Where NZ rugby's going wrong

Lock Bryn Evans was wanted more by the All Blacks than the Hurricanes. Photo / Dean Purcell

Playing numbers are up and the provincial championship is enjoying unprecedented popularity. The Heartland Championship continues to work well and the under-20s are world champions.

These are the positives - the reasons to believe the game in this country is in good shape. But there are plenty of negatives to offset that; to start wondering whether the rot that has set into the All Black camp should be seen as something more than a phase; more than a set of concurring, uncontrollable circumstances.

How can anyone believe there is reason to be optimistic when the All Blacks, filled with the best players available, can't master something as basic as the lineout?

The All Black legacy has been built on their ability to execute the basics better than everyone else and yet last week, they played 40 minutes against South Africa and reached the break with one lineout win - taken, ironically, from the Springboks - to their opponents' 12.

Following the game, All Blacks assistant coach Steve Hansen suggested the issue was not one of confidence but a lack of basic skills within the group. "While we're continually being told we've got a confidence problem, it's not a confidence problem, it's a skill problem," said Hansen.

Now that has to be a serious concern - players reaching the All Blacks without having mastered the basics. Once they are there, why are these basic flaws not targeted and eradicated?

It's tempting to believe Hansen is simply trying to deflect attention from the micro- to the macro-picture to stop his own role coming under scrutiny. While he certainly can't be exonerated, there is validity to his claim that the players lack basic skills.

New Zealand has ceased to be a smart, innovative rugby nation. Super Rugby has not been good to this country. It has instilled a laissez-faire approach to the basics of the game and encouraged a high-risk mentality being heavily punished by the current rules.

The balance is all wrong now - the emphasis has been placed too heavily on attacking the wider spaces.

When Graham Henry took the All Black job in December 2003, he promised to restore the set piece to its rightful place. He promised to tighten the All Blacks, to build the foundation around the scrum, lineout and collision, and to develop backs who could kick, preferably off both feet.

There was progress made on the scrummaging - big progress. Across the board, New Zealand's Super 14 sides hold their own in that department. Emerging props all know they have to be able to scrum to progress.

The collision has not been neglected by New Zealand sides. It's an area most teams do well but there are lapses at all levels. Look at the All Blacks this year against France - they were cleaned out at the contact point. They weren't focused on cleaning out the French and paid the price.

The need to be aggressive, to hit every breakdown with venom and purpose, is not ingrained in the psyche any more. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not.

Again, that's only to be expected because it's all a bit loose at Super 14 where New Zealand sides look to play at pace, to probe for space and avoid prolonged arm-wrestles. It works at that level but you can't win a test without forwards whose overriding instinct is to intimidate and dominate the physical exchanges.

That's the same with the aerial flaws that have been exposed this season. Kickoff receipts are not an area of strength and nor is the high ball. New Zealand doesn't have an array of backs who can kick well and use the boot to pressure the opposition.

Standards have slipped through a lack of attention and this sense that New Zealanders don't play boring' rugby.

All this needs to be fixed. It needs cohesion and buy-in from the provinces, franchises and international coaches.

The point of a central contracting model is to have control of the players and to have unity of purpose from the All Blacks down to the provinces. This is where New Zealand has real problems now.

It's obvious that the unity is not there. This year, Bryn Evans became an All Black after barely playing for the Hurricanes. The All Black panel saw him as the type of lock they were after - a core skills type of player who was all about accuracy at kickoffs and tidiness at the lineout. Colin Cooper, however, preferred the roaming Jeremy Thrush and Jason Eaton who are all about mobility and ball-carrying.

Further evidence of there being friction and lack of cohesion came when Wellington coach Jamie Joseph refused to pick any released All Blacks last month.

It was a bad look - the All Black coach not getting his way, players left to kick their heels and no one able to criticise Joseph because he had every right to take the stance he did.

It took Neemia Tialata, writing on the Facebook website, to reveal the depths of frustration felt by the players.

"The whole union/franchise is a joke!!" Tialata wrote on August 30, according to The Dominion Post.

"Lions coaches and Canes coaches don't even talk but are both based in the same building, how do they expect us players to win something. Can't believe I just wasted most of my life and sacrificed a lot for this union and jersey to be treated like a schoolkid."

The truth is New Zealand rugby has been caught out by the sudden switch from the ELVs to what we now have. This can't be fixed quickly. It will take time to address - to reprogramme everyone and upskill them.

But what Henry showed in 2004 is that it can be done. Back then, he unified the franchises to work for him. He had a vision of what he wanted and the types of players he needed. If he can get back to that, then there is hope the game is in good shape.

The decision to invite Argentina into the Tri Nations in 2012 is a massive plus. Not only will it boost interest, it will expose the All Blacks to another team who know what test football is all about.

The Pumas love to scrum, maul and take teams on up front and that will be good for New Zealand. It will be yet more reason to focus on the basics and get them right; to eradicate the running excess of Super 14.

It will also be of enormous benefit to have a couple of Argentinian players scattered throughout the franchises in time. They will bring different skills, different ideas and maybe open a few minds to the wider possibility that New Zealand can learn from other countries.

Having been brave enough, as part of Sanzar, to grant the Pumas inclusion on the basis that the Tri-Nations needed some new blood, the New Zealand Rugby Union now has to take a step back and ask whether culling the provincial championship is a good idea.

Player registrations have risen by four per cent this year on top of a similar increase in 2008. Without players, the game will die and the reason more people are turning to rugby is their engagement with their provinces.

It's the hard work of the provinces that is inspiring people to take up the sport. NZRU general manager community rugby Brent Anderson said: "The increase is a testament to the initiatives in the Community Rugby Plan and the ongoing hard work of our provincial unions to deliver the game to their communities.

"Opportunities are being provided for kids to enter the game via our Small Blacks and Rippa Rugby programmes and the kids are availing themselves of these opportunities."

If community programmes in four current division one provinces are reduced as a result of demotion, it could have massive consequences.

Finally, the Air New Zealand Cup has massive support; it's engaging its audience and clearly inspiring young people to play the game. To pull the rug away now could bring disastrous fallout - player numbers could drop quickly and there could be a big dip in public interest.

There's plenty for everyone involved in the game to think about over the next few months. There is plenty to fix but hope that a recovery is possible.