1
No one fears the All Blacks anymore, the team's reputation is in tatters
Man, I enjoyed Saturday night.
We can use red cards and Ardie Savea’s absence to obscure the facts. We can huff and puff about World Rugby and the laws of the game.
ADVERTISEMENT
We can point to South Africa, Australia and Argentina and say that they lost to Northern Hemisphere foes too.
But what we can’t do is pretend Ireland didn’t make a laughing stock of New Zealand Rugby (NZR) at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
Video Player is loading.
This is a modal window.
The Video Cloud video was not found.
Error Code: VIDEO_CLOUD_ERR_VIDEO_NOT_FOUND
Session ID: 2025-05-17:c807a58d4b4aa8f6b0100866 Player Element ID: brightcove-embedded-video
You know, that organisation who trumpeted a partnership with an American private equity outfit, predicated on the aura of All Blacks invincibility.
Silver Lake and NZR are going to make the All Blacks one of world sport’s most powerful and profitable brands, apparently. Yep, from Shanghai to Sao Paulo and everywhere in between, the All Blacks’ unrivalled excellence is going to set cash registers alight.
A penny for Silver Lake’s thoughts on Saturday night, then.
Ireland barely bothered to celebrate their 23-12 win. Victory over these All Blacks is so commonplace as to only merit a high-five or two.
Maybe NZR won’t be so quick to appoint a head coach and captain next time.
I’m not going to round on Ian Foster or Sam Cane.
ADVERTISEMENT
I wrote that Foster should never have been appointed head coach and have never wavered. Same with Cane.
The latter’s actually very likeable, but his presence on the park causes compromises elsewhere. As we saw with Savea having to sit much of Saturday night out.
No, the decline in the All Blacks’ playing and commercial fortunes is solely on NZR.
The smugness and complacency of succession was scandalous, as I’ve written countless times before.
Coaching the All Blacks should be the most-coveted role in the rugby world and yet NZR could only rustle up Foster and Scott Robertson as candidates.
ADVERTISEMENT
Poor Razor. Everyone else knew Foster was assured of ascending from assistant to head coach, but not him.
Still, NZR could yet have saved face. Following Foster’s abysmal first year in charge, which saw the All Blacks lose to Argentina and Australia, no-one would have minded if they’d admitted their error.
But, no, in true NZR fashion, they prematurely extended Foster’s contract instead, then sat back and watched him lead the team to defeats against South Africa, Ireland and France.
Cane wasn’t captaining the team by then. Savea and Sam Whitelock both had a go and both looked like better options.
Again, there’d have been no criticism of NZR had they announced Whitelock or Savea were going to take it from here.
The All Blacks might beat Ireland by 20 points at Sky Stadium this Saturday night, but the damage is done. Fans and pundits have become openly hostile in their views about Foster and Cane and the team’s reputation is in tatters.
Far from fearing the All Blacks, most international teams would fancy their chances against them right now.
That would have been unfathomable prior to Foster’s appointment, but that’s how far NZR have allowed the All Blacks’ fortunes to plummet.
The irony is that even the most opinionated armchair selector among us would only make cosmetic changes to the side. It’s not a lack of talent that’s ailing the team.
You could change the coaching staff and captain tomorrow and the All Blacks would immediately be borderline-unbeatable again.
Only NZR appears far too bloodyminded for that.
Well, I have to say that amuses me. In fact it amuses me very much.
I don’t see any point in criticising Foster and Cane. They didn’t appoint themselves, after all.
No, it’s NZR who decided that and it’s them who deserve all the condemnation should performances continue to be as insipid as last Saturday night’s.
Why can’t we take a step back and look at this objectively. We are in a transitional cycle.
New players
Lost of experience
International teams caught up.
Building experience
Changing our skill set
Changing our structures and strategy
Covid
Loss of playing the Boks super teams and playing the northern teams.
We just need to keep playing hard teams and learning.
And the Super teams need to do there but as well.
I do feel that losing SA from Super Rugby has damaged NZ Rugby :(
Well we will see if the demise of the mighty men in black is real this weekend. I suspect not, Ireland are a quality team and deserved to win but the luck was against us. I mean poor Gus I just don't think he saw the Irish player. Expect a backlash and with Whitelock back the ABs will be a different animal this week with Scooter back at 6 and Jordan back on the wing from the start and a massive amount to prove, just like the 1st test.
Sam Whitelock, or Ardie, are our best captain options, Razor our best coach. Why is this even questionable?. NZR are just ignorant and arrogant in their appointments.
yes, yes, Ireland were magnificent against 13 men. well done
It's easy to understand, AB's have been getting away with whatever they pleased for years, it's traditionally been one rule for them and one for the opposing team (AB fans will disagree of course). Takes bravery for a ref to call it the way it is down there..
utter nonsense
I also think it was the first time Onhave ever heard a referee speak to an All Black captain like Pyper. When the AB’s were down to 12 men they conceded another penalty in the red zone. Pyper told Cane. You had better speak to your men. I am not going to back off.” What he was staying was you can play with eleven men if you want. I don’t care how much criticism I done in for. Something the AB’s are not used to from refs.
what a load of one-eyed rubbish
Not true at all. English and French referees have treated All Black captains and players with utter disdain for at least 15 years.
Great article. I have always had huge respect for the All Blacks.
Their downfall is their arrogance. From the NZRU to their fans.
You cannot expect to win on the reputation of past results in a golden era. A bit of humble pie will serve them well.
Well done to Ireland. They played a fantastic game, well worth watching early in the morning.
You obviously have no idea what the sentiment has been in NZ for at least 3 years. Kiwis know we have the wrong coach, know their mistakes and take nothing away from other teams, be it Ireland or Argentina. What annoys us is our own union and yep,a fair amount of dribble from international media and fans drumming up clicks.
At the end of the day, we also know we have great players but lost 2 of the best there ever was. It would of been interesting (although we admit would have still lost) if ardie wasn’t wrongly not allowed to continue. Personal I won’t be unhappy to see the ABs lose this week as our only chance next year is to dump Foster. Short term loss for long term gain.
I think that of you have ever really followed the Nz rugby scene over the decades, Kiwi rugby fabs are harder than most on their own team. But tell me that people dont talk up and fervently support their own national teams? I doubt it.