{"id":8910,"date":"2021-11-10T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-10T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&p=8910"},"modified":"2026-01-13T10:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T10:06:10","slug":"how-new-zealand-rugby-is-bouncing-back-from-the-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-new-zealand-rugby-is-bouncing-back-from-the-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"How New Zealand Rugby Is Bouncing Back from the Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 10 Nov 2021 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

How New Zealand Rugby Is Bouncing Back from the Pandemic<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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By John Portch<\/h6>\n
For many, the return of sport during the pandemic has provided both a sense of escape and a touch of the familiar, and few teams waited as long to make their return as New Zealand\u2019s All Blacks and Black Ferns.<\/h6>\n

A full 365 days elapsed between the All Blacks\u2019 last appearance at the 2019 Rugby World Cup and their next test match, while the Black Ferns<\/a> waited a little over 15 months to return to action.<\/p>\n

What would have been almost unthinkable in 2019 came to pass at the start of the pandemic, when New Zealand introduced some of the world\u2019s strictest border controls, which have largely served to keep the Pacific nation free of Covid-19. There has been much to champion in this approach, with fewer than 8,000 infections reported in a little over 18 months at the time of writing, but sport in New Zealand, much like everywhere else, has not been insulated against the impact.<\/p>\n

In early 2020, New Zealand Rugby was forced to reduce staffing levels in an effort to cut costs, with some made redundant and others asked to take unpaid leave. \u201cWe reduced staffing levels by about a quarter,\u201d says Mike Anthony<\/a>, the Head of High Performance at New Zealand Rugby, when speaking to an audience at June\u2019s Virtual Leaders Meet: Evolution of Leadership<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stood a number of programmes down, reduced the number of support staff they had. Competitions were impacted and the reduced number of games meant things like broadcasters and sponsors were impacted.\u201d At the end of 2019, Ian Foster had succeeded Steve Hansen as Head Coach of the All Blacks but almost immediately found his plans in disarray.<\/p>\n

Anthony says: \u201cWe had a new coaching group come in and they were just getting started in six test matches [across 2020], which is probably half of a normal year. So they didn\u2019t get the opportunity to really set their mark.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt one stage, the All Blacks were six weeks away from home in Australia playing in a competition [the 2020 Tri Nations Series], so you really wanted to make sure they felt supported.\u201d The nation\u2019s rugby male and female sevens players, who were preparing for the Tokyo Olympics, were encouraged to be involved in 15-a-side programmes while their programmes were temporarily mothballed.<\/p>\n

The situation remains far from normal, with Covid outbreaks in Australia disrupting the trans-Tasman men\u2019s Super Rugby Aotearoa competition, to cite one example. \u201cI think what this has taught us is we\u2019ve learned to be more agile and adapt to change. Like a lot of sports, we\u2019re extremely well-planned, very routine-based, and what it\u2019s taught us is there are other ways to look at things and do things, and we\u2019ve had to be able to adapt on the move.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here, through Anthony\u2019s words, the Leaders Performance Institute explores the role of the players and coaches in giving New Zealand Rugby a resilience and adaptability that has served them throughout the pandemic and stands them in good stead going forward.<\/p>\n

Facilitative coaching <\/strong><\/p>\n

The All Blacks and Black Ferns went on an extended hiatus at the start of 2020, while New Zealand\u2019s domestic rugby competitions were postponed, disrupted, and eventually returned in swiftly altered formats. It was a challenge for players across the game, with Anthony and his staff at New Zealand Rugby also challenged by the non-centralised nature of all but the national sevens teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur two sevens programmes are centralised, they\u2019re together all the time, but with the All Blacks, we don\u2019t see those players for six months of the year; they are with their Super Rugby clubs and then they come together. Our providers \u2013 S&C, medical, nutrition \u2013 are remote and come together virtually and then they spend time in the clubs working with their various departments in order to manage those athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen better collaboration across the clubs, not silos. Now we\u2019ve got our wellbeing group and our \u2018med-fit\u2019 group, which is S&C, medical, where the psychologist or the nutritionist links in if the player is injured. I think the process that we run around case management of our athletes has formed that collaborative crosspollination.\u201d<\/p>\n

