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'It's actually cost a few players their All Black careers' - Highlanders coach Tony Brown takes aim at NZR policy

Tony Brown. (Photo by Dianne Manson/Getty Images)

Highlanders’ assistant coach Tony Brown is the latest to express concerns over New Zealand Rugby’s controversial All Blacks rest protocols in Super Rugby, saying it has cost some players their All Blacks careers.

The convention, which has been in place since 2010, is New Zealand’s top players will play 40, 60 and then 80 minutes over the first three rounds of Super Rugby, although that could be managed differently – for example 60/60/60. They also get two weeks either to spend away from the team or to focus on their physical conditioning.

The so-called ‘load management’ policy has been panned by some critics who argue that the rule alienates fans and devalues the competition with the absence of its stars.

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Brown, who re-joined the Highlanders this season as assistant to head coach Aaron Mauger, goes one step further, saying that the one-size-fit-all nature of the policy also negatively affects some players’ careers.

“It’s always been the sort of Richie McCaw, Dan Carter, Kieran Read plan, where they need to give those guys all a rest so to keep it all even they make it mandatory to rest every All Black,” Brown told Newstalk ZB‘s Martin Devlin.

“I think in the past it’s actually cost a few players their All Black careers.

“If you look at the Highlanders, guys like Malakai Fekitoa, Waisake Naholo, Elliot Dixon, those sort of guys who actually didn’t get a lot of time for the All Blacks, those guys getting rested as well which didn’t allow them to prepare for Super Rugby. And then their Super Rugby form actually cost them their All Blacks spot.”

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Brown said he agrees with the policy in how it relates to top All Blacks but says it needs to be applied through a “case-by-case” basis.

“I think it’s the correct decision for the guys, eg Richie McCaw, Dan Carter and Kieran Read, but for the guys who actually need the training and the fitness and the game time, they’ve got to get out there and play and try and hold on to their All Black positions.

“Because there are so many good rugby players who did get quality pre-season time in, e.g. Sevu Reece. He came over the top of Waisake Naholo last year because of that. I think it’s got to be a case-by-case and we’ve got to have our top players preparing to play Super Rugby.”

Brown said some of his players want to train and play, but are restricted by the policy.

“They all want to play. They want to train. They just do whatever is best for the team. And if they’re in the All Blacks at the time and they say we’ve got to have a three-month rest, they’ll have a three-month rest.

“If you give them the choice they’ll come back to the Highlanders and they will want to train with everyone else because that’s what’s team sports is about.”

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This article first appeared on the New Zealand Herald and is re-published with permission here.

Fans point fingers at Rugby Australia:

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

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