Editorial: Hard decisions needed after All Blacks crash to another awful defeat

Dejected All Blacks players after losing the match to the Springboks at Mbombela Stadium. Photo / Photosport.co.nz

Editorial

It's been a truism at least since Watergate that political crimes are made worse by a cover-up. In a general sense that translates to a crisis being made worse by how it is handled.

Essentially what has happened on the field with the All Blacks has been made worse by how the team has been managed. And while there's been a slow build-up to this point, the wounds are glaringly obvious.

Hard decisions have to be made after a loss to South Africa in the republic yesterday made it five defeats in the All Blacks' last six starts. Successive losses have become a habit, not an inspiration to turn it around. The team needs an injection of confidence and that means change.

Head coach Ian Foster's time in the job must surely be finished. Two tests against Argentina in New Zealand on August 27 and September 3 would offer a chance for Scott Robertson, the champion Crusaders coach, to stem the bleeding.

The elevation of one of Robertson's assistants to the All Blacks highlights an absurdity. The rugby bosses have tiptoed around the central problem by replacing deputies rather than the main man, and have turned to Robertson's successful operation while keeping the man himself at arm's length.

This continues to drag out the immediate crisis, and further delays an already long-delayed reset.

New Zealand rugby is now unfortunately openly damaging itself by being a high-profile example of how not to do things.

Any sports team goes through form slumps and periods of rebuilding as players, coaches and administrators change. Renewal has to be managed, succession carefully planned for, and successful sides try to maintain standards, keep looking ahead and innovating. A slippage of standards and an aversion to risk can pile trouble on problems.

England, France, South Africa and Australia have all stumbled through chaotic periods of failure in the past couple of decades.

Statistics suggest this is a particularly bad rut for the All Blacks even though they have recovered from disaster before.

This time feels somewhat different because most fans have lost confidence in Foster and the people running the game, who are the ones ultimately accountable.

If the current slide isn't arrested, fans and media can see other cliffs ahead: long-term erosion of the team's reputation; an early exit from next year's World Cup; the loss of Robertson overseas and a major rival such as England benefiting from his talent and knowledge.

New Zealand rugby first ignored the tinkle of a warning bell that change was needed after the drawn series against the British and Irish Lions in 2017 - five years ago. That became a blaring siren two years later after the All Blacks were dumped out of the World Cup by England in the semi-final.

A fresh start and bold thinking for the beginning of a new four-year cycle were then required.

The administrators flunked this test by ignoring the claims of outside candidates with better results on their CVs in favour of an insider. Why bypass candidates who had won Super Rugby titles as head coaches to appoint someone who hadn't? What happened to the idea of appointing the best person for the job?

The administrators have since doubled down on these failures by sidestepping their own get-out clauses and reappointing Foster and his assistants to 2023 ... and then removing two of the deputies.

They have turned a car-crash into a multi-vehicle pile-up.

The first thing that has to happen when a mistake is made is to recognise it. It has to be fixed and a transparent, decisive process stops the fire from growing.

A year is still a long time in sport and coaching changes can bring fast improvements. Just look at how Black Caps legend Brendon McCullum was - unsurprisingly - able to turn around England's cricket Test team.

There's still time to get the All Blacks back on track but the problems at head office are far more troublesome.