RWC: Coaching and captaincy to become crucial

The All Blacks are well placed for when coaching and captaincy becomes key. Photo / Brett Phibbs

By tomorrow, there will only be eight teams left at the World Cup and the things that matter will suddenly change.

Captaincy and coaching will be everything over the next three weeks. When the pressure comes on, a good captain should be in his element. And the pressure will come on - of that there is no doubt.

The first point of contact when things get sticky on the field is the captain. So much depends on his ability to understand and absorb it. His demeanour will set the tone for his team mates.

Think back to 2007 and the way panic spread through the All Blacks when there was no one actively stopping it in the quarterfinal. Only two years into the job back then, Richie McCaw under estimated, or maybe didn't even realise, the scale of influence he could have.

In 2011, the story was so different. McCaw had matured and developed his captaincy and knew exactly what role he could play. As the final started to slip away, it was his refusal to panic and slow, calm, methodical instructions that persuaded his team mates they could get back on task.

As Cory Jane would say a year later of McCaw: "He's across the issues, no matter what situation the game is in, whether to hold the ball or what not.

"He always seems calm as well. If someone is giving him a little bit of niggle, he's always calm and he's always trying to get a little bit of information from the refs. I just love playing for that guy - he's huge for us."

It's not just the mentality and ability of the captain that matters - it's imperative that the captain is in tune with the coaching staff. Come the quarterfinals, it's the coach-captain relationship that is put under the most strain.

They have to be united. They have to both understand what lies ahead and be in total agreement about their plans and strategies. The place to get everything right first is in the week leading up to the game.

The training load and emphasis; the gameplan, the selection - everything has to be right and more importantly, the captain and coach have to agree that it is right.

And it's here were some teams appear better set up than others. It follows that the more experience a coach has of test football generally and World Cup specifically, the better able they are to understand the unique elements of knock-out football.

It also follows that the more experience a coach and captain have had working together, the deeper their understanding of one another will be.

The All Blacks have things particularly well set up in this regard. In McCaw they have the most experienced captain at the tournament and the most experienced the world has ever known. He's captaining the side for the third time at a World Cup and in one guise or another Steve Hansen has been with him at the last three.

Like McCaw, this is Hansen's fourth World Cup - he of course having been head coach of Wales in 2003. He's made mistakes at each tournament and learned from them and while he doesn't have all the answers, he does at least have a good handle on what awaits in the next period.

He respects that pressure will be a factor and understands there is no point in focusing beyond the quarterfinal. There is trust and confidence in the McCaw-Hansen relationship and unity of thinking and purpose.

Wales and South Africa also have a strong coach-captain axis. Sam Warburton has been at the helm since 2011 and not only did Warren Gatland appoint him captain of Wales, but also the British Lions in 2013.

Gatland is the longest-serving head coach at the tournament, although this is only the second World Cup he's been at.

The Springboks are in the unusual position of having lost Jean de Villiers, who has been captain since 2012. Once he was ruled out, there was always a strong chance coach Heyneke Meyer would look to veteran lock Victor Matfield.

Those two go way back - having worked together at the Bulls and they seem to share a rugby philosophy and a common belief as to how South Africa should play. Since they lost to Japan the Boks have been excellent - because everyone has bought into the idea that they have to play to their traditional strengths.

The French have the second longest-serving captain in Thierry Dusautoir but reports are mixed out of France as to how he gets on with coach Philippe St-Andre.

The French have been unusually - even for them - erratic under St Andre with no distinguishable style or consistency of selection.

The newest combination of all is at the Wallabies where Michael Cheika was only appointed coach in October last year and Stephen Moore as captain this year.

So far Chieka has been superb. Saying all the right things and picking all the right players. But neither he nor he and Moore together have been put under the sort of pressure yet that they will be in the coming weeks.

The All Blacks not only have the experience and unity they have tested it for years and seen it work under all sorts of pressure.

The remaining eight:

Australia
Coach: Michael Cheika
Captain: Stephen Moore
Coach Appointed: October 2014
Previous World Cups as Head Coach: None
Other Experience at World Cups: None
Captain Experience: 7 Tests
First Test as Captain: 2014
Previous World Cups as Captain: 0
Previous World Cups as Player: 2

Wales
Coach: Warren Gatland
Captain: Sam Warburton
Coach Appointed: November 2007
Previous World Cups as Head Coach: 1
Other Experience at World Cups: None
Captain Experience: 41 Tests
First Test as Captain: 2011
Previous World Cups as Captain: 1
Previous World Cups as player: None

South Africa
Coach: Heyneke Meyer
Captain: Victor Matfield*
*Was named captain to play Scotland but suffered injury
Coach Appointed: January 2012
Previous World Cups as Head Coach: None
Other Experience at World Cups: None
Captain Experience: 22 Tests
First Test as Captain: 2011
Previous World Cups as Captain: None
Previous World Cups as a Player: 3

Scotland
Coach: Vern Cotter
Captain: Greig Laidlaw
Coach Appointed: August 2014
Previous World Cups as Head Coach: None
Other Experience at World Cups: None
Captain Experience: 19 Tests
First Test as Captain: 2013
Previous World Cups as Captain: 0
Previous World Cups as a Player: 0

New Zealand
Coach: Steve Hansen
Captain: Richie McCaw
Coach Appointed: December 2011
Previous World Cups as Head Coach: 1*
Other Experience at World Cups: *Head coach of Wales 2003; assistant All Black coach 2007, 2011
Captain Experience: 107 Tests
First Test as Captain: 2004
Previous World Cups as Captain: 2
Previous World Cups as a Player: 1

Argentina
Coach: Daniel Hourcade
Captain: Agustin Creevy
Coach Appointed: October 2013
Previous World Cups as Head Coach: None
Other Experience at World Cups: None
Captain Experience: 15 Tests
First Test as Captain: 2014
Previous World Cups as Captain: None
Previous World Cups as a Player: 1

France
Coach: Philippe St-Andre
Captain: Thierry Dusautoir
Coach Appointed: December 2011
Previous World Cups as Head Coach: None
Other Experience at World Cups: Played at the 1991 and 1995 World Cups and was captain at the latter.
Captain Experience: 54 Tests
First Test as Captain: 2009
Previous World Cups as Captain: 1
Previous World Cups as a Player: 1

Ireland
Coach: Joe Schmidt
Captain: Paul O'Connell
Coach Appointed: September 2013
Previous World Cups as Head Coach: None
Other Experience at World Cups: None
Captain Experience: 30 Tests
First Test as Captain: 2004
Previous World Cups as Captain: None
Previous World Cups as a Player: 3