As the All Blacks prepare for a quarter-finals match like no other against Ireland in Paris, the Herald's Cheree Kinnear and Gregor Paul discuss selections, strategies and the stakes at hand. Video / NZ Herald
OPINION:
Gregor Paul in Paris
What kills a rugby team is not the off-field misdemeanours and unwanted scandals, but the way they are handled.
Once it was confirmed that All Blacks wing Mark Telea has been stood down from the team to play Ireland this Saturday, not becausehe is injured but because he is being disciplined, the natural reaction was to wonder about what that said about the team’s culture.
To have a player forfeit their opportunity of a lifetime for – as is believed by the Herald – missing a curfew, has many believing that all is not well within the team.
Surely, with the biggest game in the last four years just around the corner, players would be fastidiously abiding by every rule and have themselves tucked up in bed well before curfew.
This is not the week to get careless with timekeeping or casual with the team rules and now that Telea has been stood down, questions will continue to be asked about why a young man with so much going for him and the chance to become a global superstar, would stuff it up like this.
But there is no real mystery to this or need to probe for deeper meaning. To keep asking about what it really means is to keep barking up the wrong tree as the answer, as it so often with the All Blacks, is that young men are prone to making bad decisions and often they do so at the least inopportune times.
It’s rarely a sign of an endemic cultural issue, but more evidence that humans making mistakes – of all sizes with all sorts of different consequences – is an inevitable part of life.
And for anyone who is unhappy with that explanation or wants to argue more vehemently that Telea’s actions are a sign of troubled team culture, think back to the 2011 tournament and remember what happened then.
Three days before the All Blacks quarter-final against Argentina outside backs Cory Jane and Israel Dagg went on quite the bender.
The latter was injured, but the former was in the starting team and the pair of them popped sleeping pills and energy drinks, before heading out to Takapuna where they slugged down a vat of booze.
Mark Telea. Photo / Getty Images
The All Blacks went on to win the World Cup and many of that squad were still around four years later to win it again in 2015.
That was one of the most driven and successful All Blacks teams in history and Jane and Dagg’s shenanigans were a mad moment caused by the pressure of the tournament and two people reacting badly to it.
What mattered in 2011 was that the All Blacks dealt with Jane and Dagg swiftly and transparently – not publicly, but internally, and both were forced to front their senior peer group and apologise.
As far as the players were concerned, management dealt with the incident fairly and appropriately and so they drew a line underneath it and moved on.
And this is all that really matters with the Telea incident: it has been dealt with by management and so the possibility of it derailing the All Blacks in their quest to win this weekend is remote and its scandal value is low.
It’s unlikely to have fostered any lingering resentment of outrage among Telea’s peers, because that only comes when management did not enforce the disciplinary measures it should when standards are breached.
Mark Telea of New Zealand. Photo / Getty Images.
What destroys a team culture and their ability to play for one another is if management either turns a blind eye to protocol breaches or creates double standards where some players are immune from punishment while others aren’t.
To not take action devalues the integrity of a team’s core beliefs and history is full of winning teams who have endured one-off disciplinary incidents that were publicly dealt with, but rarely, if ever, has a team which has swept problems under the carpet ever enjoyed prolonged success.
By dropping Telea for the biggest game of his career, the All Blacks have ensured there is only one victim of his actions and sent a strong reminder to all the players that breaches in protocol, however small, come with genuine consequences.
The only thing All Blacks coach Ian Foster has confirmed, is that the transgression was minor, but of enough significance to demand that action be taken, and presumably Telea will be available for selection next week, should New Zealand still be in the tournament.
