Rugby: One-man wind of change at the Hurricanes

Coach Mark Hammett is rebuilding the Super 15 franchise and he's decided the best way to do it is to tear down the foundations and start again. Photo / Getty Images

In an unscripted, off-the-record moment a senior member of the NZRU management recently expressed sympathy for Mark Hammett's plight.

Hammett did not have, he said, the benefit of a clean template from which to work at the Hurricanes as Jamie Joseph did two franchises further south, which made it more difficult for Hammett to impose his style on the team the way the former All Black No 6 had at the Highlanders.

In the past week or so, Hammett has forced the issue, if not completely cleaning the slate then brutally erasing a few of the more troublesome names from the board.

Neemia Tialata and John Schwalger had already announced their departure. Ma'a Nonu and Andrew Hore followed. With Piri Weepu, Cory Jane and Hosea Gear yet to sign, only a brave punter would bet on that being the last of the blood-letting.

Hammett is rebuilding, that much is obvious. There are different ways of doing this. You can patch things up on the fly, make a few renovations or tear down the foundations and start again.

Hammett has chosen the latter option and the New Zealand Rugby Union is backing their man, though not without considerable dialogue in the process.

The All Blacks management and the NZRU's high-performance unit met the Hurricanes to see if there was any way the relationship between Hore and Nonu and the franchise could be salvaged.

Hammett, probably to his credit, stuck to his guns, telling them the only way he could get the team moving in the direction he wanted was if Hore and Nonu were moved on.

On the surface, it is easy to justify the jettisoning of Hore. He will be 33 at the start of next season and his best years are not ahead of him. Hore was not the leader Hammett thought he would be. Perhaps he would have been if Rodney So'oialo's body had held together for one more season.

Instead, feeling isolated because of his inability to contribute to the team, So'oialo was not the positive influence he had been in the past and could take none of the burden off Hore.

He plays a power-based, close-quarters style of rugby that is not everybody's cup of tea and Hammett is perfectly entitled to feel that the more mobile hooker Dane Coles represents the future for the Hurricanes.

Nonu is more of a head-scratcher. He can be a coach-killer in that his on-field discipline lets him and his teammates down - like it did in the upset first-round home loss to the Highlanders - but even his staunchest critics would concede that with his exceptional linebreaking ability, he wins far more games than he loses.

The fact that Hammett sees the 29-year-old as an impediment to future success says everything about the failure of that relationship on a personal level.

"It's like anybody, if you get to know them, you get to understand them, people have bad, people have good," Cory Jane said of his long-time test and Super rugby teammate. "He's the clown of the team."

Hammett did not want another joker, he wanted a role model.

Unlike Graham Henry, whose withering stare and reluctance to give an inch has eventually brought everybody, with the possible exceptions of Jerry Collins and the talkative Justin Marshall, into line, Hammett was not able to strike the right chord with Nonu.

"He's still an elite player so I'm disappointed and shocked," Jane, whose future at the Hurricanes is by no means assured, continued. "Not only am I good mates with him, I'm a fan of his as well.

"Our main weapon has now been shipped out, obviously it's disappointing."

The appointment of the former All Black hooker and Cantabrian was never universally welcomed, with many feeling his experience as an assistant left him short of the necessary credentials to walk into what is supposedly one of the five most coveted coaching roles in New Zealand outside the test panel.

It was believed in some quarters that Hammett leveraged an opportunity with the Melbourne Rebels to rise above his station. Whether that sort of bar-room chatter permeates to the players and manifests itself in a lack of respect is moot, but it is obvious Hammett felt there was a significant group of players who weren't buying into his philosophy.

Just what that philosophy is remains unclear, although Nonu himself said that Hammett had tried to install a more rigid gameplan earlier in the season, with the suggestion that was playing away from the strengths of the free-spirited backs.

The Hurricanes have been too poor this year to get any sense of a clear direction.

Last week's win against the Lions was a microcosm of their season. For the first 40 minutes they were inconceivably bad. In the second, led, ironically, by a powerhouse running display by Nonu, they showed glimpses of what they were capable of.

As it was, it was just one of five wins this season. To lay the blame for that at Hammett's door would be unfair. Just once in 16 years have they won a semifinal, let alone a championship, despite having some of the best collection of talent in the country.

Speaking for the first time yesterday, Hurricanes' CEO James Te Puni did absolutely nothing to dampen the speculation on why two of their biggest stars were shipped out.

"I think it's important to understand that this is not a five-minute decision that's been reached, it's something that comes out of the experience right across the season."

It's a hard-to-fathom communications strategy. In a hard-to-fathom season, it's probably appropriate.


THE OLD GUARD

Ma'a Nonu
Age: 29
Still plenty of good rugby left in Nonu, but most likely in a Blues shirt if it's played in New Zealand, though the Chiefs are said to be interested, and the Crusaders would be if SBW moved on. If Hammett's to be criticised, he dismissed Nonu as trouble without trying to get to know him.

Neemia Tialata
Age: 28
The best illustration of the volume of rugby played by today's professionals, Tialata has played 43 tests without ever establishing himself in the All Blacks. A fun-loving prop, his love of a good tweet showed him at the cutting edge of social media. He's headed for French club rugby at Bayonne.

Andrew Hore
Age: 32
Rugged and uncompromising, the latter has probably put him offside with his coach. Once touted for the All Black captaincy, Hore will likely test his leadership skills under Jamie Joseph at the Highlanders.

Rodney So'oialo
Age: 31
Perhaps the saddest demise. After years of selfless toil, So'oialo's body has just refused to play ball this year. He will now be playing his footy in the less demanding, low-impact Japanese league for Honda Heat in Suzuka City.

THE NEW GUARD

Beauden Barrett
Age: 20
On the recommendation of father Kevin, a Taranaki centurion, Barrett resisted the overtures of the Blues to be part of the Hurricanes' WTG and is likely to choose the Wellington-based side again next year. Prodigiously talented, Barrett would look as comfortable in a 10 jersey as he would a 15 in a new-look Hurricanes.

Dane Coles
Age: 24
It was noted with some irony that if part of Hore's problem was a fondness for a refreshing pint, then how would Hammett look upon Coles' 2009 drunken run-in with the law? A mobile hooker, Coles has yet to have the opportunity to show what he can do at Super 15 level.

Charlie Ngatai
Age: 20
Out with a broken ankle at present, there have been big tickets on Ngatai from his schoolboy days and in the limited amount of time he has had, he has looked the part. He could be asked to fill the considerable boots of Nonu next season.

Victor Vito
Age: 24
Vito probably did not want to inherit the captaincy the way he did in round 15, but nevertheless he is being groomed as the Hurricanes' talisman for years to come. Vito's loyalty to the Hurricanes will allow him to put aside the dramas of 2011, even if he is a good friend of Nonu's.