EXCLUSIVE
Sir Wayne Smith has outlined his vision for New Zealand rugby, that centres on embracing the grassroots game, harnessing coaching innovation and the All Blacks prioritising attacking intent to regain the mantle atop the world.
Smith, in his capacity as New Zealand Rugby performance coach, spent a week with the All Blacks in Wellington late last month before they conjured their dominant 33-13 victory over the Wallabies to bookend their patchy Rugby Championship campaign that finished with a 3-3 record.
Results aside, Smith believes Scott Robertson’s coaching team are driving a style that aligns with where the global game is heading as rule tweaks continue to push for speed, safety and space to significantly improve the on-field product by reducing stoppages.
Smith masterminded the Black Ferns’ World Cup triumph on home soil in 2022 with a dramatic transformation of the team by steadfastly embracing a fast-paced style that chased width and sought to keep the ball alive over the crash and bash approach.
While the All Blacks under Robertson have more nuance and balance to their game, a similar attacking intent is emerging as they embark on their gruelling five-match northern tour.
“There are people on either side of how the All Blacks are developing. My view, having been in there before the Wellington test, is they’ve started to change the game,” Smith told the Herald.
“You can see the ball movement is wider than it’s been. There’s an intent to keep the ball alive more in the tackle so there’s more continuity. You’re only doing it for 20-30-40 minutes but you can see it evolving.
“To me, that’s our DNA. We’re not copiers. We don’t need to play a detailed over structured game like a lot of teams around the world. We need to play our own game, and I see that in this team.
“The coaches are open to ideas. They’re making changes now and I’m really excited to see how they’re going to go on tour. They’re going to be up against tough teams and playing our game might be difficult at times over there but over the next wee while it will really flourish. That’s my view anyway.”
With a 66% (6-3) win record before this weekend’s first northern tour stop in Japan, Robertson has endured a challenging maiden season at the helm of the All Blacks. And with England, Ireland and France looming after Japan it doesn’t get any easier from here.
Smith has no qualms with the ruthless demands on the All Blacks, though.
“Having coached at the top our win ratio is based on public expectation. It’s a great thing that the public demands we win. It drives you forward. Most other countries don’t have that.
“Since 1905 we’ve had national expectations and that’s great. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a club, NPC or All Blacks coach you’re driven to win because that’s what rugby is in our country.”
Smith is another firm advocate for the NPC, believing it can be a catalyst for change after a season in which attacking intent has produced captivating matches throughout.
“If you want a blueprint for New Zealand rugby, that’s what you’re seeing. It’s bringing the crowds back. There’s very little kicking, a lot of ball movement and it’s great to watch. It’s a shining light in rugby at the moment.
“Looking to the future you’d imagine laws are going to change. They’ll legislate for that NPC style game to be played so there’s fewer rucks, scrum resets, fewer penalty kicks into touch. That’s what I’m hearing. If that’s the case, we’re ahead of the game because that’s the way we’re playing. I find that really exciting.”
World Rugby adopting progressions such as shot clocks for scrums, lineouts and kicks at goal, attempting to speed up the ruck and reduce the influence of the maul signals the clear direction the game is heading.
“That will give coaches the challenge to enhance it and make the game even faster,” Smith says. “What are our athletes going to look like? I think over time they’ll look at fewer substitutions. There’s talk in World Rugby about trying to create more fatigue. They’ve woken up to the fact we need to change.
“Whenever there’s been law changes or style of game we’ve reinvented quicker than anyone else so any changes that happen will be an advantage to New Zealand’s pioneering spirit.”
Smith believes fostering a coaching movement in New Zealand that involves NPC coaches extending their short-term contracts by one month to work with club and school counterparts in their communities is central to capitalising on these rule changes.
Through the 1970s, ′80s and ′90s, Smith says New Zealand and Australia led the world in coaching education. He recalls Laurie O’Reilly, French World Rugby hall of fame coach Pierre Villepreux and Scottish great Jim Greenwood joining forces in Christchurch when he was a player.
At the start of his career Smith completed a postgraduate diploma in rugby coaching from Massey University but those opportunities have now faded, sparking the need for mentoring to nurture New Zealand’s next rugby visionaries.
In one example in January this year Matt Lord, All Blacks lock Josh’s father, contacted Smith to request he run a coaching weekend with the Taumarunui Districts club and local rivals Eels.
Smith, Taranaki coaches Neil Barnes, Jarrad Hoeata, Brad Cooper and former Irish international Isaac Boss linked up to run the coaching weekend that brought together 26 coaches and 54 players from the two Taumarunui clubs.
“Barnsey the other coaches and I had some zooms and we created a framework that could work all around the country. It was all structured and it was amazing. It brought two clubs together. We had a few beers afterwards. They joined together and performed a haka for us coaches. It was a brilliant weekend.
“As I was driving home I was thinking ‘we should be doing this all around the country’. We could create a coaching movement, a bit like Amway and pyramid selling.”
Smith’s vision is for NPC coaches to visit clubs inside their region for one month outside their season to share the attacking-minded gospel that is the future of the game.
“Virtually all those NPC teams are playing great rugby and they’ve got great ideas and they should be sharing them. That would be a good way to start a coaching movement throughout every province in the country.”
Lord’s Districts club, using the attacking intent from the coaching weekend, progressed to win the King Country competition, defeating Taupō Marist 39-22 in the final.
“It showed that a club who was interested in learning that sort of game was able to apply it and they were successful. The coaches took it on board; the players loved it, and it worked out well for them.
“Picking up on what Neil Barnes said about coaching, that would be a way to get cracking. It would be great for our communities. Get more emphasis on the community; get more coaches on board, having more fun, playing a better game and leading the world in attacking rugby would be a really bright future for us.
“Coaches want to keep everything inside themselves and think they’ve got all the answers but we need to share. You share one idea you get five back. That’s what we need to do around the community.
“There are good thinking people around. We need to encourage them. We need to connect way more. We don’t want to hide things. Let people use that information the way they want to.”
All Blacks v Japan, Saturday 6.50pm. Live commentary on Newstalk ZB, Gold Sport and iHeartRadio. Live match blog at nzherald.co.nz
Liam Napier has been a sports journalist since 2010, and his work has taken him to World Cups in rugby, netball and cricket, boxing world title fights and Commonwealth Games.
Mike Thorpe argues the numbers suggest that they are.