Welsh rugby’s stale heavenly breadcrumbs
New All Blacks captain keen to chart his own path after assuming leadership mantle from Richie McCaw. Liam Napier reports. I can’t try to emulate what he’s done. I’ve just got to be Kieran Read.
It’s the biggest job audition of Warren Gatland’s career. Twelve months ago the odds of the 52-year-old Wales chieftain becoming coach of the Lions for a second time seemed as short as Murray and Bond rowing to gold at the Olympics. But what if Wales get hammered in the coming weeks, as many of their supporters fear? What if Wales continue to fall apart both physically and tactically?
The other day Wales Online asked, ‘‘What is wrong with Wales right now?’’
A few answers sprang instantly to mind, such as ‘‘summer’’, ‘‘beer’’ and thinking that a good name for a town might be ‘‘Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyllllantysiliogogogoch’’. But they are problems that appear to be easily fixed compared with the stale heavenly breadcrumbs of the rugby team.
Wales played England in a warm-up match last weekend and, apart from the first 15 minutes, they were shockingly poor in the 27-13 defeat. The defence was clueless. Fullback Liam Williams is a deft attacker but, in defence, JPR he is not.
Williams missed a tackle on the
Kieran Read will find his own way to captain the All Blacks this year and beyond. Just as Sam Cane endures endless comparisons to a national icon who led the All Blacks to successive World Cup crowns so, too, can Read expect similar expectations.
Read is far from daunted. He is not Richie McCaw – and he will not try to be.
As his long-time deputy, Read featured prominently in most of McCaw’s 111 record-setting tests as captain. He absorbed plenty from the best. But now the time has come to put his mark on a new era of All Black rugby, one that’s lost a host of experience but gained an injection of talented youth.
Captaincy is not foreign to Read. Along with the Crusaders, he’s led the All Blacks nine times including six of 13 tests in 2013 while McCaw was on sabbatical. Notably, that same season he claimed the global player of the year gong, proving the responsibility sits comfortably on his shoulders.
But stepping out of the caretaker position and assuming everything – the profile, demands and public scrutiny – that comes with being the team’s leader is an entirely different beast.
‘‘I have given it a bit of thought. It certainly does change things having the full responsibility,’’ Read says as the All Blacks prepare for the first of three tests against Wales at Eden Park on Saturday.
‘‘It was great to captain the side previously but it was just for that one week and then you’d step back out.
‘‘I learnt a lot from Richie. When I first came in I looked up to him after watching him on TV then you become peers and grow together.
‘‘It was a really good time but from now I want to be my own person. I can’t try emulate what he’s done. I’ve just got to be Kieran Read. I’ve got subtle differences to him – I’ve certainly got to play as well as he did on the field and lead through my actions.
‘‘I like growing people and try to get that individual touch with a lot of the lads to get as much out of them as I can. That’s how I like to lead.’’
Steve Hansen regularly says leaders are not born they are made. That motto aptly describes his new skipper.
Growing up, Read never felt a commanding urge to tell others what to do or take charge in certain situations. His first brushes with leadership came in cricket, captaining Counties Manukau and Northern Districts age-grade teams as a top-order batsman. He enjoyed setting fields and rotating bowlers.
In his final year at Papakura’s Rosehill College he captained the first XV but, even then, matches largely flowed without any major input.
‘‘I didn’t really see myself back then as a natural leader. Other people probably saw it in me but within myself I didn’t have that confidence as yet. I was kind of that guy that was quiet and shy early on and probably just let things happen.’’
It wasn’t until his debut season with Canterbury in 2006 that Read sensed his presence growing to the point he could be more vocal. ‘‘From there once I felt the team had confidence in me it grew mine. It just naturally came about.’’
Experiences shape leaders. The biggest failure of McCaw’s career – the shock 2007 World Cup quarterfinal exit – transformed his decision-making under pressure and, ultimately, founded many of outside to let in one try and he was exposed under the high ball. While New Zealand fullbacks leap like AFL players to take the high ball, Williams looks decidedly nervous about any form of manned flight.
Left wing Hallam Amos also had positional wobbles that George Ford was able to exploit, so it will be a miracle if these two survive the sort of aerial bombardment that they can expect from Aaron Smith, Aaron Cruden and Ben Smith.
It may even be a miracle if they both now play. Gareth Anscombe could come in at fullback on his return to New Zealand, with Williams shifting to the wing. Damage limitation is likely to be a priority for Gatland.
John Feehan, the Lions chief executive, says Gatland is ‘‘the leading contender’’ for the Lions job – but that position would surely be reviewed if Wales are slaughtered.
Gatland said after the heavy defeat to England, by five tries to one: ‘‘It is not anything that is unfixable.
‘‘We conceded two tries from break-out lineouts, there are a couple of defensive issues out wide which is easy enough to fix and we Kieran Read the guiding principles for the unrivalled success that followed.
Ideally, such wisdom could be handed down without the suffering. But sport, and life, often doesn’t work that way.
Read has some major events ahead of him – next year’s British and Irish Lions series and the 2019 World Cup just two. Between now and then, Hansen expects the 30-year-old to evolve significantly.
