Filling The Void

WHEN THE ALL BLACKS LOST 800-PLUS TEST CAPS AFTER THE 2015 WORLD CUP, THEY WERE POTENTIALLY FACING A LEADERSHIP VACUUM. BUT SOME ASTUTE PLANNING ENSURED THEY HAD GOOD DECISION-MAKERS AND DEEP THINKERS READY TO STEP IN.

Everyone could see the All Blacks were going to hit the wall at the end of 2015. They were going to lose arguably the two greatest players in All Blacks history – Richie McCaw and Daniel Carter.

Those two were retiring from test rugby as were four other legends of the game – Ma'a Nonu, Conrad Smith, Tony Woodcock and Keven Mealamu.

They were known collectively as the 'Golden Generation', all of them had been great All Blacks, having done great things.

All of them had been heavily involved in delivering the most successful decade of results which saw the All Blacks win 90 per cent of their tests between 2008 and 2015.

All of them would be in the frame to be considered the best in their respective positions – not just best All Blacks, but best the world had known.

Certainly McCaw and Carter would make any all time greatest player XV and Nonu and Smith would be in the frame.

Between them they had in excess of 800 caps – five of them were centurions and Smith signed off with 94 appearances.

And it was the experience and leadership brought by those players that All Blacks coach Steve Hansen was fearful of losing.

Hansen had come to realise in his long exposure to international rugby that leadership was so often the difference between the best teams. There was never much between the best sides physically and what tended to separate them was their ability to make good decisions under pressure.

Leadership was a quality Hansen considered invaluable. He didn't see it as something that would organically develop or a skill players would necessarily learn unconsciously. He saw it as something that firstly had to be recognised as being a skill in itself and secondly something that had to be deliberately and relentlessly managed, learned and developed.