The Silver Fern

Actually it’s the CEO who should be sacked and whoever is advising him. What a clown show

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Aside from the All Blacks’ ‘coaching’ and management issues, you have to wonder how much of their current plight is down to Super Rugby and their lack of exposure to the South African/NH more physical style of play. Players who were supremely dominant a couple of months ago steamrolling the Force or the Rebels or the Pacific Islands teams suddenly look like schoolboys.

Is it the wrong players in the wrong positions for test rugby? Is it differences in how the game is played at international level? Is it how the breakdown is officiated? Is it purely that New Zealand’s development program is now inferior to those in the NH and is breeding too many would-be Sevens players not built for the collisions game that international test rugby has become? Or is it all of the above?

I strongly suspect the relative isolation of NZ through COVID compounded the poor coaching choices and the mismanagement of the NZR. But instead of adapting and admitting there is a paucity of ideas at home and making necessary and radical change, the NZ authorities arrogantly dig in. In the meantime, the poor players are left to intone Gilbert Enoka’s ritual and now stale lines about ‘walking toward the pressure’ and ‘embracing the opportunity’.

Something is fundamentally broken in NZ rugby.

All is Black

Another day, another debacle.

While there were some clear improvements in this test such as the maul defence, the All Blacks still look like a team out of ideas and out of excuses.

You could see that in their rare moments on attack, with a succession of Hail Mary passes going to no one in particular. Again, there appeared to be no game plan and no structure. Again, we witnessed a complete inability to deal with the rush (offside) defence and the high balls.

Yet none of the Springboks’ tactics was surprising. It’s how they beat us last year after all. But we still have no effective response, no ideas, no confidence and absolutely no future under this coaching regime.

The worst thing is that this train-wreck was completely predictable when Foster was shovelled the job with little or no oversight. Of course, he needs to go, but then so does Mark Robinson and the NZR board. Indeed, this horror show could provide a case study for an MBA graduate in how to destroy a brand overnight.

Ultimately, the All Blacks’ directionless and uncharacteristically tentative on-field performances, despite the heroics and heart shown by individual players, are a mirror reflection of the disarray off the field - the Keystone cop head coach, the incompetent CEO and the arrogant and out of touch administrators drinking from a once overflowing trough of riches that has now run dry.

@Dan54 Well according to Gifford, who is actually a highly experienced journalist and not a paid troll, this is a breach of protocol and suggests something wrong with the governance of the NZR

It is certainly out of keeping with corporate best practice for a multi-million dollar organisation, and in this case New Zealand’s most powerful brand, not to have board oversight of such a key appointment

Phil Gifford , in the NZ Herald today, has a highly interesting insight into the process around the NZR’s appointment of a new coach after Hansen’s resignation in the 2019 World Cup aftermath.

Apparently, in a break from normal process, the NZR board did not interview the candidates, just a five-person selection panel with only one having rugby coaching experience (Graham Henry).

This amounts to a major failure of governance and tells you why this situation stinks so badly.

Full article

@Bones Maybe read more widely. It might do you good.

@Bones Oh get a sense of humour, mate. You trainspotters are all the same.

@Bones Nope. Go for your lives. But it seems to be missing the point.

This picking squads game is a bit irrelevant, don’t you think, when you have an incompetent coaching panel, a corrupt administration and a public that senses you are really just shifting the deck chairs? I know it’s a fun parlour game picking this bloke or that bloke for each position, but you can swap the chess pieces as much as you want without realising that the real issue is that you’re playing checkers with 4D chess masters. I wouldn’t bother.

@MN5 I’m a former journalist and editor. Opinion is no defence.

@MN5 I certainly hope that Stuff had the lawyers eye it before publication. There are multiple defamation cases in there.

On the squad issue and given the lack of cattle, might it be time for NZR to follow the South Africans and Australians and open up the potential pool to those playing in overseas clubs? Wasn’t that how Erasmus engineered the Springbok turnaround?

On the standard objection that this will open the floodgates to up and coming NZ players or those early in their AB careers taking the big euros, francs and yen offshore, isn’t it too late for that? It’s happening already. Rugby, like football, is now a globalised sport where moneyed club owners suck up talent regardless of national affiliation or affinity.

Assuming we get past that point, the much more interesting question is are there NZ players overseas worth looking at - particularly in the tight five, blindslide or centres? Stephen Luatua springs to mind, as does Ngani Laumape.

@KiwiMurph That makes sense. I wonder whether that is the source of the problem. Foster plays the benevolent father figure telling players not to be robots and play what’s in front of them, while his assistants are sending out completely different messages. The players are told to work on problems and then the goalposts move depending on whom they are talking to.

The other cost not being considered is the damage to Silver Lake’s equity stake from the reputational damage to the AB brand. I think that is more substantial than the cost of paying out the contracts of the incompetent incumbents. Don’t underestimate the pressure coming to bear there.

@KiwiMurph Someone who really needs the money

It’s in the NZR’s interests to talk up the cost of the severance deal while trying to convince the other candidates to drink from the poisoned chalice. Anyone can see why Robertson would want to tell them to f&^k themselves. They passed over him last time and now come crawling back when Foster has made a hash of everything a little over a year out from a World Cup. The expectations would be massive and would inevitably set him up for a fall, trashing his brand and cutting his market value when the ABs inevitably are knocked out in the semis or quarters next year.

Schmidt, with less to prove and closer to the end of his career, might be willing to be the stopgap, keeping Robertson’s hands clean in the meantime. But I can’t really see that either.

I think the most likely outcome is there will be a couple of human sacrifices in the coaching team. Once those heads are on sticks and more capable assistants are brought in, Foster keeps his job till the WC before being shown the door. Goodnight and good luck.

An enterprising journo needs to get the good oil on what the players are thinking. Plainly, they are an unhappy crew. Foster pulling Cane 15 minutes before the final whistle in Wellington suggested he was trying to make his own captain the patsy for the tripe that was served up. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark Aotearoa.

From the perspective of someone who works in corporate communications, the announcement of a ‘full inquiry’ is a classic playing-for-time device while lawyers negotiate a contract exit. My bet is that he’s gone but it’s the manner of his going that is being discussed.

@NTA Agree totally. They started believing in their own myth and spent too long looking at their own highlight reels. Some reflection needed. And haircuts all around