History for coochiee

whatever

Marto

coochiee

Of course the Womens Rugby Cup only had 3 teams I understand of professional players - NZ, England & France. Running around beating up on students, office workers, stay at home mums and the like.

I mean more, NZR managed a fast turnaround from Black Ferns losing heavily to both England & France in late 2021, and looking miles off the pace, with apparently a bit of a toxic playing/coaching environment - to beating both those teams a few months later. They recognised the issues, and made some smart appointments to try fix it. That's the comparison heading into a home WC very very soon.

Hate to say it but it was only due to a red card that we achieved that result. We would have likely got smashed by England otherwise. 

The thing is NZR is soo much more professional and organised the NZF. We have been a shambles forever.  Think how much better both the men's and women's game would be if they were running the show.

NZR IMO is a shambles, nothing professional about them. I have mentioned before that club Rugby is dying, Ranfurly Shield Fever is dead as is the NPC. Twenty years ago, stadiums were full for NPC games and last year's Waikato v Auckland game attracted a few hundred. Compare the number of Rugby Club teams with Football Club teams and you will see that Football is 4 to 5 times larger in terms of participation.

NZF is very disappointing. With basic issues such as recruitment, I doubt whether they seek any HR expertise given the many cocks that have been made on this front.

Yes very true at that grass roots, NPC level. But they have also got a lot right in the last 20 odd years at the elite, ABs level especially. NZ has a smaller rugby playing base than England, France & South Africa. And until the Silver Lake deal alot less cash than RFU England for sure. 

Yet since rugby went professional the ABs have had a truly excellent 80% plus winning record. The rugby pyramid of schoolboy-club/NPC/age group-Super Rugby-ABs works very very well to make sure talented players are tracked closely, with not many falling through the cracks. It's a very centralised pathway managed by NZR that produces a stream of high class skilled players, plus importantly a big number of high class coaches. Note how NZers coach many of the world's international teams. Yes it's a tiny pond World Rugby compared to football, but the number of Kiwis coaching at a high level is still impressive. There is alot NZR got very right in the Steve Tew era.

Big Pete's comments above are interesting. A mate who works for Olympics NZ, had some less than flattering comments about dealing with the Ferns, them having overinflated opinions of themselves considering they only had to bully OFC teams to make an Olympiad. 

At the risk of going overboard on the rugby analogies, in 2004 the first year Henry, Hansen & Smith took over the ABs - they viewed about halfway through the season an unprofessional, heavy drinking environment and it all came to a head when they got thrashed by the Boks in Sth Africa. Had an inhouse meeting with some senior players, incl a young Richie McCaw (captain in waiting). Went for a no dick head selfish culture (so basically end of careers of guys like Spencer, Justin Marshall etc), and adopted a team first ethos with senior players sweeping out the changing rooms after training etc. Young players encouraged to speak up in meetings etc. No one bigger than the team

It takes courage for any coaching setup to come into a  long established international team, shake it up and make sweeping changes with a view they benefit in the longer term. But the best coaches often have that courage. Certainly likely why NZR plumped for Smith with the Black Ferns, as he'd sort of been there done that with the ABs.

I don't agree with everyting SN scribbles at all, but his view that an unconfident Klimkova is under the spell of Riley & others of the old guard may not be far from the truth.