All Blacks: Tests, coach(es) face knife

Andrew Hore, Steve Hansen and Richie McCaw after the loss to the Springboks at Hamilton. Photo / Getty Images

A full and frank review of the All Blacks' Tri Nations campaign in the next few weeks will result in changes.

How far-reaching those changes will be, New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive Steve Tew can't say exactly. It's believed there will be fewer tests amid concerns the bloated calendar has started to affect performances.

Other than that, Tew is open-minded. All he is sure of is that the All Black results have been poor. More importantly, he says the greater concern is that performances have not been at the standard expected of All Blacks.

"We'll have a sit down with the coaches after this [Tri Nations] and find out what they are thinking," he says. "There are mitigating factors [such as injury and player exodus]. I wouldn't want anyone to think the All Blacks don't go out there trying to win every test. They do, but there is a reality that no one can win 100 per cent.

"I guess we can all live with defeats a little better if the performances have been good. I think we can all see they haven't been up to the standard we have achieved in the past."

Tew is not shying away from the truth - he never does. The All Black coaches would normally meet their employer post-Tri Nations to debrief and plan.

Tew accepts that this year, the questions will be more probing and the discussions will likely be more passionate because the team can't continue like this - with a win ratio barely more than 50 per cent.

So what are the potential changes beyond fewer tests? Most of the public attention will fall on the coaching trio.

This is their sixth year and inevitably questions have to be asked whether they've lost their edge. They were re-appointed in June through to 2011 on the grounds they are the best available and on the strength of an indisputably good record bar the World Cup.

Given the injury list - Dan Carter, Richie McCaw, Ali Williams, Richard Kahui, Keven Mealamu, Piri Weepu, Conrad Smith, Sitiveni Sivivatu and Adam Thomson have all missed significant parts of the season - 2009 could be viewed as a bad year, nothing more.

But that would be to overlook the chronic failings of the lineout; the stuttering work of the backline and the tactical failings of Bloemfontein and Durban. The high ball, too, has been poorly dealt with and the number of basic handling errors has been disturbingly high.

Some heat has to go on the panel to find out why these areas were not fixed. The panel will have answers - they always do - so the real question for the NZRU is whether they have enough faith in Graham Henry, Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith to eradicate all these problems over the next two years.

They also have to ask if they have faith in the combined strength of the package or are they no longer certain the trio are bringing the best out of each other. Is there a weak link?

Because the lineout has been so bad, the knives have been out for forwards coach Steve Hansen. In his defence, the All Blacks were superb in Hamilton at disrupting the Springboks rolling maul. They also counter-rucked well and scrummaged with a high pass mark.

But the lineout is a continual shambles and patience has worn thin. Those with a good feel for such matters say Hansen is a good technical operator but lacks tactical awareness.

The lineout needs to reach a basic level of functionality and so far that has been beyond Hansen.

The NZRU could give him more time, back him to sort things out eventually, especially if Williams returns next year.

Or they could conclude that if the lineout is still a shambles six years after Hansen arrived, he's had all the time he needs. The latter view feels as if it might be the right call.

More than anything right now, it feels that this coaching trio need a new dynamic forced upon them. They have given outstanding service, produced results and performances that will not be easily bettered by their successors.

Yet every tight-knit team reaches a point where change does become necessary.

Are the three men challenging each other? Have they come to know each other too well whereby they accept too easily what the others say?

As tough as it would be on an honest trooper, does Hansen have to be the sacrificial lamb to show there is no complacency; that there is a willingness to make dramatic changes in search of a better future?

If so, what next? Would the All Blacks need a replacement or could someone like former lock Keith Robinson be brought in to supervise the lineout, Mike Cron work the scrums and Henry oversee the rest?

Maybe the best solution is Todd Blackadder. He has operated in the All Black lineout as a player and experienced test coaching while in Scotland. He showed this season with the Crusaders that he can instil good values and lead his players to over-achieve. He could even stay with the Crusaders and work with the All Blacks as a coach but not a selector.

Tew says a change in personnel is possible but stresses that he and the board retain their faith in the current trio.

"We need to look at what we are doing as well," he says of the NZRU. "We need to ask the coaches if there is anything we are doing or not doing that could help them. Are we playing too much, expecting too much from players, putting too much pressure on them; asking them do too much commercial activity? We must ask these questions."