A timely Taylor-made message for NZR
PLUS: A bumper edition of The Week That Was and a more refined edition of The Weekend That Will Be.
It would be fair to say Tom Taylor never made a big impact as an All Black, playing three tests in 2013 before deciding his future lay on more lucrative fields offshore.
The former Crusaders stalwart who now plays under Todd Blackadder in Japan landed a big punch this week, however, when he declared “bluntly” that New Zealand rugby was in a “difficult place” and “going backwards”.
You can have all the pundits and know-it-alls screeching about declining standards and it means nothing to those cosseted inside the country’s rugby systems. When you have someone who was once part of the system and is now on the outside looking in saying the same thing, the right people might start to take notice.
Whether they can or want to do anything about it is another matter.
Taylor talked about talented players leaving too early and then excelling overseas. With rugby’s economic model the way it is there’s not a lot that can be done about that other than opening up All Black selection to all New Zealanders regardless of where they’re playing, but that is a complex issue as it would have potentially damaging ramifications for local rugby, which would have knock-on effects on sponsorship, match-day and particularly broadcast revenue.
Those are big-picture problems for a different day.
It was Taylor’s assessment of on-field strategy that caught my eye.
“They need to do things differently, they can’t just rely on what they used to do,” he said. “They’ve maybe got to be a bit more innovative, try something new, and try new tactics, some new game plans, because the same old thing isn’t working any more.”
Let’s be honest, this is not razor-sharp analysis, but sometimes you need the simple things put “bluntly”, to use his own word.
He’s right. While the faces might be gone, the All Blacks seem stuck in a Henry-Hansen-Smith time warp. New Zealand Rugby’s answer to the problem seems to be to further insulate Ian Foster with old faces like Mike Cron and a well-travelled one in Joe Schmidt.
It was rare to hear a former All Black who is still playing the game speak with such candour. Were the right people listening?
THE WEEK THAT WAS
Staying with precipitous decline and eventual fall of Antipodean rugby, the Herald’s Liam Napier ($) says press pause on the idea that the competitiveness of the Australian franchises will translate to a Wallabies uplift, saying there are still significant gaps in the arsenal Dave Rennie will be able to call upon and that the competitiveness of the franchises was more a reflection on New Zealand.
“Australia’s collective competitiveness is heartening, but let’s not get carried away yet. With the Hurricanes and Highlanders, New Zealand’s dwindling depth is being exposed though.”
It’s hard to disagree but Napier has also inadvertently highlighted one of Super Rugby’s biggest issues: everything about it is viewed through the prism of how it affects the national teams it feeds.
The competition itself has little agency.
At this point in the New Zealand rugby calendar it should be all about Super Rugby… but it never is. It’s about what it means for the All Blacks and Wallabies.
Compare that to the English Premier League or Champions League. Nobody watched that absorbing two-legged semifinal between Manchester City and Real Madrid and wondered how it would affect the thinking of England manager Gareth Southgate or Spain’s Luis Enrique.
I’ve scoured the interweb looking for a written piece that best sums up the 6-5 aggregate craziness but as is often the case, when there’s too much to write about the stories tend to suffer from a lack of focus.
This podcast, however, is on point and a lot of fun.
After my midweek look at the Black Caps test squad to tour England starting later this month, Andrew took mild umbrage and my wish for an early IPL knockout of the Sunrisers Hyderabad, Chennai Super Kings, Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders, who all have players in the above squad.
“As a NZ fan, I want our players to do well in the IPL... If they have to miss a NZ game, maybe that will teach NZ cricket to not schedule tours around the flagship income event of international cricket. Our guys deserve to make their nut, regardless of what people think of [the] IPL,” he wrote.
Couple of things to note. England schedules the tour, not New Zealand, and also, the IPL has increased from eight to 10 teams and has indicated it wants more so this “window” that separates the southern and northern hemisphere summers is in all likelihood going to continue to expand and squeeze the traditional schedules. The IPL behemoth has even attracted the interest of NBA superstar Chris Paul who has invested in Trent Boult and Daryl Mitchell’s Rajasthan Royals!
