It’s true that the All Blacks are the All Blacks. One minute brilliant, the next depressing. Functioning mostly like a club team, with an elite few seemingly unaffected by the passage of time or the selector’s knife, they seem to be able to play for as long as they choose.
The Black Ferns appear to be a ghost of the squad that won the previous Rugby World Cup; Australia just defeated our secondary school team, and Neil Barnes, the coach of Taranaki, has now railed against New Zealand Rugby (NZR).
In an interview with The Platform, Barnes focused on the predicament of the defeated Tasman team rather than bragging about winning the Ranfurly Shield over the weekend.
In addition to accusing NZR of ignoring the unions and competition that develop players for the top of the pyramid, he argued that the NPC season’s schedule was unjust and pointless.
Barnes stated that although players at the All Black level have lots of downtime, a side like Tasman, who played three NPC games in eight days, including two shield defences, does not have the same luxury.
As she previously warned that her position would become unsustainable should the governance structure she advocated at a conference of delegates in May be defeated, NZR chair Patsy Reddy has correctly declared that she will not run for reelection.
At the time, the provinces also made a strong statement by voting against the idea that the NZR board and management had pushed. In addition to Reddy’s, several managerial, coaching, and public relations posts at NZR are now being sought, along with board seats. News for The Daily Rugby
Indeed, NZR now has a lot to offer if you’ve ever coveted a job where one of the benefits was match tickets. I don’t know about you, but I can’t help but believe that there is a connection between our teams’ results and the arrivals and departures at head office.
People laugh at you if you hold NZR or the routes that develop our players responsible for the results of All Blacks games, but you can’t claim there’s no connection. Beyond our passion for rugby, the majority of us are sports enthusiasts. We have thoughts about the way those franchises are managed and we support teams in different codes and nations.
Good organisations are almost always those that succeed on the playing field. The less fortunate people move from crisis to crisis and disturbance to disturbance, frequently with the belief that the person coming through the revolving door would know all the solutions.
Reports and reviews are all ordered, but they are rarely completed. Although staff members and coaches change, the results rarely do. Bad clubs and regulatory bodies are buried so far beneath the surface that they are mostly responsible for the issue.
I say this not to excuse the Black Ferns and All Blacks or any other team playing under the NZR’s name of guilt. I mention it because it’s an undeniable contributing component that we can’t ignore any longer.
Governing isn’t glamorous. Not only does it not attract many Instagram followers or butts on seats, but it is uninteresting to read about, yet it is essential to a team’s success.
In my opinion, the All Blacks’ increased competitiveness in the upcoming years will come from inside, not from the management. I also doubt that the team will regain its former level of supremacy unless many of the underlying problems are identified.
Since NZR is not in great health, neither are most of our national teams or events. Sincere leadership is now needed, and it is insulting to believe that it would likely come from the provinces rather than NZR itself—especially in light of May’s disastrous governance vote and Barnes’ scathing remarks.