All Blacks Sam Darry, Will Jordan and Cortez Ratima speak about their shortcomings against Argentina and their preparation for this weekend's game. Video / Dean Purcell
McKenzie faced no further sanction over the incident
The star playmaker has been named to start against Argentina on Saturday at Eden Park
Gregor Paul is one of New Zealand’s most respected rugby writers and columnists. He has won multiple awards for journalism and has written several books about sport.
OPINION
The All Blacks have long-promoted that they operate a “no dickheads” policy, which has never quite been true.
Therehave been plenty of “dickheads” to wear the famous black jersey and ample occasions when good young men have behaved like “dickheads” - and what the All Blacks have really operated has been a zero-tolerance policy towards “behaving like a dickhead”.
Every team is going to have its characters and its indiscretions – the pressure of living in a regimented high-performance world where expectations can be intense and the demands relentless, is inevitably going to see a few people fail to show up on time or not behave to the desired standards.
And given the demands of being an All Black – a member of a rugby team that lives under constant pressure to enhance one of the great legacies in sport – there is a heightened probability that individuals will occasionally breach the behavioural standards expected of them.
Any suggestion the All Blacks have had a no “dickheads” policy is a fallacy, but for the last 20 years, they have consistently and ruthlessly managed their environment to discipline those who have transgressed and to ensure that one person being a “dickhead” doesn’t manifest into everyone being a “dickhead”.
Under previous head coaches Sir Graham Henry, Sir Steve Hansen and then Ian Foster, there was never any ambiguity or confusion about expected standards of professionalism and behaviour.
They made the point that the standards you walk past become the standards you accept, and all three had an astute understanding that a team’s culture can quickly become toxic and unmanageable if there are no consequences for those who break the rules, or worse, an inconsistency in how individuals are treated when they transgress.
Hansen, in particular, ruled with something of an iron-fist – a tough-love culture in which he saw his role to not only coach a rugby team, but churn out better, more rounded people.
For a team with ambition to be the best in the world, there has to be a strong sense internally that boundaries are real, and looking back through the past 20 years, the All Blacks have avoided any cultural meltdowns where they have been ripped apart by a scandal that has developed through a leadership failure.
England and Australia have both been embroiled in sagas that led to their head coaches resigning for not initially or adequately disciplining players, but the All Blacks have always jumped on any off-field shenanigans with enough force to prevent any uprising.
It is understood not everyone in the All Blacks senior leadership team is happy about the way the incident was handled, writes Gregor Paul. Photo / Photosport
There are more than a few All Blacks in recent times who have found out the hard way that being late is a big, big deal.
In 2012, Aaron Smith missed a curfew after the match against Argentina in Wellington and was demoted to the bench for the next game against South Africa.
These examples made headline news but those who have been around the All Blacks for a while know that the team operates to military expectations around time keeping in everything they do.
New players come in and they can be seen nervously scurrying around with their notebook, desperate to be five minutes early for their next appointment, be it a meeting with teammates, coaches, media or sponsors.
They say that they will be fined if they are late; in the All Blacks it is not cleanliness but punctuality that is next to godliness.
There are no mitigating factors to justify being late or to diminish the seriousness of the crime – so a failure to adjust a watch to local time, falling asleep on a beach or wanting to spend an extra 10 minutes with a loved one are all treated the same.
In the All Blacks, late is late. If players, for any reason, start waltzing into team meetings five minutes after they start, or coming home at all hours, the whole high-performance culture will collapse, and chaos will reign.
And it’s because the All Blacks have imposed such rigidity towards good time keeping, and historically been so ruthless in punishing those who have been late for anything, that it is a genuine surprise to have it confirmed by New Zealand Rugby that Damian McKenzie was not disciplined for missing the team bus from San Diego to Los Angeles the day after the 47-5 defeat of Fiji.
In a world where players have previously feared being one minute late for a rub down, McKenzie taking a two-hour Uber to Los Angeles Airport to repatriate himself with the rest of his teammates for a long-haul flight home, seems, comparatively at least, to be a major breach of protocol.
Less of a surprise is to have learned through various sources that not everyone in the All Blacks senior leadership team is happy about the way the incident was handled, sensing that the opportunity to send a clear message about the importance of punctuality, accountability and responsibility has been missed.
It is believed concerns have arisen about who, if anyone, is going to enforce the standards of behaviour that are expected. If missing a two-hour bus trip is not considered worthy of a more punitive sanction than being forced to apologise to teammates, what precisely would a player have to do to invite a more serious sanction?
For the new coaching regime, this incident has the potential to have lingering consequences as a precedent has been set – a decision made to shift the metaphoric line some distance from where previous regimes have placed it – and now they face having to navigate a treacherous path should further misdemeanours be committed in the future.
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