2016 is a new International rugby season for the World Champions, the New Zealand All Blacks. There was a new captain leading the charge and as others have captioned it, ‘a new era’ for the All Blacks Class of 2016. After leading players that had been within the winning environment simultaneously retired – six players holding nearly 750 test caps – there were the key ingredients needed for a fresh start.
Strangely, 2016 has been all too familiar really. Kieran Read had already been captain on ten previous occasions and there was the same coach in Steve Hansen (signed until 2017). Very much the same group you’d have to say. Just six new players were invited to join the wider group (a conservative approach) and the results so far have also been ‘the same’ as seen in previous seasons: rusty, scrappy affairs to open with and yet still winning. So with that backdrop there has only been a muted ovation for the All Blacks Class of 2016.
Where were the surprises? Where was the innovation? Were the slight changes the point of difference? I ask this because if you do not change, you can sometimes be seem to be standing still as others advance. And of those others, one can only be talking about the England rugby team. The team who could not even get out of the pool stages at ‘their own’ Rugby World Cup tournament. Left battered and bruised, their 2015 coach was frog-marched away in disgrace leaving a nation questioning their players. But fortuitously, their rise in status under new coach Eddie Jones has seemed to over-shadow the ‘new era’ of the All Blacks. It has shown real change.
All the applause has been shone onto the English team
Since February, they announced a new captain in New Zealand born Dylan Hartley and have exceeded the expectations of English fans the world over. Claiming the famed ‘Grand Slam’ in the RBS Six Nations, it has been a tremendous run of victories. This now includes the very first series victory in Australia. Coincidentally, Jones is an Australian himself, a famed man manager who has won a Rugby World Cup title with South Africa. Actually, before his England role, he coached Japan in 2015 to the biggest upset in that tournaments history–beating South Africa.
While that side has progressed, and Ireland have made huge strides too, the New Zealand (NZ) approach has been conservative at it’s heart. The six new players included the very exciting but untested Damian McKenzie. With that potential firepower at his fingertips, Hansen has appeared to ‘play it safe’. The thought of a young backline seemed to inhibit his selections. Choosing Aaron Cruden who is a fine director in his opening test, he went for the safe option. Retaining the adventurous Beauden Barrett was important but only as an ‘impact player’ off the bench. “What an awesome impact though” many will say; as he proved in the Rugby World Cup final 2015, but the innovation dreamed of was set-aside for the Wales test series.
Was this opportunity to embrace change missed?. Yes. Did NZ rugby need to make wholesale changes and cut a swathe through old hands to install a new era? No, but the time will never be as good because in 2017 they must face the touring British and Irish Lions. Come June 2017, almost all rugby fans will be glad to go with the tried and true. You would be silly to experiment in that white-hot-heat of a Lions tour but many would have applauded more ‘new faces’ in 2016.
Retirements opened up opportunity for new faces
Maybe fans and commentators have made too much of the player retirements that coach Steve Hansen has had to replace. It has happened before – think 1992 when Gary and Alan Whetton, Joe Stanley all retired, or even the English team of 2004. Change is common. Had the media built-up the expectation that we would see the many unknown faces? No, even they made cautious suggestions of few new names and fresh approaches. Fans maybe assumed too much.
Post-World Cups are not only the time to remove unsuccessful regimes, aka England, but they can be the right time to implement a new agenda. To expand your game and to allow players (old and n ew) to express the game that is most successful. In NZ, that would be the expressive Super Rugby game that see’s four sides makeup the top eight. And there are many who think that would have been the most positive direction for the 2016 All Blacks to have taken. A shift in manpower may have received the most applause so far this International season.
However, consensus proved to ring true. There was no ‘air of the unknown’ when the squad was released. In fact, much has stayed the same. That seems to be the tendency with Hansen’s selection policy (as well as Henry’s) and it was reflected in results. Scratchy games that the All Blacks just won in the end. Heard that before?
The All Blacks in transition
Many will recall the transition after 2003, where the side had to recover from the Rugby World Cup disappointment. A semi final defeat was still not the desired result rugby fans desired. So incumbent coaches were asked to ‘reapply for the role’ to placate the mass call for heads to roll. Gladly, New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU) made sensible decisions that proved popular and the unsuccessful administration were replaced.
While it certainly was an upheaval that out-weighs this season by many times, there was no blood-shedding even if popular stories tell otherwise. By 2004, several key players had missed re-selection and new names were called out by the then NZRFU President John Graham for the Tri Nations competition. The team had mixed success that season. By the end of year tour, only then did Henry make the call to bring in fresh faces. Jerome Kaino, Piri Weepu and Conrad Smith began their storied All Blacks careers. Others that were not so fortunate,ended theirs and it is the absence of players that is the similarity here.
