Richard Loe: Cup role crucial for ABs

Of course the All Blacks should be playing in the Air New Zealand Cup. They need to. People like Cory Jane want to.

You can't blame Wellington coach Jamie Joseph for putting a stick in the sand. He wants his team to train and play together and not be subject to All Blacks popping in and out.

I think it is about some things coming home to roost for Graham Henry. I remember when Laurie Mains was All Blacks coach, Henry wasn't all that helpful.

And how did Henry announce - after we heard the All Blacks were not playing in the Cup - that some would be released for game time? Did he ring all the provincial coaches and tell them the All Blacks needed help; that they were in the cactus and some guys needed rugby? Or did he just announce it through the media?

For my money, you play your All Blacks. People like to see them. It helps with attendances, viewership, and, more particularly, the All Blacks.

It doesn't take that much for All Blacks to slot back into provincial play. I used to do that with Waikato - I'd be back in and there was Graeme Purvis and Warren Gatland and let's get on with it ...

Where was Tony Woodcock for North Harbour when they lost in awful fashion to Otago on Thursday? He's not in top form yet, he needs more rugby. But he was in cotton wool.

Having said that, I watched Luke McAlister play on Thursday and thought it was worse than pathetic. If the selectors were watching him on Thursday, they'd have to conclude he didn't deserve a spot in the squad. I have not seen McAlister do anything since that duffed-up day in Cardiff in 2007 that justifies him being in a black jersey right now.

This is the same old stuff we've had from this coaching panel since before the World Cup and people are sick of it.

I think these guys are getting rattled. They are starting to say dumb things and to contradict themselves - like that nonsense over Dan Carter when Steve Hansen said it would be "panic" to bring him back in. What happens? They select him.

If you locked all three coaches in the garden shed for a weekend and said to Richie McCaw: 'Look, we can't find the coaches so you guys will have to get on with it by yourselves' the players could form a game plan and win.

I think the panel have selected the top 20-25 players, it's just what they are doing with them isn't working.

It's fast becoming time they moved on, the sooner the better. Let's get a hard-nosed coach in - like Jamie Joseph.

He's a good hard-bitten lad. I know he hasn't even coached Super 14 but we have some people in Super 14 who won't make the next level anyway.