AUGUST 24 2019 LISTENER 45
T
he Black Ferns’ accuracy, clarity of
thought and unwavering intensity sur-
passed anything we’ve seen from the All
Blacks in 2019.
Actually, I wrote those words in 2017, after
the Ferns beat England 41-32 to win the Wom-
en’s Rugby World Cup. In Perth this month, the
comparison was even more unflattering to the
men.
In hailing her team’s “clinical” start – they
led 22-0 at halftime on their way to a crushing
47-10 win – Ferns’ captain Les Elder indirectly
drew attention to another recurring All Blacks
problem area: poor starts. Their habit of giving
opponents an almost instant lead, usually by
failing to clear their territory from the opening
kick-off and then conceding a soft penalty, is
so pronounced that it no longer induces frus-
tration, just Groundhog Day resignation.
There’s a theory – at least, I’ve often won-
dered if it’s the case – that the poor starts
could be a somewhat ironic by-product of
performing the haka. Perhaps the All Blacks
struggle to throw the switch from emotion
to concentration; that they are, so to speak,
caught hot. Halfback TJ Perenara is on record
as saying the haka has “pumped him up” to
the point of being error-prone. Back in the
days when the haka either wasn’t performed
or was performed with so little conviction
that it scarcely qualified as perfunctory, the All
Blacks were renowned for their fast starts.
But, then, the Ferns also perform the haka.Under the pump?
Are the All Blacks’ recent
slow starts a result of
performing the haka?
G
ET
TY(^) IM
AG
ES
who harboured a lifelong ambition to
teach ravens to fly underwater, “and
I’m sure I can repeat them exactly.”
This pattern plants the insidious
thought that perhaps Hansen is
losing his edge and the players are,
accordingly, becoming less responsive
to his urgings. He has been part of
the All Blacks coaching set-up since
2004, head coach since 2012, and is
standing down after the Rugby World
Cup, which starts in late September.
Many a player has found it hard
to maintain intensity when the end is
in sight and their thoughts
occasionally and inevitably
drift to the next phase of their
lives; the same surely applies
to coaches. Hansen’s former
sidekick, Wayne Smith,
walked away in 2017 because
he could no longer summon
the single-mindedness needed
to drive the All Blacks.
From the start of the
season, Hansen has made
it crystal-clear that his and
the team’s priorities in 2019 are, first,
the Rugby World Cup and, second,
the Bledisloe Cup, with the Rugby
Championship barely even on the
radar. Perhaps this mindset became a
self-fulfilling prophecy.
Nevertheless, if the Wallabies can
be overcome and the Bledisloe Cup
retained at Eden Park, the masterplan
will still be on track. Should that not
transpire, fans might feel inclined
to channel Lance Corporal Jones
from Dad’s Army: “Permission to
panic, sir!” l
Contrasting
starts: the All
Blacks perform
the haka;
Renee Wickliffe
scores for the
Black Ferns.