Rieko Ioane, Sam Cane and Dane Coles of the All Blacks perform the haka ahead of the 2020 Tri-Nations rugby match between the All Blacks and Argentina.
Rieko Ioane, Sam Cane and Dane Coles of the All Blacks perform the haka ahead of the 2020 Tri-Nations rugby match between the All Blacks and Argentina.
OPINION:
In an extraordinary year it was inevitable there would be extraordinary results and extraordinary reactions.
Nothing quite makes sense in 2020 and in a year which has required massive adjustment - radical rethinking on the fundamentals of how we live, how we travel, how we work and how wecommunicate - it's unfair to believe that New Zealand's best rugby players have been immune or protected from the uncertainty and stress that change has caused.
Their world has been tipped upside down just like everyone else's – they did lockdown with the rest of us, in homemade, improvised gyms. They have had their pay slashed, competitions changed and new routines forced upon them.
No one need necessarily be sympathetic to their plight, but it is at least important to acknowledge it and understand it has not been uniform across the rugby world.
Covid has been a random force. Unpredictable and inconsistent. Some teams have experienced quarantine this year, others haven't. Some have been months away from home, others just weeks.
New Zealand's players have been hammering each other since June, while the Pumas have barely played and the impact of different workloads has proven impossible to predict.
There we all were insisting Argentina had been one of the worst-hit victims when it turned out that the pandemic had been the unifying force they were searching for.
Sam Cane of the All Blacks looks on during the 2020 Tri-Nations rugby match between the New Zealand All Blacks and the Argentina Los Pumas. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
The hardship they endured in the 402 days between their last test of 2019 and first in 2020 was channelled into a famous victory against the All Blacks, but may now hit them right between the eyes as they try to play another three tests in consecutive weekends.
A heroic victory to start the campaign could be followed by three defeats and a team hailed on the verge of a major breakthrough, may in fact leave Australia a long way behind the All Blacks and Wallabies.
This is the Covid impact – it has created a world of extremes and unique challenges that mean the All Blacks have been able to go from posting a record victory against the Wallabies to an historic loss to the Pumas in just two tests.
The challenge, more than ever in this wildly fluctuating sporting year, is to determine how much of the All Blacks' inconsistencies we should attribute to the Covid impact and how much we should see as endemic.
Or, in more base terms, it's about applying perspective without the unconscious bias of believing Ian Foster was the wrong appointment as coach.
Perspective and understanding are vital because by having both, it's possible to see that this year Sam Cane has done precisely what all good All Blacks captains have done and taken his game to a higher level.
He's led by the quality of his performance and it's a ridiculous jump in logic to claim his remarks this week about ignorant fans is proof he commands little respect or is unworthy of the role.
The All Blacks react after being beaten by the Pumas. Tri Nations rugby union test match. New Zealand All Blacks v Argentina Pumas. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
The way some have reacted actually strengthens his point, but it was however ill-advised for Cane to air his thoughts publicly and invite a predictable and inevitable social media backlash that has put his team under yet more pressure.
Perhaps what he really meant to say was that the natural ebb and flow of the season has been distorted by the highly irregular circumstances produced this year and made life considerably harder for the All Blacks.
An element of empathy and understanding is required to be able to place everything in perspective and given his time again, Cane would say precisely this. That's almost certainly what he meant – that his team are battling in difficult terrain without a map and shouldn't be judged too harshly for losing their way.
He made a mistake from which we will see in time whether he has the capacity to learn and not repeat.
Just as we will see in time whether he can develop his leadership so as his form becomes the foundation, but is supported by his ability to tactically adapt in real time and exert his authority in a more pronounced way during games.
Captaincy is a growth game. No one gets it right at first, not even Richie McCaw who spent his first two years in the job as a relatively quiet and unobtrusive skipper on the field, believing that his form alone would provide all the leadership and tactical direction the team needed.
And likewise the All Blacks have played poorly in two consecutive tests and we will see, in time, whether they have the capacity to learn and adapt and use failure as a growth tool.
Time will ultimately tell us how much of an extraordinary year 2020 has been.
