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'You can't be a fan': All Black coach on 'removing clutter' in this year's turnaround

(Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

New All Blacks forwards coach Jason Ryan has assessed the season and marked it as a ‘pass’ after the side took steps in the right direction in the back half of the year.

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After joining the coaching group after the series loss to Ireland, the All Blacks went on to win the Rugby Championship title while retaining the Bledisloe and Freedom Cups.

They had an undefeated end-of-year tour with three wins and a draw to finish the season on a seven match unbeaten streak to offer hope to New Zealand rugby fans that they will contend at next year’s World Cup.

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“I’d give it a pass,” Ryan told Newstalk ZB’s All Sport Breakfast

“I thought we were tracking okay in patches. I think we’ve played some good games, we’ve definitely made some shifts in the back end of the season, that’s really clear.

“Removed a lot of clutter and uncertainty that was there. We are pretty strong on our identity and who we are and how we want to play.

“Other than that last nine minutes in that England test, we aren’t going to overlook that, that’s for sure it will be on the agenda for us, but I think we made some strides forward in the right direction.”

The whirlwind season saw the Crusaders assistant coach quickly promoted to the All Blacks ranks with limited time to prepare for the start of the Rugby Championship campaign in South Africa.

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Despite the limited prep time, the pressure was on immediately to turnaround results with the second test against the Springboks a pivotal time for New Zealand Rugby.

The new assistant said the job took ‘a lot’ out of him and shared his approach to the role and what he demands from his forwards.

“You get asked often if you enjoy it, the way I look at it coaching the All Blacks, you can’t be a fan,” Ryan explained.

“You can’t be someone who is a fan of the All Blacks. You’ve got to be really challenging them, and striving them to be better and really putting it on the forward pack when it’s needed.

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“Making sure they’ve got phenomenal standards that are above any other team.

“You have those moments, I know I have it, when the anthem is played or when you get on the All Black bus, like okay this is pretty cool but other than that you are just all go.

“It’s pretty high octane. It pulls a lot of out of you.

“It’s going to ask a lot of me next year, and all of us, and that’s what we want. It means that people care and want the All Blacks to do well.”

The All Blacks have eight weeks off before returning for a special camp in late January, the first time that the team has met so early in the season.

Ryan said the players will return to Super Rugby but the playing time of certain All Blacks will be managed according to the agreed plan with the clubs.

“There’s a bit of case-by-case stuff around that [playing time at Super Rugby],” he said.

“The Super Rugby clubs are well aware of that, we presented that plan for them in October before we went on the Northern tour.

“So they are really aware around what that is and aligned with it.

“It’s a World Cup year, it’s around making sure that plan is right to make sure the All Blacks are fresh and sharp for the right time of year.”

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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