The scrum doctor checks out
Highly regarded coach Mike Cron is being let go by NZ Rugby after helping to prepare the All Blacks for 210 tests over 15 years. He reflects on the great players, and the game’s pressing issues.
Former All Blacks forwards coach Mike Cron has fallen victim to NZ Rugby’s precarious financial position.
For the record, Cron, who had been a member of the All Blacks coaching staff for 16 years, holds no grudges against NZ Rugby for making him redundant as it scrambles to limit the damage inflicted by Covid-19.
Given his massive contribution to the game in this country, however, you would hope his employer inhaled deeply before deciding to let go one of its most experienced, and valuable, staff members.
The problems created by the pandemic have forced the organisation to cull 50 percent of its 180-strong workforce, with a number finishing on June 30.
When the likes of Cron, who had been contracted to work as a resource coach after retiring from his fulltime position with the All Blacks, is among those to be released it underlines just how deep the problems are.
NZ Rugby chairman Brent Impey has said there’s no risk of the organisation going under, noting the cash reserves of $93 million will ensure it survives the chaos caused by the pandemic, but a dramatic slump in income has hammered its bottom line and it could record a loss of around $100 million in 2020.
Pay cuts, four-day weeks and redundancies have been introduced at NZ Rugby HQ.
In better times, Cron, 65, would likely have been employed by NZ Rugby for a few more years at least.
Between 2004 and 2011 he was the All Blacks scrum coach before being appointed forwards coach through to 2019, a brief that required him to oversee scrums, lineouts, attacking breakdowns as well as sharing the tactical side of kickoffs with backs coach Ian Foster.
Considering the time he sacrificed while on duty – he helped prepare the All Blacks for 210 tests and four World Cup campaigns – and the countless hours spent staring at computers and analysing players and data before, during and after each season, some might say he didn’t deserve to get the chop.
Cron says there is no bitterness: ‘‘I fully understand it – 100 percent. I am a nice-to-have, not a need-to-have – if you know what I mean.’’
Cron, highly regarded for his innovation, diligence and attention to detail, believes he has no reason to harbour any ill-will towards NZ Rugby. ‘‘I must say the rugby union has been a magnificent employer. I thought [former NZ Rugby CEO] Steve Tew did a magnificent job and Robbo [new CEO Mark Robinson] is going to be great.
‘‘All the staff I have banged into at NZ Rugby have been tremendous and having your front window like that, operating with good people . . . well, it is hard when you lose 50 percent like they did the other day.
‘‘It is bloody tough and I feel sorry for them all. It must have been hard to release them but, hopefully, we can get a lot of them back in the future.’’
Who knows, when the economy starts to recover, Cron may be among those asked to return.
Losing a significant chunk of intellectual property isn’t healthy for the game here, and maybe new All Blacks forwards coach John Plumtree and scrum coach Greg Feek will drill into Cron’s knowledge by picking up the phone when the international season finally starts.
As it is, Cron is still busy mentoring coaches from here and from overseas via video conferences.
When he joined the All Blacks’ staff, Sir Graham Henry was in charge. In 2012 Sir Steve Hansen replaced Henry, and persuaded Cron, who had intended to retire, to stay for the duration of his term.
Cron’s exit after the World Cup tournament in Japan last year, which had been flagged well in advance, coincided with the win over Wales in the bronze medal final at the World Cup.
He was proud of the team’s performance at the tournament despite it being unable to retain the Webb Ellis Cup; the medal from the bronze final victory hangs in the bar in his house in Governor’s Bay, near Christchurch, alongside the gold gongs from the victories in the 2015 and 2011 finals.
The 19-7 loss to England in the semifinal at Yokohama Stadium destroyed Cron’s hopes of collecting a third gold medal, but he has no complaints.
There were no warning lights blinking, nothing to suggest the English side was poised to rip the defending champions apart.
Because, after all, the All Blacks had demolished Ireland 46-14 in the quarterfinal.
‘‘That is just top sport. You just accept that on the chin,’’ Cron states.
‘‘Those ones [losses], I think, are a lot easier to accept than red cards or refereeing decisions [influencing the outcome] and if you know why that happened you would be a millionaire in sport.
‘‘We were a bloody good side and good enough to win it. When you see England against us that day, whatever they touched turned to gold.
‘‘And the following week whatever they touched turned to rubbish. Eddie [Jones] is probably sitting there thinking ‘if I knew the difference between week one and week two’.’’
Cron can’t see why he should stop coaching, not when he enjoys it so much; he still has a thirst for knowledge and gets a kick out of seeing players he once coached enter the industry themselves.
But the former police detective worries about the number of promising players who sign with overseas clubs.
NZ Rugby has been proactive in trying to solve the malaise, and if a fresh Japanese competition is launched in the wake of Covid-19 there’s potential for the best talent to be farmed out to clubs there before returning for Super Rugby duty.
The number of talented players being lured to clubs in France, the United Kingdom and Ireland is still a concern, although Covid-19 may force clubs to re-think their
spending sprees. ‘‘You never know, maybe the pandemic will help us, with not so many players getting flogged by overseas [clubs],’’ Cron says.
‘‘I understand a guy near the end of his career going over there, but they are actually going over a lot younger now.
‘‘We are getting attacked – youngsters are going overseas. Sure you can can keep producing them off the conveyor belt but it would be nice if they stayed here a bit longer.’’
Cron wasn’t a selector during his tenure with the All Blacks. He watched players come and go, some he had formed strong bonds with, and when veteran tighthead prop Owen Franks was axed from the World Cup squad for Japan Cron lost a player he had mentored since his teenage years.
‘‘It was bloody tough all right,’’ Cron admits. ‘‘I had been with him since he was 17, really, but you understand the selectors have a job to do and it is not personal.
‘‘They just pick who they think they can do the job and the people that replaced him did the job well. It is the tough part of the game, isn’t it?’’
As for a favourite memory it’s hard to top the All Blacks’ epic 38-27 win over the Springboks in Johannesburg in 2013, he says.
He promotes that match ahead of the World Cup final wins over France and Australia in 2011 and 2015 because of the style of rugby both sides produced.
As for the best player he has been involved in, he anoints Richie McCaw as the ‘‘greatest of all time’’.
‘‘He played 148 tests and never played a bad one,’’ Cron reflects.
‘‘He never did anything stupidly wrong and always presented himself exceptionally well off the field. And to play through pain. He was also extremely intelligent.
‘‘There is one who you would say ‘well, if you could photostat him it would be pretty good’.’’
And he never witnessed McCaw blowing up with anger at those around him if things weren’t going to plan, either. It didn’t seem to be in his DNA.
‘‘No, no, no,’’ Cron says. ‘‘Never. He just maintained those country values didn’t he?’’
‘‘He played 148 tests and never played a bad one.’’
Mike Cron on Richie McCaw, above left