Black Ferns and All Blacks mentor Wayne Smith slams state of rugby, picks dark horse for tournament

Wayne Smith guided the Black Ferns to the World Cup in 2022. Photo / Photosport

As we say goodbye to 2023 and welcome in 2024, it’s a good time to catch up on the very best of the Herald columnists we enjoyed reading over the last 12 months. From politics to sport, from business to entertainment and lifestyle, these are the voices and views our audience loved the most. This story was first published in May.

Black Ferns and All Blacks coaching maestro Wayne Smith has lambasted the state of rugby and its lawmakers, saying he recently stopped watching a game on TV “for the first time” out of pure frustration.

Smith guided the Ferns to a World Cup triumph in 2022 despite only taking over as head coach six months before the tournament in New Zealand and was the All Blacks assistant coach for their victorious 2011 and 2015 Cup campaigns.

Speaking on The All Blacks Podcast, Smith said he couldn’t face watching the second half of the recent Super Rugby Pacific clash between the Force and the Highlanders in Perth, a match marred by Australian referee Nic Berry’s five yellow cards.

“The standard’s great in terms of the quality of the players around the world but I’m getting frustrated with the game. I watched the game that Nic Berry refereed the other day and the arm’s out the whole time, every single play there’s an advantage,” Smith said.

“You just know we’re going to go seven, eight phases and if it goes nowhere, we’re going to come back [for] a penalty.

“Then there’s 30 seconds to kick the ball into touch, 40 seconds for the lineout to happen. You know there’s going to be a drive that will collapse. It’s going to come back to another penalty, another kick to touch, another drive. Then the yellow card comes out because they did it again.

“I turned off a game for the first time in my life at halftime. I don’t know if it got any better in the second half. I just thought, it’s not a game I want to watch.

“I went to a documentary on lions in the Serengeti instead. I would rather watch an animal documentary, I was so frustrated.”

Smith, who is regarded as one of the leading coaches in the modern game, has long been a critic of the driving maul and has again urged for a crackdown.

“If, like me, you don’t like the constant mauls, I reckon one thing that will fix it is if you get the penalty and you kick to touch, the other team gets the throw-in. That would stop all these incessant kicks down to the corner and driving mauls and mauls that fall over.”

Asked about rule changes introduced for the 2023 Super Rugby Pacific season - including time restrictions on goal kicks, set pieces and rucks, and a streamlined TMO process - Smith said they were “pretty minor”.

“I don’t know if they quite have the effect that they wanted when they made them.”

Smith won the 2011 and 2015 World Cups in 2011 and 2015 as assistant coach to first Graham Henry and later Steve Hansen. Photo / Photosport

The 66-year-old also revealed what he thought about Ian Foster’s team’s chances at the men’s World Cup in France.

The All Blacks face France, Italy, Uruguay and Namibia in pool play with Foster stepping down at the conclusion of the tournament after New Zealand Rugby’s unprecedented move in March to announce Scott Robertson as his successor - six months before the start of the showpiece event.

“To some extent, the pressure is off Fozzie,” Smith said.

“He has had a lot of difficult years with Covid and there’s been a lot of criticism but the decision’s been made for next year.

“He can now say what he wants and pick who he wants and I think the country will support it. There will be no consequences afterwards, so I think he’ll give it heaps.

“They’ve got all the coaching and mental skills ability that you need and they’re going to pick a strong team. That team is going to come out of a Super Rugby competition that hasn’t been that tough but I’ve got every confidence that they’re going to be hard to beat. The All Blacks always are.”

While Six Nations form sides France and Ireland and defending champions South Africa will be among the early favourites, Smith warned Australia could be a dark horse under returning coach Eddie Jones.

Jones replaced Kiwi Dave Rennie in January, shortly after being sacked as England mentor.

“It’s going to be tough to pick - you’ve also got England and Wales with Gats [Warren Gatland] back - they’re going to make some improvements, there’s no doubt about that,” Smith said.

“The Aussies... Eddie’s going to get a lot of players back that Dave Rennie never had because of injury or being overseas. He always gets an impact and I would say they will be more of a danger than people expect.”