Rugby Championship: All Blacks management approach milestone test

COMMENT:

A vintage vino, possibly accompanied by a large side of steak, could prove the perfect tonic as a quartet of the All Blacks management prepare to toast a special milestone in Buenos Aires this weekend.

It's likely to pass without much fanfare, or public recognition. First and foremost, there is a test to be won.

But even if they'd prefer to keep the milestone under wraps, it's worth acknowledging that Steve Hansen, Mike Cron, Gilbert Enoka and Darren Shand will combine for their 200th test together against the Pumas.

No doubt minds are fully focused on preparing the All Blacks for their first, testing assignment of the year, one made more challenging by the absence of captain Kieran Read and the majority of the Crusaders following their Super Rugby success.

Still, it is worth pausing to reflect on the approaching collective achievement – raising the bat for a double century of tests – that is rarer than those in a cricketing context.

Hansen and long-time forwards assistant Cron - both of whom will finish with the All Blacks after the World Cup - mental skills expert Enoka, known as 'Bert', and manager Shand first joined forces under Graham Henry in 2004.

Through the many trials and tribulations rugby brings – two World Cup successes, one failure – they have since remained side-by-side amid many changes and additions.

Fifteen years on they are the longest-serving management core in world rugby, easily eclipsing Warren Gatland, whose decade-long Welsh tenure began in 2008, and his crew.

Since 2004, the All Blacks boast an 86.9 per cent record with 173 wins, 23 losses and three draws.

Other coaching figures such as Henry, Wayne Smith and Ian Foster, and valued backroom staff, have contributed greatly to what has become an unrivalled period of success.

But along the way, as their roles evolved, the Hansen, Cron, Enoka, Shand connect have formed a major part of the consistent continuity.

As the first of the quartet to join the All Blacks under Smith in 2001, Enoka has already clocked 200 tests in management.

Likewise Hansen and Cron have well surpassed the mark after previously working together with Wales from 2002 to '04.

As a group, though, this foursome sits 199 not out with the All Blacks.

"There will be Steve, me and Shandy as those out of the originals," Cron told the Herald earlier this year. "Bert was there with Smithy prior to that so he is over 200.

"We formed in 2004 under Ted, us four it will be our 200th together.

"It's pretty special. I'm sure to find some Malbec over there that will do the number."

Player milestones are often held up in lights, and rightly so. They are on the frontline, putting bodies on the line, absorbing heavy collisions and doing it all over again the following week after grinding through training with niggly injuries.

Management largely sits behind the scenes, driving the start of the week, content to play respective roles in oiling the greater machine to go out and perform each week.

Without them, wheels may fall off.

A vino or two after 200 weeks of planning and plotting seems only fitting, then.