Mark Reason: Confused All Blacks star Richie Mo’unga is a symptom of the rugby mess

OPINION: The Crusaders don’t kick the ball in the last 20 minutes of a game. They just don’t. The crusaders keep moving men and possession into space until the opposition and the defenders run out of breath. And then the earth stopped spinning. In the final quarter of the game against the Highlanders, Richie Mo’unga kicked and kicked and kicked.

Tactically, it wasn’t a terrible idea, but it wasn’t the plan of the Crusaders’ trainers who had gone deep and pushed to the limit. Mo’unga abandoned the plan. Too many movements had been messed up and they looked confused. Mo’unga was no longer sure of the game he was trying to play, and he didn’t seem to be sure of the men around him.

It may seem like a moment in a match, but I think it is a symptom of a broader malaise in New Zealand rugby. As more and more players and coaches disappear overseas on sabbaticals or to accept more lucrative job offers, the players left behind, the players who remain loyal to their fans and teams, always have to make new friends. .

In the Crusaders, Mo’unga has no idea who will train him from year to year. Scott Robertson is the ever-present avuncular figure, but the others are forever changing. In five years at the Crusaders, Mo’unga has had to adjust to the ideas and personalities of Leon MacDonald, Andrew Goodman, Brad Mooar, Ronan O’Gara, Mark Jones, Scott Hansen, Tamati Ellison, and no doubt one or two. the ones I’ve missed. .

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It can be good to refresh the coaching staff from time to time, but surely not as often. See what happened to Lydia Ko when she started changing coaches and caddies in the blink of an eye. His game disintegrated. And then you look in the rearview mirror and you see the coach / player relationship between men like Arthur Lydiard and Peter Snell. You are seeing constancy and you are seeing greatness.

And it’s not just the Crusaders where Mo’unga has undergone this change. After a couple of years in the All Blacks setup, he’s had to adjust to another coaching cycle. It’s a wonder that he can remember everyone’s names. And if all this is true for Mo’unga, it is even more so for Jack Goodhue, who not only has to adapt to constantly changing staff, but also to a change in position.

And in what position does Goodhue currently play? He made a name for himself as All Black when he was 13. But then, with the departure of Ryan Crotty, the Crusaders made him a 12. It’s a move All Blacks coach Ian Foster seems to have endorsed in picking Goodhue. like Mo’unga. constant partner at 12, although Ngani Laumape’s injury may have played a role.

Prior to that partnership, Mo’unga, as the starter of the All Blacks 10, had played two events with Laumape, four events with Sonny Bill, one with Ryan Crotty, and three with Anton Lienert-Brown. Mo’unga has not lost a test with the starting three, but his record with Lienert-Brown is played three, won one, lost two. With Goodhue you play five, you win three, you draw one, you lose one. Those stats suggest he’s happiest with power runners at 12.

But it also helps to have familiarity. Against the Highlanders, the Crusaders brought in Dallas McLeod at 12, although Goodhue occasionally slid into the Inland Channel in attack. But clearly there was very little understanding in midfield, both in attack and defense. How could there be?

And yet New Zealand is very good at partnerships. In the case of some of their great sports duos, familiarity has generated respect. You think of the rowing Evers-Swindell twins who dominated double sculls. You think of Hamish Bond and Eric Murray, surely the best society in the history of rowing.

Murray once said, “We can take anyone else’s destiny and do anything with it.”

And then there are Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, who seem to strengthen each other. In the four years leading up to the 2016 Rio Olympics, the Kiwis were undefeated in an unprecedented 27 consecutive 49ers regattas. His former coach Hamish Willcox once called Tuke the most “socially astute” person he has ever met, adding, “He has compassion on the capital C.”

But you don’t have to both be totally good for the chemistry to work. One of the first times John McEnroe and Peter Fleming played doubles together, Fleming attacked the referee and then McEnroe came over him.

Fleming said of McEnroe: “I had footprints on my back from him trying to climb over me to get to the referee. We both went crazy and lost the game. I knew if we were going to be a good team, it had to be the quiet one.” .

You don’t have to be the same. Look at Steve Young and Jerry Rice in football, or Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski. Or even Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor in cricket. Often very different personalities can come together and work wonderfully in mysterious ways.

The same can be said for the player / coach relationship. Butch Harmon and Tiger Woods were worlds apart. Or what about Noeline Taurua and Laura Langman, whose netball accomplishments together are phenomenal. Taurua even considers Langman “one of my daughters.”

Langman’s manager, Garth Gallaway, called the partnership one of the best coach-player relationships in New Zealand sport history. He called it a “unique symbiotic relationship.”

And that is surely true of all the big sports associations. They are special to themselves. Barry John and Mike Gibson were very different men, but what an understanding they formed on that ’71 tour of New Zealand.

However, when I looked around Super Rugby at the weekend, I wondered where the next big partnership would come from. Beauden Barrett and TJ Perenara are in Japan. Josh Ioane was not a starter for the Highlanders. Otere Black often doesn’t know who plays 12 out of him from week to week or even if he’s sure of his place.

The Chiefs’ midfield was a revolving door last season and their coach will be leaving with the Lions this year. Peter Umaga-Jensen makes the All Blacks team and then can’t find a starting place for the Canes at the start of the season.

And all this in the middle of Covid. If there’s one thing gamers need right now, like all of us, it’s stability. They need the familiar. They need the same voice in their ears off the field, and they need to be side by side, week after week, with the same partner on the field. As Peter Fleming once said; “They have to trust each other.”

Right now, New Zealand rugby is unreliable. Mo’unga is one of the great players of his generation, but even Pelé couldn’t have thrived with a different attacking partner each week. It is a moment of loyalty. It is a time for coaches to stay with one team and one player. Show some confidence and some faith, and players like Mo’unga will bring beauty back to both their teams and rugby.