The winning formula was not there though, as new coach Graham Henry (pre Knighthood) had come from Europe. He himself had not seen the successful reign that current coach Hansen has inherited. That brought a more ruthless selection policy and with it, a more pointed approach. It brought success against the 2005 Lions and it is a change that Jones has similarly made.
England have profited most in 2015/2016
In respect to Jones, he has not ‘shaken up the English scene’ as much as many will tell you. Chris Robshaw is still involved, in what would have seemed to be the selection axing everyone believed was needed. N, Jones has been more psychological, more diplomatic in his tactics. The coaching group he assembled have gained the best out of his squad since the Six Nations victory. He installed a questionable captain’s choice who seems to be reveling in the challenge. Mind you, the players not selected from the 2015 squad will tell you different.
Whereas they needed to change, Hansen and his group have stayed with the ‘tried and true’. They did not need to reinvent the wheel. They have used the men they placed trust in previously: Read, Kaino, Franks, Crotty and Cruden. Only Ardie Savea seems to bring any fresh perspective and with his athleticism and anticipation. Fans hope he is left to play his natural game and that he is not be changed into an All Black machine – similarities to Michael Jones are obvious, but he is no IceMan.
That is one of the positives seen after two test matches and, for many, now they have clinched the series it is time to open the gates to real change.
Time for the All Blacks to embrace change
So the first-up game was played to type – a ‘scrappy’ type of game. The Welsh brought the challenge issued during the Haka. That performance was a surprise, as Aaron Smith had told media that he was not the ideal choice. Maybe his mates in the team changed his mind, but it seemed to be the right choice. The very much talked about senior leadership group were still present and the only ‘relatively new’ men were in the midfield pairing and right winger Waisake Naholo (only his third test).
This is still a very much an experienced group, even though Hansen, Ian Foster and Grant Fox were talking of ‘re-establishing’ the All Blacks. The general reaction to the squad announcement was “oh yes, we know them. Where are the new guys?” Only Seta Taminivalu and Savea managed to debut that first night and in the second test, again only two fresh faces. It seemed like that the ‘established’ men, would be used to re-establish the brand, and for some, that was counter-productive.
An ovation followed the final whistle at 9:24pm Saturday night of that first test, so the fans were happy. That might have been because they had to wait eight months in between test matches. Postmortem analysis showed how media were content but not overly excited by the 39-21 result. Both head coaches saw positives in the results when questioned in the press conference. The All Blacks soon readied themselves for Wellington, and the Wales side traveled to Hamilton. And we all know what happened then.
It could have worked for Wales, because in a way they started the second test the better. No doubt about it, and at 10-10 halfway through the match the Welsh nation were buoyed by the strong position. Beauden Barrett soon helped his team to remove that joy though, and not even two late tries could remedy the final result 37-22.
Post match satisfaction
Smiles were evident in post-game media sessions. The faces said it all, the media only had to look at Aaron Cruden after the first test and Israel Dagg after the second. Individual performances by the pair were highlights, as was the leaping try for Julian Savea at Eden Park and the bristling speed of brother Ardie Savea on his home turf of Westpac Stadium which was a pleasure to see.
Savea; Ardie not Julian, has been one of the successes of this ‘new era’, if you can call it that. The coaches have been mostly satisfied, just as much as the overall applause level has been a little muted. Fans know, as much as the coaching group, that they can be so much better. That is with the current players selected, not considering any of the untried men not used so far in 2016: Lima Sopoaga, Codie Taylor, Ofa Tuungafasi, Elliot Dixon, Liam Squire, Tom Franklin and George Moala (injury cover for Charlie Ngatai).
And the smiles were fine examples of how their preparation finally matched the true time needed for the opening series of the year. A two week window was taken. In fact the Super Rugby season was stopped completely to accommodate the International window. Across all SANZAAR nations, each test series saw those sides fully focused, rested and all in the best head space possible. What was also needed for NZ, to generate the most advantageous result, was a more ‘enlightened approach’.
All Blacks Class of 2016
They missed an opportunity to use this Class of 2016 to bring in many more players. They all will thrive in the All Blacks team environment, no question about that. If used constructively, it can expose them to the best methods and practices that would then cross-benefit their Super Rugby franchises. When those men return for the final three rounds (beginning July 1s)] they will be full of enthusiasm and, hopefully, a test cap.
There is no question about it, the group have done well. They have claimed the series. The applause is well earned, but at this time, it is only muted by their conservatism.
__________________________________________________________________
The third and final test will be played at Forsyth-Barr Stadium in Dunedin, at 7:35pm (NZT).
Main Photo
