Little wonder Smith found it all too hard

By CHRIS LAIDLAW

The road to rugby heaven is paved with good intentions and over the last week we have seen good intentions cause a huge pile-up in the selection of the All Black coaches.

Everybody has been so concerned with going through the motions fully and visibly that the whole process has come horribly unstuck.

Intent on doing the right thing from the beginning, the NZRFU assembled as worthy a posse of knowledge, experience and wisdom as they could muster to review the incumbents, Wayne Smith and Tony Gilbert.

While there were some murmurings in informed circles about the possibility of Gilbert being given a bit of a hard time, there was little if any expectation that Smith would be shown the door.

It might have been different out there in talkback land where the angry, the sick and the irrational were baying, as always, for somebody's, anybody's blood because we lost to the Wallabies.

In retrospect, the rugby union did not need to go through such large and unwieldy hoops. The inquisition was largely invoked by public pressure and that is always a dangerous basis for action.

Some might say that because Smith clearly got spooked by all this, he is no longer suitable material as the coach, and there may be some truth in that.

But he was spooked as much as anything by the ridiculous requirements of the coach to be frontman with the media, to embody all the mystique of the All Black legacy, to be a consummate strategic planner and to have all the skills of a corporate manager, as well as just being a coach.

Smith is a very good coach, but he is not everything else, and it is arguable that the NZRFU is not going to find anyone else who is. Bill Clinton, perhaps, but he falls a bit short on coaching experience.

This messy business will be patched up eventually and we will see a fresh appointment.

Whether Smith is pulled back from the edge of the precipice is now very doubtful. His bridges are badly burned.

Whatever happens, the rugby union has been delivered a clear signal. The time has come to accept that the coach must be left free to get on with that task alone.

The pressure in this country on an All Black coach is quantifiably different from that in any other country, and we need to acknowledge that and adapt.

The role of All Black manager needs to be reformulated to allow a big, trustworthy personality, someone who is a friend, mentor and protector of the players and who is widely liked and respected, to be the public face of the All Blacks to the world.

Inevitably, that personality will have to have had a successful All Black career himself. Credibility demands nothing less.

It isn't an easy role and it needs to be filled by someone who is right up with the action, who can explain and debate with the media the comings and goings within the team, and who himself carries the imagery of the All Black tradition and its continuity with the past.

The coach can be left to concentrate on the next game rather than having to worry about all the peripheral stuff and wrestling with reports on management performance indicators.

If ever there was a time for this transition to be made, it is now.

We're waiting and watching.