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NZ Rugby World column, July 2005
What a great time to be in New Zealand. I arrived in Wellington on the eve of the second Test, still basking in the glory of Michael Campbell’s amazing US Open win. The world of rugby gathered at the Cake-Tin for a sublime All Black performance. It reminded me of the 1995 semi-final against England. Wallaby Lock Peter FitzSimons told me that he had never seen an individual on the rugby field be as dominant as Jonah Lomu was that day. As FitzSimons tells it, Jonah touched the ball seven times. Scored four tries, created two more and put a Pom in hospital. Rugby Union does not get any better than that. FitzSimons then met up with Sean Fitzpatrick who showed him the fax he had received from an eight year old school boy in Christchurch. Written in that childish hand was “Dear All Blacks. Rugby is a team game. All 14 of you passed the ball to Jonah!” That’s what Wellington felt like to me. Get the ball to Dan Carter and sit back and enjoy the ride. For the third consecutive game the All Blacks lifted their performance and played superbly. It reminded me of the old story – at the beginning of every school rugby season the coaches would take all the new players into a forest to establish what position they would be best suited to. Those that evaded and side-stepped the trees would be backs and those that smashed into the trees would be forwards. That model has been consigned to the scrap-heap in New Zealand. All our players seek out space unlike the Lions who all seem to look for contact. Our game has become more and more skill based despite one-eyed Stephen Jones’ assessment of the Super 12, and Northern Hemisphere rugby has remained mired in the forest. Skills will beat method every time. We have fantastic challenges ahead of us; the Tri-Nations, the Grand Slam tour and then the 2007 World Cup. This squad is capable of winning the lot and winning in style. I am sure Graham Henry and his coaching team will continue to drive for improvement. They are demonstrating real empathy for today’s players and are extremely well connected to them emotionally. Clive
Woodward has moved from hero to zero in an astonishingly short time.
To my mind he is neither of these two extremes.
Yes, he won the World Cup on the shoulders of an outstanding back
row, an inspirational captain and, at the time, the best goal-kicker in
the world. But a knighthood
was serious overkill. In
eleven attempts with England and the Lions he has lost eight times to New
Zealand. With one draw this leaves
him with a pathetic win ratio of 18%. So
why would anyone expect him to do much better this time around?
He was obviously guilty of making some bad choices in terms of
selection, game-plan, and motivation. He
never connected with the Celts and is unable to create that all important
family feeling with the coaching staff and the players.
All compounded by the incredibly immature, naïve, manipulative
Alastair Campbell who has absolutely no feel for rugby, or rugby people.
But, at the end of the day, his test team isn’t in the same
league as the All Blacks; and his mid-week squad could not have beaten any
full strength Super 12 team. He did
not have the players. |
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On the Wednesday night between the Wellington and Auckland tests Rowena and I hosted a Captains Dinner at our home. Sean Fitzpatrick and Gavin Hastings, the 1993 captains, were our guests, along with John Kirwan, Scott Quinnell and Dewi Morris. The three proud Lions were unified in their criticism of the lack of “togetherness” in the squad and were singularly unimpressed by the squad’s leadership. Despite this we had a rollicking night with Simon Gault, Shane Yardley, Steven Overend and the Euro team creating a seven course, five star meal from the confines of our garage. This elite team certainly proved Nothing is Impossible. Roger
and Jean Downer had come over from Limerick for the ultimate rugby
experience and despite the Lions’ dismal performance have had the time
of their lives. Roger is the
President of Limerick University (where Paul O’Connell is still
studying!) and he and I have been talking about what went wrong with the
Lions. Woodward spends a lot of time
talking to business about winning and creating teams.
(There will be plenty of opportunity for him to improve his
performance by learning the lessons from this tour!) |
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In
Roger’s experience great teams are built on togetherness, empowerment
and leadership all against a predetermined game-plan.
The Lions party were lacking in all these areas.
My experience says that Peak Performance can only be achieved when
everybody is in flow against a predetermined dream.
One team, One dream is vital. I
don’t believe the Lions had a shared dream; it was more one team,
Clive’s dream which is not designed to inspire Peak Performance.
Critical to a team’s success is ensuring every member of the team
has responsibility, learns something new every day, has a sense of
achievement and a sense of joy in that achievement.
Looking at these Lions there is no feeling of achievement or joy amongst the players. They seem low in togetherness, mateship and joy. The All Blacks on the other hand appear totally unified and have all been given individual responsibility by Graham Henry and Darren Shand. Our players have been empowered to cope under pressure and to grow as people. A dozen players have taken leadership roles on and off the field and you can see the results. For an average age of 25 the maturity level and confidence level of the All Blacks is amazing. In business the best results are achieved by unleashing and inspiring all employees to be the best they can be. The old command and control methodology just doesn’t cut it in today’s world. At Toyota, one of the world’s most successful companies, there is a belief that there is no best, only better. These All Blacks, because they have been unleashed and inspired, will only get better. And Stephen Jones has only more bile to swallow.
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