No kidding Steve, the kids will be all right
So many coaches and captains are seduced by greatness. There is almost a primal human need to believe that greatness is permanent. And so the superstar keeps on playing one more game. Don’t worry about the young guy coming through, his time will come, but class is permanent.
Was there ever a more stupid phrase? You only have to utter the words ‘Tiger Woods’ to know class is temporary. The trick is knowing when to move on. And I am starting to wonder if Steve Hansen might be showing faith, another telling phrase, for just a little too long?
Hansen keeps raising the issue of Dan Carter ahead of the last World Cup as some sort of catechism. Hansen smugly asserts that many were calling for Carter’s head, but the selectors ‘kept the faith’ and, boy, were they proved right.
Actually, once Aaron Cruden was removed with injury, I can’t remember many people having any problem with Carter starting at 10. Cruden’s brilliance had complicated the matter and the selectors were rightly ready to pick the younger man. But when Cruden went down, Carter was the obvious first choice.
Carter is the exception, because he is exceptional, rather than the rule. But it is only human nature that the longer you are in a job, the more you become attached to certain people and certain preferences. There are signs that is starting to happen with Hansen and the All Blacks.
The Crusaders, who kept failing to win a Super Rugby title despite an All Blacks pack, invested in a new young coach and brought in a swathe of new young players and boy, did it pay off.
But despite all the evidence of Super Rugby, George Bridge did not make the All Blacks squad and Richie Mo’unga and Jack Goodhue are struggling to get into the team for the match at Loftus Versfeld.
One of the great foot-in-mouths of all time was when Alan Hansen (no relation), former Liverpool great and accomplished pundit, said of the young Manchester United class of ‘92: ‘‘You can’t win anything with kids.’’
Alex Ferguson proved time and time again you can win everything with kids. But you have to keep rejuvenating and you sometimes have to kick out the superstars. That is why David Beckham had to go.
Ferguson said: ‘‘David thought he was bigger than Alex Ferguson. That was the death knell for him. David was the only player I managed who chose to be famous, who made it his mission to be known outside the game. I felt uncomfortable with the celebrity aspect of his life.’’
I wonder if those words are an apt warning to Hansen about SBW.
Ferguson always said he was a manager who invested in the future. There are just the first glimmers, nothing too serious yet, that Hansen is a manager who is investing in the past. There are just the first glimmers that Hansen might be hanging on to the odd player too long. His selection for the South Africa test will be telling.
Golf’s Ryder Cup should sound him a warning. Two years ago America routed Europe and thrived on the energy of 20-somethings such as Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed, Brooks Koepka and Rickie Fowler.
And so what does Jim Furyk do? He goes and picks Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson for his team, then throws Patrick Reed and Bryson DeChambeau under their wheels. I suggested last week Woods should not play the opening session because of his history of momentum-giving losses. But Furyk played him, Tiger lost and Europe were up and running.
Tiger also sucked every bit of life out of Reed. Captain America
couldn’t be himself playing alongside Woods. But no one can be themselves alongside Woods because he was taught as a toddler to destroy every other golfer on the planet.
The biggest points scorers on the US team were the 25-year-olds. The only successful captain’s pick was a 29-year-old, Tony Finau. Everything Furyk should have learned from two years ago was sacrificed on the altar of Tiger’s stardom and on his own friendship with Mickelson.
Europe’s captain Thomas Bjorn is not exempt from criticism either. Bjorn did the stardom fixation thing. He kept playing McIlroy when Paul Casey was clearly playing better and Henrik Stenson was straight and imperturbable. But Rory is a star so Bjorn threw the Danish kid under the
bus after McIlroy failed to notch a birdie in the opening morning fourballs and re-paired Rory with his strongest men.
McIlroy was half carried to victory by Ian Poulter and Sergio Garcia in his next two matches and Bjorn, very pleased with himself, said: ‘‘I never have any doubt in Rory McIlroy because if I start doubting him then I probably shouldn’t be doing this job. Great players when they don’t perform to the standards that they want to have an ability to just go and prove to themselves.’’
You could say Poulter put McIlroy right. But inevitably the burden grew too heavy. In defeat the following afternoon McIlroy lost a ball on the fourth, missed the green from the centre of the fairway on the fifth and then smashed a putt metres past the hole on the sixth.
Bjorn, because great players ‘‘prove themselves’’, then led the singles with McIlroy who predictably lost. Meanwhile Stenson and Casey, who each only played three times, were ripping up the course.
With typical sporting revisionism Bjorn will be hailed a great captain. The truth is he made a couple of colossal blunders, but won for two big reasons. Furyk was an appalling captain and Bjorn had far the better team for a course that required straight hitting.
But for Hansen the lessons are there. Don’t get fixated with stardom and keep bringing in the kids. There is still a year to go before the World Cup.