KEY POINTS:
Hands up how many Kiwis had to play "spot the All Black" when they switched on their televisions to watch the disastrous Rugby World Cup quarterfinal on Sunday?
Coach Graham Henry and captain Richie McCaw said it didn't really matter if the All Blacks played in black or
had to change to the "away" stripe uniform - a preposterously poncy silver-grey effort that might look good for the annual flight attendants' match but is hardly on a par with the black jersey and silver fern that has been the team's trademark for more than 100 years.
The honour of "wearing the black" is imprinted on the minds of many New Zealand rugby players.
It's probably the one factor that persuades many top players to stay here instead of skipping overseas earlier for the fat pay packets available in Europe - as Byron Kelleher stands to gain from his reported $667,000 Toulouse package, with car and apartment.
These are the elements that need to be at the top when the Rugby Union's independent review investigates why the union's World Cup campaign failed.
The All Blacks were clearly "out-gamed" by the French, who did not unveil their new darker blue kit until the eve of the World Cup. They won the toss for uniform choice and went on to comprehensively psyche out the tournament favourites by staying within hongi distance as the haka was performed, and played passionate rugby instead of brainless combinations.
The NZRU lacked the smarts to ensure the IRB dealt it a fair hand: with the uniform and with a serious pool for the All Blacks to play in.
NZ Rugby Union chairman Jock Hobbs has announced the review will be "independent". But Hobbs and Henry are still in denial mode.
They "bet the farm" by pumping huge resources into their single focus of winning the Rugby World Cup - an estimated $50 million.
They changed course in the middle of last year to run rotations, training camps, and conditioning programmes (instead of actually blooding their top team members by ensuring they were match-hardened).
Players - who were probably in fear of losing their positions if they spoke out before - are now starting to express their dissatisfaction with the process.
The NZRU boasts of its achievements through a "scorecard" at the start of its annual report.
Last year, it gave itself 84/100 - scoring full marks in the 15/100 per cent weighting for "governance and financial" on the performance criteria. What's worryingly obvious from the 2006 report is that it failed in its objectives to increase both junior and senior player numbers and while the All Blacks had a stunning performance, New Zealand failed in the junior IRB world championships.
Game attendances were not maintained at 2004 levels and television viewership did not achieve stipulated figures. Attendance at the Tri Nations series in New Zealand did not reach 100 per cent.
The five priorities listed for 2007 in last year's NZRU annual report were: * Win rugby World Cup 2007.
* Review and update the high performance and community rugby plans - including school and club rugby.
* Ensure the success of domestic competitions.
* Develop and execute identified business development initiatives.
* Reduce budgeted expenses by $2 million.
But the rugby World Cup was lumped in with other objectives - like winning the Tri Nations, retaining the Bledisloe Cup and winning other tournaments. The "representative team" category makes up 45 of the 100 performance points available. With the importance the union placed on a World Cup win, it deserved 45 points on its own.
What is extraordinary is that the union also aimed to achieve brand support, attendance and viewership for the Tri Nations and Rebel Sport Super 14 but making All Blacks players' unavailable for such matches so they could take part in Henry's conditioning programme assured failure on both fronts.
The latter move required Commerce Commission approval so that provincial unions could alter the terms of the players' collective agreement to bring on board replacement talent.
This was a major move coming as it did, just months after the NZRU achieved approval for the initial players agreement.
Hobbs and Henry have rocks in their heads if they do not carry out a full examination of this key decision at the board's own post-mortem.
Hobbs' colleagues are: Andy Leslie (a former All Black captain who is the NZRU president), John Sturgeon (a former All Blacks manager), Ken Douglas (a former Wellington Club rugby player and administrator), Mike Eagle (formerly chairman of the Canterbury RFU and Crusaders' board), Ivan Haines (former chairman King Country RFU and Chiefs), Graham Mourie (former All Blacks captain), Paul Quinn (former NZ Maori captain), Warwick Syers (former Northland RFU chair) and Bill Thurston (Wellington lawyer). Thurston and Douglas are the sole independent members.
This board needs to take a look at itself.
I was astonished to find "winning" did not feature at all in a "constellation" of 10 brand values for the All Blacks identified by Saatchi & Saatchi (Wellington), who did the initial work on the adidas sponsorship in 1999.
The three core values were "excellence", "respect" and "humility" - values that might underpin, well, anything in life. The other values were "power", "masculinity", "commitment", "New Zealand" "tradition" and "inspirational".
These values may count for something in our increasingly politically-correct New Zealand, but they will not ensure we win on the world stage, neither in rugby nor business.
Hobbs succeeded in winning the 2011 World Cup hosting rights. The NZRU needs to quickly ensure it has the arrangements in place to successfully host that tournament.
In 2003 - as the disastrous failure of the board to retain the 2004 RWC hosting rights sank in - the NZRU scored itself 63/100. In 2004 that went to 80/100, in 2005 90/100, sinking back to 84/100 last year. If it was honestly scoring itself the NZRU would be hard-pressed to give itself a pass mark for 2007.
Don't bet on it.
