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New Zealand Rugby can't afford for the All Blacks to fail
Gee I enjoyed Saturday night.
I haven’t loved a game of rugby quite so much for what? Three weeks?
Yeah, there’s just something about seeing Ian Foster’s All Blacks having no idea how to combat an opponent that really appeals to me.
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I know I wrote last week that I’d be cheering for the boys, but I didn’t mean it. Surely you could tell?
No, I don’t work for the host broadcaster and I’m not a former All Black. I haven’t chronicled all the incredible improvements made by Joe Schmidt and Jason Ryan to the coaching of the team or celebrated the corner emphatically turned against South Africa at Ellis Park.
What about you? Have you seen enough now or are you still suggesting Foster and New Zealand Rugby (NZR) know what they’re doing?
Me? Well, I saw enough when Foster was All Blacks assistant coach. I knew this would happen and said so time and time again, to the point where I know readers got rather sick of it.
So how’s blind faith working out for you, NZR, Foster and the All Blacks?
I read that the team are learning. That they’re rebuilding.
Never mind that the lion’s share of this lot lost to Argentina in the same circumstances two years ago.
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I also read that it’s just a game.
Maybe.
Only the All Blacks are allegedly a $3.5 billion brand, who’ve gone into a commercial arrangement with Silver Lake. The terms of that deal, as far as I understand them, require NZR to generate up to 9 percent more revenue per annum from the All Blacks than they previously were.
Silver Lake will get that money one way or another. They didn’t donate hundreds of millions of dollars to NZR, after all.
But further commercialising the All Blacks’ brand relies upon the team winning and they haven’t done a lot of that lately.
Silver Lake’s money came with strings attached so, on that score, Saturday night’s 25-18 defeat to Argentina amounts to a lot more than another valuable lesson for a rebuilding team.
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There is so much riding upon the on-field success of this All Blacks side that NZR genuinely can’t afford to have them fail.
All Blacks wins have become one-offs. Borderline miracles that briefly silence the baying masses, but prove or solve nothing.
Good players have become shadows of their Super Rugby selves, as the team lurch from crisis to crisis. All we’re missing now is an off-field scandal to further diminish the brand.
There’s no rhyme or reason to selection and substitutions, no discernible on-field plan or leadership. I mean which genius decided Jordie Barrett should have a kick at goal from 60-metres out, on Saturday?
Basic skills have lapsed, passes are being dropped, lineouts lost. Ball-playing Wallabies prop James Slipper can seemingly split South Africa’s defence at will and yet our highly-paid backline can barely shuffle the ball sideways.
It doesn’t matter which first-choice players suddenly fall from favour or which assistant coaches are sacked, nothing seems to change.
New dawn, new blueprint, new coaches, same old rubbish.
To a point they knew how to win that game, they managed to win two penalties in the last 10 mins to put themselves into a position to score. What didn’t work was the player throwing the lineout in. It’s more execution at this stage.
Putting the vitriol aside, as a once passionate supporter, the question I ask is, "Would any of our Super teams want Foster as coach?" My thoughts are no...maybe the Chiefs but Clayton MacMillan has already shown that he is innovative coach on the rise...so maybe not. If that's the case, if he's not the first choice coach for any of our Super teams, how can he be the first choice coach for our premier team The All Blacks? And this is why is why there is a gaping disconnect between a knowledgable rugby public and the ABs.
Mate I grew up reading your old man Peters articles in the Evening Post and found myself a huge fan of his musings in my teenage years.
This article you have written was like me speaking to myself.
The swift appointment of Ian Foster post WC19, "only man qualified for the job" according to Steve, sent a shockwave right through me as I knew this career loser (facts are facts) was not the innovative thinker we needed, the winner, the proven track record we needed in charge.
Today we are staring down the barrel of fingers crossed a home series loss to Argentina. This is now a sickening fact considering only a handful of Argies play this sport and in fact Pedal Tennis has more gravitas then rugby in Argentina.
I say fingers crossed because I have been utterly sickened by every move of my beloved All Black team for three years now and want a complete reset.
Another part of this reset and I can tell you this as an experienced international businessman, is the immediate firing of Mark Robinson and the his absolutely incompetent Board, for, they are yin and yang.
It comes as no surprise the counter punch presser re Ellis Park for this is the play of the Mark Lundyesque guilty as suspected.
Robinson was appointed by a Board and I have only just seen these people, a bunch of complete no hopers. I am sure they have achieved whatever they have in business but their critical juncture in the continual backing of Ian Foster must resonate as out and out clueless, but more importantly, their appointment of Mark Robinson as CEO, this was their worst move imaginable.
The appointment of Mark Robinson was a flawed one fundamentally because he is a wee Koi Carp swimming in an ocean of great whites. He simply does not have it and his actions time and again, prove such. However the more sinister ploy here by the Board is one of "I scratch your back, you scratch mine" and in Robinson they have their ultimate yes man who can be controlled, who can get their backing and vice versa for it as ALL an exercise of self perseveration with the legacy of AB rugby as collateral.
And in fact, this all manifests itself in Foster very media trained language of "growth", "working hard", "we are all disappointed" etc.
I can guarantee you, there is no real disappointment with Foster, Robinson and the Board so long as the gravy train rolls on.
This is a very sad time in our team history.
I for one am watching every All Blacks game this year and enjoying the very single one. Even if the Bledisloe doesn't make its way across the ditch its been fun, really fun watching the NZ commentators, public and administrators tearing each other apart.
The Black's have lost their normal ability to stand back a bit when under pressure and recalculate their approach.
Presumably as a result of the non-stop (media mostly) carping they have a sense of panic when under pressure.
They have no divine right to win. The present squad are not as efficient or capable as others. So, they need to realise that and adapt their play to a level where they assess where they are playing badly and avoid unecessary errors and stupid play like entering the breakdown from the side.
I think NZ is a bit arrogant thinking they can't lose to Argentina. Argentina have beaten Australia and South Africa numerous times. They are a real force on their day. Other teams will underestimate them at their own peril at the RWC 2023. Ireland and Scotland, many other supporters had a good laugh when Japan beat South Africa in 2015. Come 2019 they both lost to Japan. They will also take more scalps. As the smaller rugby unions improve the scalps will come. Wales will also inevitably beat the AB's sooner or later.
The hole NZR have been digging will hit China soon.