“Once you bid farewell to discipline,” writes Sir Alex Ferguson in his book Leading: Lessons in Leadership, “you say goodbye to success”.
This, as the legendary former Manchester United manager would insist, applies to all areas of life, including business and sport. And it applies as much to the managers and coaches of sports teams as it does to players.
It’s a quote worth pondering in the wake of the review into the Black Ferns’ team environment following their disastrous tour to England and France last year during which they lost all four Tests, a review, by the way, which was undertaken because of Te Kura Ngata-Aerengamate's social media post at the time which spoke of her struggles with herself and the team culture.
Ngata-Aerengamate said her non-selection was the final straw after eight years of not feeling valued other than for the cultural aspects she brought to the team.
That post and review has opened a pandora’s box of deficiencies in a team found to be without a high-performance vision, and also one containing “significant” communication issues and “health and wellbeing” problems.
There were faults due to a lack of “robust recruitment and training” – read, shoulder-tapping people for management positions without a rigorous interview process – all of which failed to “create an environment that was safe and inclusive with regard to culture, gender and sexuality”.
Black Ferns report finds deficiencies in team culture and environment
Senior lawyer Phillipa Muir, who chaired the review, said at Monday's press conference of Ngata-Aerengamate's struggles which came after a non selection and failure to win another contract: "Without any reasons being given for not being contracted, Te Kura's feelings of isolation, ghosting, of not being a favourite, only deepened and she felt she had nothing to lose and nowhere else to turn but to go public with her concerns, so she made her Instagram post".
Credit to New Zealand Rugby for instigating the review and to the reviewers for conducting it so thoroughly, but this is about as damning as it gets. And as Sir Alex and others may note, none of the above seems compatible with discipline, never mind success.
There may be elements within our society who say players, and particularly female players, must accept criticism as part of the professional gig and I would respond by saying firstly that the only professional thing about that environment appears to be that they were being paid to play (and far, far less than their male counterparts).
Secondly, players will generally accept criticism if everyone within the environment, including coaches and management, are also held accountable for their actions, and that doesn’t appear to be the case here.
Head coach Glenn Moore, yet to respond to the report outside of a generic media release, has kept his job. Former All Blacks coach Wayne Smith, whose addition to any rugby team would improve it, has been added.
Does Moore’s retention reflect the wider issues within New Zealand Rugby that the organisation has recognised and is planning to correct? Team cultures don’t exist in a vacuum, and Moore staying in his job, with added assistance and no doubt education, appears to be a tacit acceptance by New Zealand Rugby that they didn’t get it right either and that they didn’t want to throw their head coach under the bus.
Again – “lessons”, “learnings” and promises to do better without any significant consequences for those in more powerful positions than the players - if it all seems a little familiar, then you’re not mistaken.
All Blacks head coach Ian Foster, struggling along with his assistants to find solutions to combat the Springboks, Ireland and France – teams with highly skilled and powerful forward packs and backs able to find and use space better than his own – has been given extra help in the form of scrum adviser Mike Cron and skills specialist Andrew Strawbridge.
The All Blacks already have John Plumtree, Greg Feek, Scott McLeod and Brad Mooar as assistant coaches, and Joe Schmidt, the former Ireland coach and helping the Blues, will join as a selector after the three Irish Tests in July.
The players may be encouraged by the help given to coaches who clearly don’t have all the answers, but those players are presumably also fully aware that they would be dropped if they don’t perform. The same doesn’t seem to apply with the coaches and management of New Zealand’s top men’s and women’s rugby teams.
There may be further developments – read, exits - at the Black Ferns yet. And well done for New Zealand Rugby for taking Ngata-Aerengamate’s concerns so seriously and allowing such a thorough review to be undertaken.
But as for the rest, there is a sense of something unfinished within the upper reaches of New Zealand Rugby which has flowed to their two flagship teams – a lack of accountability, a fraying of the edges. A lack of discipline.
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