New Zealand won't rest after World Cup success

The seeds for New Zealand’s World Cup success last weekend were sown in 2007 during one of the darkest times in the history of the All Blacks.

Graham Henry’s side had suffered a humiliating quarter-final defeat to France and were hammered from all quarters.

Henry could have taken the easy option and stepped down but instead he re-applied for the job and alongside assistant Wayne Smith, set plans in place “to fix this thing”.

He reshaped the entire culture of the squad, with their off field actions as important as anything they would do inside the white lines of battle. Over the past eight years that work has developed what is arguably rugby’s greatest team of players and men who have become the first to successfully defend the Rugby World Cup title.

They set about selecting their teams and squads on the basis that ‘better men make better All Blacks’. They are one of the few professional sports teams that leave their dressing rooms the way they entered it after each Test match or training. And it is not the bag man or helper that gets the brush and pan. Instead it is the leadership group of McCaw, Read, Carter, Nonu and Smith who are doing the sweeping. These great players understand the huge responsibility that comes with being an All Black and how they need to leave the jersey in a better place than they found it. Literally.

But what about the rugby side of things? They train at incredible intensity and back themselves to win tight matches. Look how composed they were in their semi-final win over South Africa, that composure game from clear heads under pressure plus the confidence from winning tight matches like their dramatic victory over Ireland in November 2013.

Creating a positive team culture that fosters certain codes of behaviour is still just one important ingredient in a winning team.

The All Blacks tactically and technically are nearly always ahead of the curve. Most teams try and mimic what they do but by the time people have perfected that copy the All Blacks have moved on to something better.

Their coaches deserve huge credit too. Steve Hansen has stepped into Graham Henry’s shoes seamlessly. They have an eye for players, look at their wings Naholo and Milner- Skudder, guys who hadn’t been Super Rugby regulars two seasons ago. What about all those experts calling for Dan Carter to be dropped given his form going into the World Cup?

The All Blacks management stuck with Carter when he was not playing well because they felt that Dan was the player for this tournament. And how he repaid them.

A mark of Hansen’s mindset was the manner in which he studied Spanish football in a bid to help his cause. “I thought Spain were a great model when they won the European Championship then the World Cup. They just about won everything but then threw it away. Something’s happened there – people say it’s cyclical but you only go cyclical because you get comfortable and stop working hard. You’ve got to be honest with yourselves. At some point we’ve now got to ask: where do we go next?

“Ask some really hard questions and try to find the inconvenient facts. The stuff that winning sometimes glosses over and you don’t want to admit to yourself.”

New Zealand’s continued success in the sport extends far beyond the undoubted talent in the senior squad but right down to primary school kids playing a non-contact version of the sport all the way up to Steve Tew, head of New Zealand Rugby.

It’s Tew’s job to oversee the alignment of New Zealand’s national game from the grassroots to the glory and to keep the All Blacks at the top of the game, generation after generation. All the players are contracted to the NZRU like they are in Ireland with the IRFU but there seems to be a better alignment with the All Black staff and the feeder teams and everyone is aware what their job is. Whether it’s regional clubs, ITM teams or Super Rugby franchises the NZRU ensures everyone is united behind a common vision of continued success on the world stage.

Buck Anderson, former All Black, rugby teacher and coach, now heads the New Zealand Rugby Football Union’s heavily-funded community programmes.

“Everything we do is about four key skills: catch, pass, run and evade,” says Anderson.

A few years ago, Anderson found that 90% of primary school teachers in the country are female.

Surveys showed that even those who enjoyed watching rugby were reluctant to teach it, partly for fear of kids getting hurt and partly because the rules are so complex. The answer was the development of what they call ‘Rippa Rugby’ which is a non-contact, small-sided version of the game that can be played by kids as young as three.

Once bitten by the bug, kids are fed through a carefully designed series of programmes, starting at the age of five with the ingeniously named Small Blacks.

Between five and seven, there are no set pieces, no tackling and no kicking. Aged eight onwards, defence skills are introduced and they have a very slick development system as the kids become teenagers and into adults. From such small acorns, mighty oaks will grow.