, for the first time in a long time, it appears as if they’re going to have to earn it.
Comments on RugbyPass
To 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.
30 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.
2 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
30 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
30 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.
30 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. 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.
30 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.
30 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.
1 Go to commentsWishing Rosie a speedy recovery
1 Go to commentsObscene that SA haven’t been knocking
1 Go to commentsChances of Blackadder being injured seem too high to give him serious consideration. ABs loosie combination finally looked good with 2 committed to tackling and clearing rucks in the centre and Ardie roaming. Hoskins/Ardie together would force one of them into where they don’t excel and don’t get to use their talent, or require a change in tactics. If we continue to evolve last years systems I would take Papali’i and Finau at 6 and 7 (conceding that Blackadder will be injured) and Ardie at 8.
30 Go to commentsArdie’s preferred position 7? Where do they get these writers from? I've no idea where he's playing in Japan, but the previous two seasons he wore the 7 jersey exactly twice.
17 Go to commentsNot good to hear Ulster described as “financially troubled”. Did not think it was getting to that level. I would hope the Irish system of spreading players of talent away from Leinster would kick in now. Better to have a Leinster fringe player with Ulster or Connacht, then getting only a few games a season in Dublin. 10, for example, would seem to be a case for spreading the talent. I would not be at all adverse to a SA man coming in as head coach/DR. Ludeke is worth trying. Certainly got a long and impressive coaching career at this level…..149 games in SR, then Japan, 30 years experience. And Ulster’s ledger of successful SA coaches and players is on the positive side. Is talk of Ruan Pienaar interested in coming back as a coach…..could be a good combination with Ludeke. And Pienaar and family would have no settling in to do, one would judge. He loved life in Ulster when there, by all reports.
1 Go to commentsSome thoughts to consider here, Sam. Thanks
2 Go to commentsI think he is right, SBW is respected in RSA. The guy who never stood up is a worm. Sseems lots of NZ SBW hate, you do the crime do the time.
17 Go to comments