KEY POINTS:
I do not agree with what seems to be the prevailing mood of the country to hang onto Graham Henry, Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith as All Black coaches.
Here's why. It comes from an evening the group I am leading in France had in a restaurant called
Le Maison Bleu. The theme of the night was blue. Some of them wore blue wigs, blue shirts, blue everything.
The French people who ran the place asked why we were all in blue. I told them that we were blue because the All Blacks had lost and they had been beaten by Les Bleus.
And do you know what? They apologised. Two weeks later, the French are still apologising for beating the All Blacks and telling us that we would have beaten the English easily.
Apart from being charming - I don't think we Kiwis are such good losers - and making you feel quite humble, this reaction underlines for me what a total surprise it was for everyone, French and Kiwi, to see the All Blacks go out of the World Cup.
That's the point, really. It would be more understandable if this had been a really powerful French side. But it wasn't. The French and we Kiwis know that. The All Blacks just did not play well.
The South Africans are the same. They are all saying to us: We wish it was a Boks-Blacks final. They also know that the All Blacks should still be there.
That has all happened on the back of Henry and his henchmen getting everything they asked for; everything they demanded; and with everything they did being aimed winning at the World Cup.
I just do not see how we can move on by re-appointing the same people, particularly when they have said they would do things the same way. Well, I wouldn't.
This All Black coaching regime has strained credibility. I mean, Henry told us all the way through that rotation would be stopping soon - but it continued. He told us the All Blacks, regardless of what happened in the World Cup, would come home together. What happened to that?
And where were all the 27 management team? The biggest management team assembled in All Black history and, bearing in mind what happened with Doug Howlett at the end, you'd have to say they failed to manage right to the end - and that's not exempting the player from anything.
That hulking great management team was a big part of what Henry wanted. We had trainers for Africa and psychologists - and yet we kept incurring lower leg injuries and we obviously weren't mentally ready for France in that quarter-final.
It's not that Henry and co are poor coaches - not at all. I still believe the All Blacks were bigger, stronger, faster, fitter and more skilled than any others at this tournament. So what happened?
Unlike a lot of other people, I think it is good that the NZRU are holding this review. We all know what went wrong, now we need some definitive answers as to why.
I mean, why were there 27 management and experts there and did they all do their job? Why were the All Blacks suffering so many lower leg injuries? Why were they not mentally up to it? How much damage did the rotation and the reconditioning really do?
These are not unreasonable questions and I just hope the review answers them all clearly and plainly and doesn't just try to put a sticking plaster on things.
But for me, to pre-empt that review, I just can't see how a coach who got everything he demanded, who had the elite of world rugby and who aimed his entire reign as coach at the World Cup can keep his job if he didn't succeed.
