Black day for ABs jersey

Black day for ABs jersey

By LAURIE MAINS - Sunday News | Sunday, 09 December 2007

There's no doubt the NZRU board's decision to reappoint Graham Henry was one derived out of their desire to support themselves and their positions after they'd agreed to everything the coach had requested in the build-up to the World Cup.

The board, by supporting things like rotation and conditioning, have played a part in devaluing the All Blacks jersey and the All Blacks brand.

Their "in it together" attitude would ordinarily be fine but the one thing in the past that has always been kept clear of politics is the best coach in New Zealand rugby has almost always been the All Blacks coach.

Today though we have a situation where that isn't the case and the greater damage that has been done to New Zealand rugby is the likely loss of Robbie Deans to the Wallabies.

I am devastated for All Blacks rugby because until this current regime the All Blacks jersey had been a valued commodity to rugby players. The jersey was difficult to get and something that had been really valued not just by the players but by their management and previous New Zealand rugby boards.

For those of us who played and coached in the amateur era, that black jersey was everything. You just never compromised it.

When Wallaby great Tim Horan made his comment after the All Blacks loss against France that the All Blacks brand will never be the same again he was in fact saying what all New Zealanders should be saying.

I ask the question are we as stakeholders happy to allow this board and this regime to continue devaluing the All Blacks jersey?

That's the question our provincial unions and their CEOs and chairmen must ask because it's the unions that have the power in their hands to put a stop to this if they have the will.

I feel for Deans.

News today that Steve Tew, Chris Moller and Darren Shand sat in on the interviews on Thursday showed that this board wanted the numbers in the room to keep the status quo and they were prepared to do whatever they needed to do to have the numbers there.

He is the modern day Vic Cavanagh the great Otago coach of yesteryear widely considered the best coach never to have coached the All Blacks.

We are in a totally different era to the one Vic coached in but you could argue Robbie has achieved more over a longer period then Vic did.

With it almost certain that Robbie will head offshore and with the earlier loss of Warren Gatland not only is this decision a bad one for the state of All Blacks rugby but it's going to have long-term effects because the best coaches are being pushed overseas.

It was also tragic to hear Henry say on Friday that his conditioning policy was a mistake.

Excuse me, but that is exactly what anyone who knew anything about rugby was saying at the time he introduced it.

One can only wonder why Henry had to go through New Zealand's worst World Cup campaign to figure it out for himself.