All Blacks send strong message by axing Telea

This was not the week to be careless with timekeeping or the team rules

What kills a rugby team is not the offfield misdemeanours and unwanted scandals but the way they are handled.

When it was confirmed that All Blacks wing Mark Telea had been stood down from the team to play Ireland tomorrow, not because he was injured but because he was being disciplined, the natural reaction was to wonder about what that said about the team’s culture.

To have a player forfeit their opportunity of a lifetime for missing a curfew may have some believing all is not well within the team.

Surely, with the biggest game of the past four years just around the corner, players would be fastidiously abiding by every rule and be in bed well before curfew.

This is not the week to get careless with timekeeping or casual with team rules, and questions will be asked about Telea’s gaffe.

There is no real mystery to this, as the answer is that young men are prone to making bad decisions and often do so at the most inopportune times.

And for anyone who is unhappy with that explanation or wants to argue more vehemently that Telea’s actions are a sign of troubled team culture, think back to the 2011 tournament and remember what happened then.

Three days before the All Blacks’ quarter-final against Argentina, outside backs Cory Jane and Israel Dagg went on quite the bender.

The latter was injured but the former was in the starting team and the pair of them popped sleeping pills and energy drinks before heading out to Takapuna, where they slugged down a vat of booze.

The All Blacks went on to win the World Cup and many of that squad were still around four years later to win it again in 2015.

That was one of the most driven and successful All Blacks teams in history, and Jane and Dagg’s shenanigans were a mad moment caused by the pressure of the tournament.

What mattered in 2011 was that the All Blacks dealt with Jane and Dagg swiftly and transparently — not publicly, but internally, and both were forced to front their senior peer group and apologise.

As far as the players were concerned, management dealt with the incident fairly and appropriately, and so they drew a line underneath it and moved on.

And this is all that really matters with the Telea incident: it has been dealt with by management and so the possibility of it derailing the All Blacks in their quest to win this weekend is remote and its scandal value is low.

It’s unlikely to have fostered any lingering resentment of outrage among Telea’s peers, because that only comes when management do not enforce the disciplinary measures.

What destroys a team culture and their ability to play for one another is if management turn a blind eye to protocol breaches or create double standards.

To not take action devalues the integrity of a team’s core beliefs and history is full of winning teams who have endured one-off disciplinary incidents that were publicly dealt with, but rarely, if ever, has a team which has swept problems under the carpet enjoyed prolonged success.

By dropping Telea for the biggest game of his career, the All Blacks have ensured there is only one victim of his actions and sent a strong reminder to all players that breaches in protocol come with consequences.

The only thing All Blacks coach Ian Foster has confirmed is that the transgression was minor but of enough significance to demand that action be taken and presumably Telea will be available for selection next week, should New Zealand remain in the tournament.