John MacDonald: All Blacks cancelling media was the right move, if it's part of a plan

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

It was a funny old day in Wellington yesterday. There was a media conference that was scheduled to happen, that didn’t happen. And there was another one that wasn’t scheduled, that did happen.
The one that did happen was the Government front-footing today’s inflation figure with the announcement that it’s extending the fuel tax discount and half-price public transport until January.
The one that didn’t happen was New Zealand Rugby doing the complete opposite, and going on the back foot and telling the world it doesn’t want to talk about that shocking All Blacks series loss to Ireland on Saturday night.
It’s the first series loss on home soil since 1994. Laurie Mains was coach then and he lasted another year after that. Which was when the All Blacks got crook at the World Cup in South Africa and there was all sorts of talk about their burgers being poisoned.
Now, you could say that the All Blacks cancelling a media conference after such an appalling performance just reeks of the sense of entitlement and arrogance that runs through the veins of the outfit in charge of rugby in this country.
The outfit that’s more than happy to charge truckloads for you to go and watch the matches. More than happy for you to shell out money for all the merchandise. But when things go pear-shaped, nowhere to be seen.
Now normally, that’s what I would think. And I can pretty much guarantee that after the post-match media conference on Saturday night, the All Blacks’ media people would’ve been saying to Foster that fronting another media conference on Sunday - as scheduled, and as per normal - would be a “distraction the team doesn’t need at the moment”.
We saw it on Saturday night. Journalists were asking Foster about his future as All Blacks coach, and they got a telling off. I saw it on the TV news last night.
So they would’ve been saying to him late Saturday night: “You saw what happened tonight Fozzie. Tomorrow will be the same. We want to protect you from all that so we’re going to cancel the media conference. We’re doing it for you Fozzie.”
And, normally, I’d just say that it was yet another example of New Zealand Rugby’s arrogance and control-freak tendencies that it’s got away with for so long.
But, in my honest opinion, I suspect there’s more to it than that.
I don’t think they were protecting Fozzie at all when they pulled the plug on yesterday’s traditional post-match day media conference. I think they did it to protect themselves.
Because, if he was forced to front up yesterday, he could quite easily turn around somewhere down the track and accuse New Zealand Rugby of hanging him out to dry. In employment law circles, they call it constructive dismissal. And no employer wants to be dealing with that.
We know already, don’t we, that it’s launching some sort of investigation. It said yesterday the outcome of the test series was “unacceptable”. Which is exactly the word we were all using on Saturday night, wasn’t it?
In sports bars and lounges up and down the country, everyone was turning to each other afterwards and saying ‘well, that was unacceptable wasn’t it’. I know it was a bit more colourful than that where I was.
Scotty Morrison is saying today in a piece online that the All Blacks are completely lacking. He says, Beauden Barrett, for example, is “playing with all the joy of an accountancy conference”. Which says it all in terms of the on-field performance of the All Blacks, which contrasts so starkly with the Crusaders.
When the Crusaders won their Super Rugby Pacific semi-final and final this year, it occurred to me that they play sometimes as if they’re throwing a ball around at a park or on a beach. It looks effortless and, more importantly, they make it look fun.
Which is exactly how Ireland looked like on Saturday night. And it’s how the All Blacks used to look. And if something doesn’t change ASAP, forget about them looking like that...

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