Martin Devlin: Not appointing a Kiwis captain for Denver league international against England is a dumb decision

If the Kiwis playing England in Denver is dumb, then this decision to not name a captain for the test is even dumber.

New coach Michael Maguire has immediately stamped his impact on the side with an idea that doesn't make a skeric of sense,

Back in the bad old days, aka the good old days, aka the time when things were normal and not millenial, teams used to have a captain.

Then in came the hand-wringing, everyone's equal, don't keep the score, there are no winners, everyone gets a prize brigade and we started having co-captains.

And now Maguire's taken that one step further with "no-captain".

Adam Blair will lead the side onto the field. Then from there Maguire wants a number of natural leaders to come forward. Naturally. And lead.

Together. As a collective. Everyone runs on as a penguin and then on the field they all become dolphins. Together. Equal. One entire communicative all-encompassing game-enveloping leadership pot-luck-dinner-party.

I don't want to even start on who's going to be talking under the posts let alone who's in charge of chatting to the ref.

Everything about this idea is as idiotic as Andreas Heraf's Football Ferns tactics.

And Michael Maguire is an intelligent guy. He's won a Premiership.

He was appointed to take us in a new direction, to restore pride and confidence
back into the Kiwis jersey, to bury the ghosts of mistakes made under David Kidwell.

And his first move is to send his brand new side out onto the field to play their first test under his leadership with no captain.

Such a silly idea it almost makes the thought of playing a mid-year test against England
in Denver make sense. Almost.

The Devlin Radio Show is on Radio Sport and NewstalkZB from noon to 3pm every Saturday and Sunday.