- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
While it’s highly unlikely that Graham Henry will take the initiative at any point in the near future and step aside, it’s increasingly clear that a swathe needs to be cut through New Zealand rugby in order to restore the mana – and mongrel – in this once great rugby nation.
If the warning bells for the All Blacks weren’t already loud enough after the home defeat to the Springboks, then they’re deafening now. And it’s not as if most pundits didn’t see it coming.
After all, Robbie Deans is the finest rugby coach in the world.
His record with the Crusaders, and now – already – with the Wallabies, suggests that he understands better than anyone how to instill a winning mentality in his players, well before the hard work on the field has been done.
Players respond to Deans. They trust him. And they play with a sense of confidence in the knowledge that if they stick to his instructions, chances are they’ll come out on top.
The All Blacks, on the other hand, are playing like a team that’s afraid of losing.
Henry has not instilled the same aura of impregnability that has always been a trademark of Deans’ coaching. Not through want of trying, of course. But that type of attitude can’t be forced into the players’ psyche.
It’s instinctive, it runs deep, and it comes with an inherent confidence that things are being done better in your camp than in the next.
Few in the All Blacks would believe that now. Especially not the Crusaders contingent.
The weight of expectation playing first for a country that expects success, and then for a coach hanging tentatively to his position, must be an enormous pressure.
Contrast this to the 2008 Wallabies who have everything to gain, and nothing to lose.
Although I didn’t see it, by all accounts even the Haka, that once fearsome signal of intent, has lost its aura. It’s hardly surprising; the right to intimidate is earned through results. A losing side doesn’t frighten an opposition before the ball has been kicked off, regardless of how hard they try.
Beyond the surface, there are even deeper issues at play.
Most significantly, one wonders just how much influence Deans has had over New Zealand rugby during the past few years. Has the ongoing success of his superbly drilled Crusaders team masked real problems at a grassroots level?
The Crusaders have formed the nucleus of the All Blacks squad in recent seasons. The two best players in New Zealand, and perhaps the world – McCaw and Carter – have been drilled in the Deans approach to rugby.
The Crusaders have for so long set the benchmark for how winning rugby should be played. And in doing so, they’ve motivated other New Zealand Super 14 sides to push themselves to the next level in order to compete.
Only, they haven’t.
In this season’s Super 14, the Hurricanes were the next best New Zealand side after the Crusaders, finishing in fourth place. In 2007, the Blues finished the preliminary rounds in fourth place, to the Crusaders third.
There was no overwhelming New Zealand domination of the Super 14 ladder.
So perhaps the expectations of the All Blacks have been overstated.
Regardless, Deans is gone, and somehow Henry has to bring back that sense of invincibility – not only in his players, but in the minds of the opposition – which has for so long been the rock upon which great New Zealand teams have been built.
I doubt that he can do it.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.