Tietjens’ time is up as joy dies in Rio
While Fiji were happy and united, the All Blacks sevens looked tired, unhappy and uninspired.
Ben Smith
Things didn’t go his way early on with a couple of errant kicks, but came into the game well late and showed his class to set up Cane’s try. Would have enjoyed the return to No 15.
Israel Dagg
Another standout test from an in-form player. Two tries, the second very well finished, indicates the shift to the right wing didn’t hold him back any. One great aerial take. Playing with supreme confidence.
Malakai Fekitoa
A wee bit untidy early on, but settled down after that to work his way back nicely. Still short of his form from a couple of years back.
Anton Lienert-Brown
Excellent debut all round. Carried strongly, made his tackles and did not look out of place in the test arena. Classy first touch to set up Dagg’s first try. Couldn’t wipe the smile off his face afterwards.
Julian Savea
Back in black, and would have enjoyed this outing. Scored one welltaken try down the left touch and took a solid step back into his coach’s good books. The Bus is back.
Beauden Barrett
Would have been 9 if he hadn’t missed three kicks. On top of his game and another top-drawer effort. Kicked well tactically, brilliant run to set up Dagg’s second try and a fabulous pass to put Savea in. Owning things right now. Another test, another sharp effort from the best No 9 in the business. Made a great jinking run to set up the first try and overall cleared well and established the pace his team needed. Wonderful player. The skipper led an outstanding pack effort well. Wallabies came with niggle early on and the captain made sure his side stayed on task. Took care of what he had to. He may have Ardie Savea breathing down his neck, but this excellent No 7 continues to take care of what he has to. Accurate in almost all he did, brought physicality in the tackle and finished with a well-taken try. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, Another rock solid display, made his tackles, hit the cleanouts and part of a dominant lineout. One outstanding offload too showed the skill in his repertoire. In excellent form. Nothing flashy, but dominated the Wallaby lineout, did all that was required in the tight and helped match that Wallaby physicality. Part of a fabulous second-row combination. he best lock in the world continues to thrive. Does it all and a very important role in a quality All Black pack effort. One handling error but little else that wasn’t hugely positive.
Owen Franks
Excellent test from the pillar of a dominant All Black scrum. Got through plenty of work and quelled the Aussie fire. One of his better tests. Another gutsy and skilful display from this mobile hooker. Hit all his lineout targets, got into it physically and thrived around the park. Two or three excellent runs out wide. If those sore ribs are still hurting, you wouldn’t know it.
Joe Moody
Solid return to test footy from the big loosehead. Part of a scrum that held sway and did what he had to.
Reserves
Played 10 minutes. Not enough to be rated. N/A A solid 28 minutes off the bench, and continued on where Moody left off. Got his hands on some ball, scrummed well and would have enjoyed his 28 minutes. Just the last 10. Not rated. N/A Only eight minutes. Not rated. N/A It’s a tough job coming in to fill Smith’s boots. But busy and energetic for his 14 minutes. All you can ask. Fourteen minutes late in a game not enough time to establish himself as it got messy. N/A What happened to the joy? The All Blacks look to be having fun. The Hurricanes, the Chiefs and the Highlanders have had a ball this year. So why did Sir Gordon Tietjens’ sevens team look like they were sucking on lemons? Where did all the good times go?
New Zealand Rugby were having various meetings last week and this question should be near the top of the list. Sevens has almost been airbrushed out of the national picture since the Rio disaster, when it should be what everyone is talking about. It is in Fiji.
The Rio sevens were the unexpected success story of the Olympics. Even the American media got involved, But for New Zealand, and especially the men’s team, the competition was an embarrassment. Quite a few people sniggered when Japan beat South Africa at the World Cup, but the joke suddenly wasn’t so funny when they did the same to the ‘All Blacks’ sevens team.
Some people wanted to remove the All Blacks moniker from association with sevens. They wanted to pretend it hadn’t happened when what we really need to do is recognise the importance of sevens to New Zealand’s kids, to our women and to the history of the All Blacks. Jonah Lomu would never have stunned the world at the 1995 World Cup without making his name at sevens.
So looking back on Rio we should see a string of broken promises and demand better of this country’s rugby administration. Where was Damian McKenzie, where was Beauden Barrett, where was Julian and Ardie Savea, where was Ben Smith?
Steve Tew promised us, ‘‘We’ve said we will pick the best team possible to win a gold in Rio.’’ Did you see that happen? Steve Hansen said that Tietjens ‘‘will have a plan with what he wants to do and we’ve got to support that.’’ Did you see that happen? Right now we should be getting answers as to what went so catastrophically wrong. NZR should be appointing a coach for the future and promising that they will hand over players to the sevens programme at the end of the 2019 World Cup.
So far all I have heard is Tietjens’ excuse that New Zealand lost because it didn’t have a centralised programme. Cue centralised laughter. Leaving aside the fact that the Great Britain squad had to merge the English core with players from Scotland and Wales at the last minute, let’s take a look at Fiji’s ‘centralised programme’.
When Ben Ryan was appointed coach of Fiji in 2013, his pay packet mysteriously never materialised. So for the first few months he paid his own way. He also paid for the petrol for the team bus. In 2014 Fiji’s players weren’t under contract and all working jobs because weren’t being paid.
Ryan said, ‘‘There was no point in my kicking up a fuss. I’d agreed to something, and I was going to keep to my word.‘‘
What Fiji did have was centralised poverty. Its funding had been suspended by World Rugby. And after the prime minister had finally made some money available ahead of the Olympics, the country was hit by cyclone Winston.
So when Sir Gordon points to the lack of a centralised programme as the cause of New Zealand’s demise, it is hard not to wonder if he has lost the plot. The man has done great things for New Zealand sevens. Bernard Lapasset credited Tietjens as the inspiration behind rugby’s return to the Olympics. His teams have won four Commonwealth gold medals. He has set the standard for two generations of All Blacks.
And now his contract and his time is up. Tietjens failed to provide an environment that the likes of Ardie Savea were desperate to stay in. He gambled on an attritional style of rugby and his team were run off their feet. His legendary fitness methods contributed to the type of fatigue that leads to bodies snapping under stress.
In April last year Julian Savea said he was ‘‘really keen’’ to go to the Olympics. What happened? He could have done a Lomu. Twenty years ago I think Tietjens would have embraced him. He would have made playing sevens part of a fun education.
Instead, like so many, he did not go. Tew said he offered Ben Smith to Tietjens at the end of June but Tietjens didn’t want him. He didn’t want Kurt Baker, either, even though Baker had played more sevens minutes this year than anyone. Tietjens, having run Baker into the ground, said he was compromised by injury. Baker said, ‘‘I felt quite used.’’
Tietjens says the pressure was too much for his young players. It didn’t used to be, not for Jonah, or Christian Cullen or Cory Jane. New Zealand used to play with a smile on its face.
Hansen says ‘‘We’ve just got to make sure we don’t paper over things - we’ve got to look at it honestly and genuinely as a rugbyplaying group, the sevens, the All Blacks and the rugby union itself, and see how we can do it better because it’s an opportunity to showcase rugby from New Zealand.’’
Somewhere in Fiji an 80-yearold man is walking eight hours to a training session so that he can shake the hand of a red-haired, bespectacled Englishman. This is the team that played together and prayed together. Fiji has much to teach us about joy, faith and humility. That’s how we can do it better. were they
MARC HINTON