Auckland's blues, southern comfort

The nation's major rugby trophies have gone south and fans of teams around Auckland are crying into their beer. WARREN GAMBLE tries to find out what has gone wrong.

You can tell the Canterbury rugby fans in Auckland. Their wallets bulge with the fruits of victory, their red faces shine with dark smiles, they talk like Toddy and Mehrts are part of the family.

Even worse, they have the southern decency not to boast.

Instead they allow a modest satisfaction at the National Provincial Championship trophy being locked away in Jade Stadium as if it were part of the natural order.

At least Eden Park is a better name.

But there is little else in Auckland rugby at present to match a Canterbury supremacy which has some commentators reaching, perhaps too soon, for words like "dynasty".

With North Harbour melting to the southern pride of Otago in this year's semifinals and Counties-Manukau relegated from the first division, what has gone wrong with rugby in the big smoke?

The good old days when Auckland used to deal to the rest of the country are not so old - their last national championship was only two years ago - but for a once-dominant team semifinals are not good enough. Especially when last month's semifinal became a record 53-22 hiding by the red-and-blacks at Jade Stadium.

One former Auckland official, still wincing from the memory of that match, says every single Canterbury player clearly outplayed their opposite number.

The Canterbury Crusaders - basically the same team in different jerseys - had a poor Super 12 year by their unmatched standards, but they had won the biggest prize in world provincial rugby for the previous three years.

Inaugural double winners the Auckland-based Blues, which includes Northland and North Harbour unions, had their worst season, finishing 11th.

To cap it all, only one Aucklander and no North Harbour or Counties player were first-choice selections for the end-of-year All Black tour, compared with 16 Cantabrians and seven from Otago. (Harbour halfback Mark Robinson was added to the squad when Justin Marshall was forced to pull out with injury.)

As with any rugby topic, theories abound.

They range from divisive politics on the former Auckland board, lack of money in North Harbour's case to set up a full-time professional outfit, player poaching which has depleted Counties, to the city's diverse geography, cultures and social life contributing to a lack of supporter and player passion.

On the red-and-black side of the ledger what has consistently emerged is that Canterbury's results on the field flow from a superb organisation off it.

Auckland, for so long the benchmark of professionalism in the non-professional era up until 1996, have been caught and surpassed by the Canterbury administration.

The results did not come straight away. In the first season of Super 12 in 1996, the Blues in the twilight of the Sean Fitzpatrick-Zinzan Brooke era lifted the trophy; Canterbury were last. But behind the scenes in Christchurch men such as local businessman and union chairman Mike Eagle, chief executive Steve Tew, and coaches Robbie Deans and Wayne Smith were putting the pieces together.

Tew, a former manager of the Hillary Commission's kiwisports programme, went on a "boy's own" tour of professional sports clubs, including English soccer giants Arsenal and baseball's Toronto Blue Jays.

It reinforced what seemed like simple business practice - getting the right people in the right jobs off the field working on a clear mission to be the best on it.

"The fortunate thing in our environment is that we had a board not satisfied with being last," says Tew.

"They were prepared to listen and learn and made some pretty good calls and investments."

In 1997, the part-time Crusader coaches were replaced with former playing great Wayne Smith as full-time coach with Northland's Peter Sloane his assistant.

Little things also changed. Gone were the white panels on the Crusader jerseys which disenchanted many parochial supporters.

The Crusaders finished mid-table and later that year Canterbury won its first national provincial title since 1983.

The following year the Crusaders beat the Blues to win their first Super 12 title. Other innovations included a full-time training centre at Rugby Park allowing players to develop the strength and conditioning needed to survive a rugged professional calendar.

Canterbury were the first province to introduce detailed video analysis, and to create a full-time player development office providing career, financial, and life-skills advice.

The programme is now being run by the New Zealand union at all Super 12 bases.

Former player Steve Lancaster piloted the Canterbury office, but getting information out of him is as hard as securing ball from the red-and-black pack.

A former Aucklander, who played rugby here until his early 20s, he was polite but firm: "We pride ourselves on staying ahead of the opposition and being innovative, so we don't like sharing what we do."

Another deliberate strategy which spurred the Canterbury revival was aggressive player recruitment, fed by expert scouting.

While management wanted to keep faith with homegrown talent they realised that in the short-term weak spots had to be filled, squad depths boosted.

Players like Kevin Nepia were brought from Auckland, Darryl Lilley and Greg Feek from Taranaki, Leon McDonald from Marlborough, Norm Maxwell from Northland.

It upset other unions and sports talkback callers but Tew, who is leaving his Canterbury post to become rugby general manager for the New Zealand union, has a simple answer.

"I'm sure Canterbury will not back off the fact that one tool for professional sport is player recruitment."