The session moderator, Angus Mugford, the Vice President of High Performance at the Toronto Blue Jays, asks Anthony how the All Blacks and Black Ferns are empowered by their coaches and performance staff in this remote context. In many respects, his response pre-dates the pandemic and illustrates why both programmes were well-placed to manage the disruption.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have to own and drive the programme,\u201d says Anthony. \u201cThe All Blacks have got a big season. As a competitive sport, we run from February to November, so they\u2019ve got to get that off-season right and we give them time away to own and drive their programme and then come in refreshed mentally and physically. We want to make sure we get the best out of them that way. You use the word \u2018empowering\u2019 and our athletes have always been empowered within our programmes and our teams. I firmly believe that helps with the leadership development of our guys.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt builds resilience as well. Richie McCaw [former New Zealand captain, record appearance holder, and two-time World Cup winner], one of our greatest All Blacks, talks about doing \u2018the unseen things\u2019 when no one\u2019s watching. I think that\u2019s a great way to capture what we do. It\u2019s easy to work and sweat when you\u2019re in and surrounded by others, but it\u2019s doing those things at home, whether it be around your nutrition or your recovery, or your opposition analysis \u2013 they\u2019re the things we need our athletes to do and not just be told to do.\u201d It is important for All Blacks and Black Ferns players to have a \u201cvoice\u201d, as Anthony puts it. \u201cThey need to own and drive the culture, the standards and the programme,\u201d he says. \u201cEveryone talks about how we\u2019ve got a great culture, where it\u2019s tied to \u2018brotherhood\u2019 or \u2018sisterhood\u2019, but a true performance culture is where they can hold each other to account; and I think if you can empower your athletes and you\u2019re just having to sit back and lead and manage rather than always coming in on some of that stuff then that\u2019s a true performance culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

The players have an element of psychological safety, where they feel able to take interpersonal risks in pursuit of their self-development without fear of any negative consequences. In that vein, Anthony describes player performance reviews at the end of a training week, which strike a balance between challenge and support. \u201cThe expectation is that the player will come in prepared for the review of their performance and they will lead the conversation. It\u2019s a great opportunity then for the coach to see their level of self-awareness around their game and where they\u2019re at relative to their views.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crucially, coaches attempt to be facilitative rather than directive. \u201cIf you came to a team review, it\u2019s not the coach standing at the front delivering, they are essentially facilitating the conversation, with a significant contribution from those players.<\/p>\n

\u201cLikewise leadership development, a critical piece in there because, at the end of the day, they\u2019re the ones that have got to perform under pressure out on the pitch and execute, make decisions. I know with technology, messages can be delivered on the field, but that\u2019s probably in between, in the breaks. In those critical moments, they\u2019ve got to get it right.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my role, I spend time with the clubs and sit in on a lot of these sessions and you do see that. I think a strength to our coaches and our game is an ability to facilitate rather than be directive. That\u2019s certainly an approach that the majority of our coaches take.\u201d This trend, however common it may be in rugby in New Zealand, is something that needs to be built gradually and cannot be imposed on a team.<\/p>\n

Anthony recalls the time when, working as a strength & conditioning coach, he left his role at the Crusaders, the New Zealand-based club where he had been working for a decade, to build a programme at a club in England. \u201c[At the Crusaders] they had a great senior group that I would use as a sounding board around training load, the structure of the week the expert \u2013 you should be telling us<\/em> \u2013 why are you asking us?\u2019 and you\u2019re trying to get that collaboration and I didn\u2019t quite get it right. Rather than just dumping it on them, I needed to grow their understanding. \u2018Here\u2019s the end point and what we expect in the middle\u2019.<\/p>\n

In rugby in New Zealand, however, the practice is embedded and, as a consequence, the game is organically producing leaders in the mould of McCaw. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen a transition of a lot of our players into the coaching ranks pretty early now and often they will want to stand up. Teaching and delivery is a skill. A lot of our coaches have great tactical and technical knowledge. That ability to share that deep knowledge, deep learning, and deep understanding, it is a balancing act and sometimes you\u2019ve got to tell and sometimes you have to grow or check for understanding as you go. For young coaches, there\u2019s an art that they need to learn. I\u2019m a firm believer that you\u2019ll get a lot deeper understanding over time if you can get them involved and make it collaborative.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you\u2019ve got to deliver a message. I think it depends on the structure of your week; if we\u2019re going week to week and want to move on from a performance and get some things in place, you\u2019ve got to find a time to do that. You want to get your athletes up to speed. If they are getting up and presenting in front of their peers, it is time consuming \u2013 a hell of a lot more time consuming than if you just do it as a coach or whatever your role is \u2013 but I think the long-term benefits are massive. It\u2019s how you bring them with you and, with time, it\u2019s pretty organic in terms of the conversations that happen in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teams in black are always being chased <\/strong><\/p>\n

