Heavy Is The Head That Wears The Crown
Eating humble pie and it is strange to see the so called specialists not seeing what is wrong with their national team. People looking in from the outside this is clear and obvious.
This morning I was watching "The Breakdown" rugby show from New Zealand which is a must watch after an All Blacks loss. The panel is made up of ex All Black players and seeing them have a melt down is entertaining. They can air their personal views, but this is more about the coaches as they need to set up a system that bears fruit and also plans for the future like the World Cup in 2027. If you concentrate on the present the worry is you will not be ready as the planning is not in place.
Earlier in the year the All Blacks had a test series against France at home and what they failed to realize is the French team was their "B" team as they left their key players at home. The All Blacks won the series 3 nil even though the first and third games were close and the Breakdown team were raving about the strength of their team.
Last week when they saw the All Blacks beat South Africa by 7 points they did not see what everyone else saw and that they were lucky to win. The SA mistakes made the game close and if it was not bucketing down with rain for the entire game they would have been smashed. The game played yesterday could have been far worse with SA crossing the try line 3 times within the first 20 minutes and should have been up 21-7 and not 10-7 down at half time.
Yesterdays thrashing has definitely changed their tune and now they are clutching at straws as to what is wrong. Losing matches is never a bad thing as long as you fix what is wrong and come back stronger. New Zealand has lost two matches in the Rugby Championship having lost to the Argentinian's for the first time in Argentina 3 weeks ago. The panel on the show took it on the chin and did not see problems with their team and here we are 3 weeks later having a full melt down.
South Africa have not been without their struggles this season and lost a similar game like New Zealand have when playing Australia having lost to Australia. In that game SA was up 22 nil after 20 minutes and lost 22-38. Lessons learned and the team has moved on but it was a good lesson to learn that will not happen again.
The biggest issue is any team who is not building to the next world cup which is only 2 years away will be in trouble. The only time the All Blacks change their team is when they have injuries to players. This is not blooding new blood and building up their experience levels by earning caps. If the team carries on doing the same things they will be found out and when they need to change their team they will not have experienced players to call on.
In comparison when you look at South Africa the coach has 3 players fore very position and all of these players are on contracts forming the squad. When the squad trains it is a full physical training session with live scrumming giving the same intensity as a full test match. Other teams use scrumming machines which does not push back because they do not have enough players of quality to scrum against. Depth of having a player pool of similar experience and quality is what wins you long tournaments like a World Cup and without this luxury you are one or two injuries away from struggling.
An example of this is during yesterdays match the SA team had 4 injuries in the first 30 minutes and the replacements did not weaken the team. Other teams this would have been a disaster as they do not have this depth of experience and quality.
Rugby is changing at a rapid pace and this is all about executing your moves at a high pace suffocating your opponents ball and possession. When a team gets this right no other team can compete and will be blown away chasing shadows so at the end of the day this comes down to coaching and the squad you have to work with.
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