Control at the core of the Kiwis’ rule

RARELY does an organisation like New Zealand rugby make mistakes. When they do, the response can devastate.

This time three years ago, a reporter with an English newspaper visited the All Blacks’ team hotel in London for a routine press briefing. He got lost looking for the relevant room and eventually tried a door.

He had inadvertently found their team room. On the wall were written motivational messages ahead of the Test against England. “We are the most dominant team in the history of the world,” read one.

Jotting down as much as he could, he wrote the story and when it became public, the response from the All Blacks was molten. The story was criticised and it was claimed he had intruded upon a private area.

The Kiwis are about control – on and off the pitch – and when they surrender it, they are vulnerable. They are so good because every facet of their organisation is bent towards staying in charge.

A sign at the mouth of a corridor in their team hotel in Castleknock, Dublin marks the start of All Black territory, and nobody strays beyond it uninvited. The lobby was busy on Thursday morning and when the squad walked in, the players were asked for autographs, requests that were politely obliged.

Then they left for training, their last real run-out before today’s return against Ireland. The dedication to maintaining control pervades what they do; it is not specific to the players.

A TV crew arrived late to a press conference and the anchorman slunk up to the top of the room, clunking down his microphone. A temporary halt was then called while the All Blacks’ media officer moved the microphone cable as it slightly obscured one of the advertising signs that fringed the top table.

Nothing is left to chance. Preparation and routine underpin everything. Dane Coles was asked about Steve Hansen’s assertion that New Zealand are underdogs in Dublin. A startled look stole into the hooker’s eyes and he glanced towards the media liaison, before picking his way through the obvious inconsistencies in that claim and in pursuit of the party line.

“Aw mate, I don’t really see it like that but the big dog, he’s the boss,” said Coles.

Was it mind games by Hansen then? “I’ll let the big guy say his words. He’s a pretty smart man,” said Coles, eventually smothering the threat of controversy.

Junior Gaelic teams now talk about process and trusting in their methods. It is a language learned from the corporate world, but it is most fluently spoken by New Zealand. Despite what some might say about its effectiveness, the greatness of the All Blacks proves its worth.

Their methods are now being copied by ambitious businesses, because they work. Humility and hard work run through all their ventures. It can make for dull listening, but the players believe what they say about the importance of training, repetition and meeting each challenge on its terms.

Take Beauden Barrett. He was named World Player of the Year last Sunday and has replaced Dan Carter as not only the team’s No 10, but also the most influential playmaker in the game.

“I’ve forgotten about it,” he evenly replied when asked about the award on Thursday. And deathly dull as it sounded, you believed him. The resources available to Hansen means it is easier for him than any other coach in rugby to convince his players that he has options, and isn’t afraid to use them when it comes to picking his team.

But the players are kept vigilant by more than the fear of losing their place. They know that the remarkable culture in which they operate has been founded upon control: them controlling what they do, the coaches controlling their area, and on and on until every member of the organisation strives to be in charge of their particular area.

Hansen laughed when asked if it would be easy to motivate the Kiwi players after their loss to Ireland in Chicago. “Their motivation will be high so I don’t think motivation will be a problem. Complacency certainly won’t be a problem and attitudinally they are in the house. I don’t think it’s my job to motivate them,” he argued.

“(My job is to) give them the strategies, and give them the environment that’s not only a place to learn but that’s a place to have fun as well.”

One doesn’t suppose there will be much fun around their dressing-room if Ireland do the improbable and beat them again. Hansen was asked if he could recall when his team last lost two Tests in a row to the same side. “Yeah, South Africa in 2009,” he responded.

And how did that feel? “How would you imagine it felt? We weren’t sitting there laughing about it, I’ ll give you that tip. But history shows it can happen. You’ve just got to go out, prepare the best you can and then go and deliver a performance you can be proud of.

“We don’t have any Godgiven right to win every game of rugby, but what we do know is if we prepare well and our attitude is good then we’re going to be hard to beat.”

Talk of process and control sounds dead and uninspiring, but it is at the centre of their devastating rule. – Daily Mail