The All Blacks played their first true test match against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground on 15 August 1903 and the result was a 22-3 victory for the tourists in front of 30,000 spectators. As Mugford points out, since then, they \u2013 and the Black Ferns in the women\u2019s game since 1990 \u2013 have dominated world rugby, developing a reputation for excelling at the basics of the game, while continually innovating around the edges. To what does Anthony attribute that quality? \u201cThat\u2019s a tough one,\u201d he says, before highlighting the strength of New Zealand Rugby\u2019s campaign reviews. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to be as robust with your review when you\u2019re successful as when you\u2019re not because I think it\u2019s easy to find things when you\u2019re not. When you are successful, you want to capture the learnings and say, \u2018well, why are you successful?\u2019 To me, they\u2019re what I call our \u2018big rocks\u2019. You hope that they make up 80 to 90 percent of your programme and you retain those and take them through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anthony also points out that in New Zealand, even at the highest level, the basics of rugby never become an afterthought. \u201cIf you go and watch an All Blacks\u2019 15 training session, you\u2019ll see elements \u2013 \u2018run, catch, pass, tackle technique, breakdown\u2019 \u2013 those things are coached with regularity all the way through regardless of if you\u2019re a world-class player or you\u2019re a development player \u2013 at no stage are skillsets ticked off and then ignored. That is really key. \u201cThe art is how you retain the big rocks so that you know they\u2019re critical to our success but make some adjustments to play around the fringes. You hope your programme is good and if there\u2019s a few one percenters, that\u2019s great, but you constantly want to look around the edges at what you can adjust.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anthony speaks of the creation of a \u2018performance gap\u2019. \u201cThe margins between teams are really small. Everyone wants to beat the All Blacks or our sevens programmes \u2013 teams in black are always getting chased \u2013 and you want to create a performance gap. It\u2019s thinking about things; where we are now versus where we want to get to. We talk about \u2018if you\u2019ve got a performance gap, you create some discomfort in an environment and that drives the team and the individuals within it\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompetitive edge is something we look for in our athletes. If you\u2019ve got that, doing the same old thing week to week, year to year, your athletes will be bored very quickly. So how do you create some of that discomfort and know that\u2019s going to drive them to continue to get going?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other thing for us is how we road test that because, I talked before about how the All Blacks play 12 to 15 test matches a year; they assemble really late, they\u2019ve got a small window, so how do we road test some of those initiatives and in our other competitions or environments to then go \u2018we think that\u2019s worth considering\u2019? The strength of the collaboration within our teams helps with that and we really try to highlight \u2018here\u2019s something that was tried here and it worked really well\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anthony raises an example away from the game itself, but it is possibly all the more important following periods of stress, anxiety and isolation. \u201cOur sevens teams sing. The women started it, our men do it now, first thing around a training session. That is unbelievable for connection and now we\u2019ve seen that happen, particularly around some of our age group teams, because certainly in my era, singing was something you\u2019d frown upon and roll your eyes at, but our teams love it, our young athletes love it, and it creates great connection and then they\u2019re switched on and into it before they go into things. You think about that and ask \u2018how does that contribute to performance?\u2019 but just little things like that around the edges are great.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Download Performance 23<\/strong><\/p>\n

A full version of this interview appeared in our latest Performance journal, which also featured England men’s<\/strong> Head Coach Gareth Southgate<\/strong>, the Arizona Diamondbacks<\/strong> of Major League Baseball, and British Wheelchair Basketball<\/strong>, who runs some of the finest programmes in the sport. Edd Vahid of Premier League club Southampton FC<\/strong> also penned a column focusing on talent pathways.<\/em><\/p>\n