Lochore was not a man to lose his cool nor use cuss words, so his immediate response of “Jeez, Piney, why don’t you just piss off back to the farm?” was a measure of his displeasure. He then realised he was talking to a rugby writer at the time and hastily insisted all was “off the record”.
Another memory: then All Black coach John Hart complaining about the state of one of his key All Blacks, delivered to him from Super Rugby in a decidedly battered and weary state by one of his competitors for his All Blacks coaching position. That was in spite of agreements not to flog All Blacks ahead of the international season.
Sir Graham Henry finished his All Blacks coaching career at the end of 2011, taking up a two-year mentoring job for Super Rugby and provincial coaches. He started in February 2012 and in April that year began a one-year gig in essentially the same role for the Argentina Rugby Union and the Pumas. His contract meant he couldn’t be part of the coaching staff for the Pumas for their matches against the All Blacks in the 2012 Rugby Championship – but he could work with them at other times.
It’s doubtful that would be permitted these days. Back then, the Pumas were not regarded as a serious threat. They are now. So there’s precedence for what Hansen is now doing, paid or unpaid, and, at the time, there were mutterings in the All Black camp about “Ted’s” work with a foe – just like now.
However, we live in a much more professional age where players and coaches hawk themselves about to different countries and clubs. Do we really expect All Blacks intellectual property to remain intact?
No, what this little episode has really highlighted is a curious lack of communication. If Foster knew about Hansen’s temporary gig with Jones and the Wallabies, why didn’t Dane Coles and other All Blacks know? If it’s just a matey-matey thing, why didn’t Hansen, Foster and/or NZ Rugby front-foot it and tell everyone before the news broke and All Blacks looked “gobsmacked”?
However, Hansen showed what an old media pro he is now. When he started the All Blacks job, Hansen had a prickly relationship with the media – which he quickly turned around to become a much-loved source of good copy delivered in a droll way that sometimes cracked up press conferences.
Almost before the outrage began to, well, rage, Hansen was telling the Herald of his noble intentions and using some lofty language to do so: “As a devout old-school traditionalist,” the Herald wrote. “Hansen makes the valid point that he said yes because rugby has long been built of values that are bigger than sport and that lifelong bonds have been forged between players who spent years opposing each other in well-established rivalries.”
Bless… he’s just a mate helping a mate in mateship forged in the furnace of international sport; friendship, apparently, trumps national interests, even at World Cup time. He’s not doing any consultancy or coaching, he’s just giving Eddie some “feedback”. Observations.
Hansen’s legacy will survive this little dalliance and fun time with words but helping his cobber does look odd this close to the World Cup. “Hansen is not guilty of betrayal,” the Herald said, “but perhaps [of] underestimating how easily his role and motivations would be wrongly portrayed in a selective world where the uninformed and ill-informed get to determine who is a hero and who is a villain.”
Hmmm, okay – but do the uninformed include the All Blacks? Surely the uninformed and the ill-informed were only that way because, uh, no one informed them. Without said information, the line between hero and villain can look badly blurred.