‘‘He’s not the finished article by any stretch of the imagination,’’ Hansen said. ‘‘If you think back to our previous leaders they think need a bit more accuracy on attack. In New Zealand, the key is to keep the tempo we showed in the first half for 80 minutes. We struggled to do that against England.’’
Wales struggled to do many things. Their defence off five-man lineouts was a joke at this level. There was a massive gap from the hooker, who was defending the back of the line in the halfback position, to the next defender out. England just poured through the hole.
The quick man in England’s back-row ran riot throughout the match, making you question the wisdom of Steve Hansen’s apparent determination to start with Sam Cane. The All Blacks are obsessed with putting sides away in the final 20 minutes, but why wait until then to use Ardie Savea’s strike running. Yes, the return of Sam Warburton will make a difference, but Wales are still vulnerable.
Cane has not been playing well in recent weeks, a charge that could also be made against Brodie Retallick. Last weekend the Tahs did a number on the Chiefs defence around the fringes and, as the senior All Blacks in the pack, they’ve got the job sorted but then something happens and they have to have a really good look to improve more.
‘‘In Richie’s case, 2007 created a bit of adversity and he came out an even better leader since then.
‘‘There will be challenges for Reado along the way that force him to grow and look inwardly and come out a better product.’’
Being liked is not central to the captaincy brief. Respect is. Read, a world-class No 8, has that covered after 84 tests. He commands his starting role; connects well with team-mates and is comfortable voicing a direct opinion to anyone when it needs to be said.
‘‘At this stage he’s respected and if he continues to play well then that respect will continue to grow,’’ Hansen said.
Self-awareness is another important part of the job and Read is already devising mental Cane and Retallick have to take a lot of responsibility. Ardie Savea should start, but I doubt very much that he will.
Although Wales’s defence is a massive concern against so potent a side as the All Blacks, their attack strategies to avoid the role weighing him down, and aid him talking to referees; an area of influence where McCaw excelled.
‘‘It’s a challenging part of the game for the captain so it’s something I’ve got to really work on and look to nail because it can have an impact,’’ Read said.
‘‘There will be tough times I’m sure and you’ve got to do a bit extra but I’m talking to Steve and Gilbert [Enoka] about the ways to keep fresh and make sure I’m in a good head-space.
‘‘I know how much it means to my family, parents and friends so it’s pretty cool to know you’ve touched a lot of them but I’ve got to be real with it all.
‘‘I’ve just got to go out there and play. I can certainly have an impact as captain but more so by doing my bit on the field.’’
Read will, of course, not be alone. His challenge alongside new vice-captain Ben Smith is to groom a largely fresh leadership group that features Sam Cane, Aaron Cruden, Beauden Barrett, Brodie Retallick, Sam Whitelock, Dane Coles, Aaron Smith, Jerome Kaino, and Sonny Bill Williams, when he returns from sevens.
Time will tell whether that group can cultivate the same inner belief to win tight tests, even when seemingly down and out.
‘‘Already a few days into it you can see guys are willing to put their hand up and we need that from those boys because we can’t lean on those with older experience now. It’s a different feeling but a positive one.
‘‘These boys who have done their time we probably haven’t seen their leadership qualities on the field yet but it’s been brewing in them.
‘‘Those that step up will have big impact on this group for a number of years.’’ isn’t too flash either. Dan Biggar, the first-five, is getting a lot of stick for standing too deep, and they rarely use a second receiver to enable the wrap-around.
Wales are not even playing Warrenball very well any more. There is only so long that a man can keep running into heavy contact, and Jamie Roberts and George North look a bit out on their feet. The lethal goalkicking and all-round footballing skills of Leigh Halfpenny have been badly missed.
The one saving grace for Wales is that Nigel Owens can’t referee his beloved All Blacks because he is Welsh! The three refs for the series are Wayne Barnes, Jaco Peyper and Jerome Garces, so we can expect some improvement over the utter shambles of the officiating in the last round of Super Rugby.
The Highlanders have particular cause for complaint.
But Wales have far too many of their own problems to worry about the referee. The good news for Gatland is that Eddie Jones has said of the Lions job, ‘‘I’m not interested and the only reason that I’m not interested is because I’ve come here to coach England.
‘‘For me to make England the strongest team in the world, I’ve got four years and I’ve got to spend every minute that I can on that.
‘‘We’re three or four years away from peaking. It’s enormously exciting. We’ve got the talent to beat the All Blacks. Maybe not now, but certainly in the next two or three years we’ll have a side to beat the All Blacks.’’
Now I can hear some sniggering from the shires at that prospect but England have an average age of 24 and some seriously good young players.
The fascinating tour is the one going on next door between England and Australia and the verbals between Michael Cheika and Jones. Jones has already said he wouldn’t pay any credence to his old Randwick teammate Cheika, who ‘‘has a lot of deception about him’’.
The conversation between Hansen and Gatland will be earthier, more one-sided and a good deal less entertaining.
But the big question is can Gatland survive the tour well enough to return with the Lions next year, when he may very well have another New Zealander, Dylan Hartley, as his captain? Now there’s a prospect.