League: Kemble considers stepping down

Key Points:

A frank admission from under pressure Kiwis coach Gary Kemble.

Kemble has only been in charge of the Kiwis for three matches but admits he is considering quitting if the team is whitewashed three-nil by Great Britain.

They will need a massive form reversal after the 44-0 hiding last weekend which handed the Lions their first series win in 14 years.

Kemble said he will not make any rash decisions but resigning has been on his mind.

"Of course I'm thinking about it but at the moment I'm working hard to turn this around," he said.

"The players, coaching staff and management staff are a closer unit now and we have to turn it around this week.

"When you're coaching, it's results that count and I'm responsible for those results.

"I'm a passionate Kiwi and everybody after the game new how I felt about it. If they didn't now then, they never will."

Kemble indicated changes were looming after the rampant British exposed limitations in several of the New Zealand players.

"We know now - after the last two test matches really - that there are players out there who aren't up to international standard."

"I'd like to replace maybe about four or five but you have to have players to replace them with."

The cold truth will be onpassed in a series of coach-player one-on-one sessions tomorrow.

"If they're not up to international level, we have to tell them why and they have to go away and improve to get up to that level."

He couldn't explain the flat performance of his players after the coaches had worked 12 hours a day to ensure they would step up following the tight 14-20 first test loss at Huddersfield.

"We did everything we thought was right last week, it didn't change much from the week before when we had a bit of a go," he said.

"Before they ran out, everything was intense, there was urgency there. Then all of a sudden you get a prop (British captain Jamie Peacock) run through about three blokes in the first 60 seconds and you think `well, nothing's right'."

Rookie fullback Sam Perrett had been a revelation but otherwise Kemble was disappointed with the apparent lack of passion of his players.

Addressing the urgency factor would be an important part of this week's buildup.

- NEWSTALK ZB, NZPA