And the problem is not the Joe Schmidt's of the world, our issues go far deeper than that, and are challenges we in New Zealand can all be a part of influencing.
The Irish team's success is just the tip of the iceberg.
As with any iceberg, underneath the peak of the Irish test team, is an increasingly powerful underbelly of their club rugby culture.
Sadly for us, that underbelly has been boosted by much of our club rugby culture that has slowly drained out of our system and headed north.
For more than 100 years the Irish rugby team have been good battlers against the All Blacks, but we have always had a stranglehold on them.
All Blacks success has been founded on a culture where rugby has been the dominant winter code, and has flourished all over our country, in every rural nook and cranny, and in all our schools.
But that rugby fabric, woven through our communities, is slowly disappearing.
Rugby in community and coed schools is struggling, and rugby clubs have literally died in many parts of our countryside.
All that is bad enough, but what makes it worse is so much of our underbelly and rugby culture is not just moving, it is transferring to places like Ireland.
Therefore the foundation of our All Blacks success has been slowly dying, and those foundations have shifted and will continue to grow in the Northern Hemisphere's – and that should be more of a worry than the odd high profile head coach.
This recent loss to Ireland can't be viewed as just a one-off random loss, rather it is potentially the sign of an irreversible change in rugby power on the global stage.
So it's not just the Joe Schmidt issue, the greater problem is the Joe Average.
I wouldn't mind betting that almost every club in our country, could site examples of great club rugby players and stalwarts who have headed off to Ireland over the last 20 years or so.
And that sort of movement, along with similar migrations from South African, Australian and Pacific Island players, has built the playing strength and 'rugby culture' of communities in the likes of Ireland – and for better or worse, that is what will ultimately mean we may lose the global dominance we have enjoyed.
It's is easy to be a bit blase about it, but it is creeping up on us, and soon it might be too late, and we will only be able to look back and rue the day we let rugby die in our communities.
All Blacks dominance might be one of those things that we really don't appreciate until it's gone.
We might take it for granted now, but the All Blacks have been that one sport, that one thing, that we have owned on the world stage.
We have to be aware of the real issue, then see what we can do to address it.
We need to take a look at our underbelly, and proactively do something to stop the decay.
Once that culture is gone, we may never get it back.
We can't fight the big bucks at the top end of the game, we don't want to stop young players having the overseas experiences, and we can't stop the growth of rugby in the Northern Hemisphere.
But what we can do is focus on our real strength, at a community level, because ultimately that is what makes the All Blacks great, far more so than any individual high performance coach.
Anyone with an interest in our national game can play their part, stop the talent drain being sucked into isolated pockets.
Try to retain talent in as many schools and community areas as possible, keep the coaches and volunteers enthused and the clubs humming, and keep our production line of community rugby as strong as possible
* Marcus Agnew is the health and sport development manager at Hawke's Bay Community Fitness Centre Trust and is also a lecturer in sports science at EIT.