Christchurch journalist Phil Gifford, who as Auckland-based columnist Loosehead Len observed the heyday of Auckland rugby in the late 1980s, says Canterbury's winning edge comes from getting the players to perform with the passion and enthusiasm of the non-professional era.

A key to that was appointing coaches like Deans and Smith, leaders like Todd Blackadder and officials like Lancaster who came from traditional rugby backgrounds and personified the intense Canterbury spirit.

He believes Auckland went too far down the corporate track, losing touch with the playing of the game.

Gifford says before the start of their winning Super 12 seasons the Crusaders spent days forging a near indestructible team spirit, shown at its best in last year's final win over the Brumbies.

Because of heavy end-of-year All Black commitments, the Crusader side which had a mediocre season this year spent only a few hours on team building.

A t the heart of Auckland rugby, on the sixth floor of the ASB Bank stadium at Eden Park, David White is setting about a quiet revolution. The former Northern Districts cricketer who headed the organisation behind the Hurricanes and Wellington rugby's revival is planning the same for Auckland.

Appointed Auckland chief executive in January, months after Wellington won its first domestic title in 14 years, White has deliberately kept a low profile.

But he says a structure is emerging which will get Auckland back to the top.

He admits that reaching the semifinals in the past two years is not gauged as a success in a province with naturally high expectations.

Comparisons with the Auckland team of the late 1980s and early 90s were against an era which was unlikely to be repeated. "That's life, that's a comparison so we have to try to live up to that."

With a turnover between the Blues and the Auckland provincial side of $8 million to $10 million, and the largest cash grant from New Zealand rugby ($965,000 last year), money does not appear to be a problem.

However, White says Canterbury and Wellington do have financial advantages with the respective stadiums being heavily backed by local bodies, while Eden Park is a self-funded venture between rugby and cricket.

With the largest number of registered players, a strong secondary school competition, a club scene which although weakened remains competitive, and an academy system starting to bear fruit, there is also no shortage of talent.

The problem, it seems, and one which Canterbury has solved expertly, is to spend in the right areas, on the right people, to make that talent pay on the park.

White's first year in the job has been spent putting those structures in place.

He shows off the gleaming six-month-old gymnasium in the ASB Bank stand, part of a vast players' clubhouse where everything from fitness to video analysis, life skills and relaxation are catered for.

Instead of players sweating it out around the city's gymnasiums on different programmes, they will all work out at Eden Park under a full-time trainer.

Strength and conditioning is a key area in which Auckland believes Canterbury held the edge this year.

Assistant coach and Auckland rugby legend Grant Fox says the team competed well physically with everyone else, but Canterbury were noticeably stronger.

Fox, who enjoyed a lopsided winning recorded against Canterbury teams, dispels the idea that Auckland rugby lacks passion.

He is still fuming about video refereeing decisions in the semifinal, denying Auckland one try, awarding Canterbury another, which would have made the score more respectable.

He and coach Wayne Pivac had a squad with an average age in the early 20s, and unlike other Super 12 bases almost three-quarters of the players were homegrown talent.

"We introduced 11 or 12 new guys to NPC rugby this year and they can only benefit from the experience."

White says simply: "We will be back."

Over at North Harbour, departing coach Wayne "Buck" Shelford is not so confident.

Players who could not force their way into Super 12 reckoning were being lured overseas on lucrative contracts, and unions like North Harbour did not have the money to prevent that happening.

Shelford says that leads to a growing imbalance between the top five unions, Auckland, Canterbury, Wellington, Otago and Waikato, and the rest.

Although it was not supposed to happen, players picked up in the Super 12 draft by unions out of their region ended up playing their domestic rugby there too. That deprived their home unions of invaluable experience.

Shelford says that for the good of the game, the New Zealand union had to draw up clearer rules about player recruitment.

Down south, Canterbury are planning their next assault. They will have to do it without the inspirational Blackadder, coach Steven Hansen who is off to Wales, and Tew.

But with new homegrown talent emerging like the Mauger brothers and Ben Blair, the Canterbury machine still looks well primed.

Trying to get Canterbury officials to crow about it is another matter.

Tew says the best place for rivalry is on the paddock. "We also still play a game that depends on a bit of luck, the way the ball bounces, and in the game we play the ball is designed to bounce strangely."

Gifford has another reason for southern reserve: "You get clobbered for that down here, mate. There's a real culture here of not blowing your own trumpet."

But there is also undeniable satisfaction at beating a team from a region regarded by many South Islanders as being too dominant in areas like business and the media.

Gifford says: "If you have got some guy from head office in Auckland treating you like a hillbilly and then our brave boys give the Auckland boys a bit of a kicking on the footy field, well it's an empowering thing."