You’re right that players deserve to make their money. I’m not sure anybody objects to it in the way they once did. I was covering this tour in 2008 when former England captain Mike Atherton tore New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori a new one in an open letter in The Times. Vettori’s crime was turning up after the IPL and missing warm-up matches, which is now par for the course.
He wrote, among other things: “Not long ago an England tour would have been the summit of a New Zealand cricketer’s ambition. Not any more, it seems.
“You had [NZC chief executive Justin] Vaughan over a barrel, didn’t you? You left the decision to him, but really you knew that pragmatism dictated that he could not prevent you from going.
“He knows, as you do, that it is the only way of preventing more players joining the IPL and being lost to New Zealand for good.
“... You did not have to accept the captaincy of your country, just as New Zealand did not have to accept to play four warm-up matches.
“But to accept and then turn up with just over half a team is downright rude. Clearly, in this new world, old-fashioned manners count for little.”
Even reading it back now it’s just a “wow” moment and one old Athers might like to have back, especially the putting-the-colonies-in-their-place line at the top.
Finally, Williamson’s really not having a good IPL.
Some big calls in the first Black Ferns squad of the year, including the omission of captain Les Elder. She has been replaced as skipper by Ruahei Demant.
Having been to a few Olympics, the one sport I’ve never watched a minute of is modern pentathlon. I don’t get it and I don’t care. Well, the sport is about to undergo a transformation as radical as anything ever seen on Queer Eye for the Straught Guy.
Lee Westwood on wanting to join the Saudi-backed LIV Tour. “This is my job. I do it for money.” Which is probably the justification used by the killers of Jamal Khashoggi to get to sleep at night, too.
As an aside, Westwood has made US$23 million on the PGA Tour in his career, and €38m on the DP World Tour. It’s conservatively estimated his endorsements are worth a further US$6m per year. If you’re really worried about how he’ll feed his family, he’s done alright.
Speaking of big money, Diego Maradona’s Hand of Goal shirt has been sold for extraordinary money, about NZ$14.4m, at auction this week. Funny to think its seller, former England midfielder Steve Hodge, used to turn up to events with it in a shopping bag to show it off.
While its association with the Hand of God goal is a unique selling point, it’s a very English way of looking at it. The rest of us remember this one more clearly.
THE WEEKEND THAT WILL BE
After a big few weekends in front of the box, I’m scaling back dramatically for the next 48 hours.
It’s occurred to me that most of the analysis I read about the Warriors roller-coaster is based less around tactics and more about feelings. They’re that sort of team, I guess.
Sharks v Warriors, Sydney, Sunday 6.05pm, Sky Sport 4
It’s also occurred to me that negativity begets negativity. I’ve read and heard so often this season how bad Super Rugby is that it almost makes you retroactively think you didn’t enjoy games that you actually quite liked at the time. With that in mind, I’m telling myself I'm looking forward to this game tomorrow, even if I find the team from the Australian capital a bit of a tough watch.
Chiefs v Brumbies, Hamilton, tomorrow 7.05pm, Sky Sport 1
There’s a new grand prix on the circuit and it cannot be worse than the last one at Imola, which was junk. It screens at a great time too if you can start work a bit late.
Miami GP qualifying, Miami, Sunday 7.30am; race, Monday 7.30am, Spark Sport
Liverpool’s quest for an unprecedented quadruple could be realistically, if not mathematically, over by Sunday morning. At times lately it has looked like they are running on fumes but they have a squad full of players with big tickers.
Liverpool v Tottenham Hotspur, Anfield, Sunday 6.45am, Spark Sport
It’s been an unthinkably long time since a Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup, the Montreal Canadiens in 1993. There are genuine hopes that the Toronto Maple Leafs, one of sport’s great underachieving franchises, might break the drought this year. They’re in the midst of a playoff series with the defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning. There are also NBA playoffs occurring but it feels a bit random which games are screened live here, so I suggest keeping an eye on ESPN for listings.
In terms of Warrior's content that takes some of the emotion out if it, I highly recommend checking out the Niche Cache. They look at the bigger picture and also have their eye across the wider Warrior's set up.