Dropping the ball

The bile aimed at coach Ian Foster over the All Blacks' recent record raises questions about the perspective of fans and the mindset of the media.

- PAUL THOMAS

Long-held conventional wisdom, here and abroad, is that New Zealanders are very good at rugby because we take it very seriously.Successive waves of visiting scribes have repeated the lazy – and increasingly meaningless – claim that the game is a “religion” here, often as a prelude to sharing anecdotes of dubious authenticity about the rugby nous of little old ladies and, inevitably, taxi drivers. (I’ve had many cricket conversations with taxi drivers; precious few about rugby.)

Kiwis certainly take rugby way too seriously when the All Blacks lose. Embarrassingly, this is regarded as a good thing. Even those, like embattled coach Ian Foster, who cop the backlash insist that the absurd and often ugly overreactions are an indicator of New Zealand rugby’s rude health. It shows we care, so the argument goes; the day when Kiwis react to an All Blacks loss with equanimity is the day we should start worrying because it will be a clear sign that our long love affair with the game is cooling.

Players and coaches continue to claim that the intense weight of expectation and the fallout when they fall short are drivers of success and a key reason the All Blacks boast the best win-loss record in international rugby: they instil a galvanising fear of failure that their opponents don’t have.