Rugby: Leave panic to the Poms

Richie McCaw showed in the way that he handled Ruan Pienaar and the Springboks two weeks ago that should be no doubts about his captaincy. Photo / Reuters

It's funny how New Zealanders watch in horror at the way the English football team is vilified in defeat and then deified in victory. That lack of perspective, that inability to focus the post-match analysis on the 90 minutes and not project it into something more, is the curse of the Poms.

It's driven by their desperation to win another football World Cup. They won once, in 1966, and occasionally they can go a full 10 minutes without reminding someone about the day Bobby Moore made a nation proud.

It's all so laughable from this side of the world, watching a country tear itself to pieces over their national team and their hideous insecurities and anxieties that come from having such a big monkey on their back.

But New Zealanders have no business feeling smug, sniggering at England and deflating the cheeks with a relief that signals, 'thank goodness we are not like them'.

They have no business, because New Zealanders react to an All Black defeat in the same insular, blame-hunting way as the English.

New Zealand once won a Rugby World Cup, in 1987, and just like the English, are tortured by their hunger for a repeat success.

An All Black loss, it seems, can never just be that. It has to mean something more. It has to be over analysed to the point where the same people who only the week before were basking in the glow of the team's new found mental resolve are now wondering whether Richie McCaw has got what it takes to cut it as skipper.

It was former Wallaby coach Eddie Jones who started this nonsense. He questioned on the Monday after the 20-15 defeat in Melbourne whether McCaw has any impact with referees. He suggested the All Black openside has a reputation for breaking the rules and, because of that, he doesn't command respect with officials.

Incredibly, there were plenty of people in New Zealand who took Jones seriously. Incredible because Jones has suffered the most alarming fall from grace. He lost eight out of nine tests in 2005 and was ushered out of office with embarrassing haste before he could do any more damage.

Jones is the man who put the Wallabies scrummaging back to remedial level and, for an encore, he went to the Reds this season and rooted them firmly to the bottom of the Super 14 ladder, finishing their campaign with a 92-3 loss in Pretoria.

Jones once knew his onions but, really, when he has a dig at the All Blacks, everyone should politely laugh, feel some pity for a man who just can't handle the fact he is no longer on rugby's A-list and get back to the gardening or ironing or something more constructive than wondering whether Eddie has a point.