Give credit where it’s due — show respect
Fine men become All Black captains. All my life I’ve been in awe of them. The first one I saw was Sir Wilson Whineray and he remains the epitome for me, closely followed by Sir Brian Lochore and Graham Mourie. Richie McCaw and Kieran Read are up there too.
They have all embodied my idealised New Zealander, strong, capable, good-natured, modest and quiet. They weren’t great speechmakers off the field and I doubt they had very much to say on it. Their team talks were probably brief and to the point.
Their leadership was built on their character and example more than their voice. Those qualities made their teams want to play as hard and well as their captain was playing. He made them proud to be with him.
Good leadership is like that, verbal exhortations count for very little really. But there is one verbal element I wish All Black captains would acquire. I wish they would praise the opposition.
When they face the obligatory television interview moments after the end of a match, I wish they always had something generous to say about the other team, particularly as it is usually a team they have just beaten.
Others do this, including the captains of our greatest rivals, the Springboks and the Wallabies. Australia’s Michael Hooper, who gives nothing away on the field, was quick to praise the All Blacks after beating them in Perth recently.
But we hear this as nothing more than the All Blacks are due and hardly notice that our captains seldom offer any credit in return. Others notice though. Former Wallaby-turned-TV commentator Phil Kearns has remarked that Kiwis don’t praise the opposition. He will not be alone in that observation.
I really don’t know why we are like this. In every other way the sportsmanship of All Black captains is impeccable.
Maybe it’s their modesty, maybe they think it would sound patronising or insincere to Kiwi ears if they praised a team they had just beaten. But unless it was a team they had hammered by 50 points or more, there will usually be something in the opposition’s performance deserving of credit.
It is even more important to be sporting in defeat, which a tournament format such as the Rugby World Cup renders a little more likely.
If, perish the thought, it happens, let’s not hear the opposition “took the opportunities we gave them” and “we couldn’t quite finish the opportunities we created”. This may be a useful way to analyse a match in the team room on Monday, concentrating on aspects you can change but it comes across, right after the game, as neither enlightening nor sporting.