ABs reaping benefits of Kiwi system
4 Oct 2012
JON CARDINELLI writes the All Blacks avoid mass injuries and burnout because the NZRU manages the country’s top players accordingly. Why can’t Saru do the same?
A good question was asked of All Blacks assistant coach Ian Foster this week. Why is it that the All Blacks seem to sustain fewer injuries than their Australian and South African counterparts?
Why is it that we are now into month 10 of the 2012 rugby season and the All Blacks aren’t missing key players because of injury and fatigue?
‘We do it differently,’ was Foster’s curt reply. ‘And I’m not going to tell you exactly what that entails.’
Foster doesn’t have to, it’s no big secret. The New Zealand Rugby Union has long looked after its most prized assets, that is its players.
Through a central-contracting system, it ensure that the cream of the crop don’t play too much rugby during the Super Rugby competition. The national team is viewed as the priority, and to compromise the success of that national team wouldn’t make much sense. Right?
Unfortunately, there is a different outlook in South Africa.
Every union and franchise looks after its own interests. Top players are contracted to a union as well as to Saru.
What this means is that a franchise has the option to start a Bok player in every Super Rugby game. Ultimately it is the franchise’s success that matters most to the franchise, not the success of the Boks.
It’s for this reason that we have players who arrive for Bok duty overplayed and fatigued. For example, Andries Bekker has long been considered indispensable to the Stormers’ Super Rugby cause, and has started the majority of the matches over the past three seasons. That workload has taken its toll on his body, and injuries have prevented him from playing more games for his country.
There are other examples across all of the South African franchises, and the point is that if South Africa employed the same system as New Zealand, the Boks may have more fit players available for the most important period of the season, that is the Rugby Championship.
The current system has been a handicap to every Springbok coach in the professional era. The system rewards the franchises when it should be geared towards propelling the Boks to that No 1 ranking. It is something that incumbent coach Heyneke Meyer has also made note of on several occasions.
On Wednesday, Meyer pointed to the example of Richie McCaw, the All Blacks captain and veteran who will enjoy a six-month sabbatical next season. This course of action will prolong McCaw’s career, and possibly allow him to play at the 2015 World Cup.
The NZRU keeps tabs on all of the All Blacks throughout the Super Rugby season, and ensures that nobody is overplayed before they join the national set-up for the June Tests or the Rugby Championship.
It’s been an intense season, the most congested in history, and still the All Blacks were able to produce their best performance of the year in Argentina. They are now in South Africa preparing for a physically taxing clash against the Boks on the Highveld, and still there is a sense that they are favourites. Why?
‘New Zealand manages their players very well,’ Meyer said on Wednesday when probed on the subject. ‘You can see what’s been done with Richie McCaw, and there are overall not as many injuries. Everybody seems to be working towards a common goal.’
Keeping players fresh allows for continuity in selection, and as Meyer suggests the All Blacks were able to win the 2011 World Cup because of that continuity. There aren’t as many injury disruptions because the NZRU is doing everything it can to prevent burnout and fatigue-related injuries.
Every South African franchise is chasing results and trophies, and every team is inclined to believe that the more they play their best players, the better their chances of achieving those lofty objectives.
And in that unfortunately all too real scenario, the national team is the biggest loser.
By Jon Cardinelli, in Johannesburg
425 Comments
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4 Oct 2012, 05:09 am
I disagree. Highlighting the special treatment McCaw and Carter get hardly defines how they treat their senior players. These 2 are arguably the 2 greatest All Blacks of the last 20 years and probably in the top 5 of all time. Apart from them few other all blacks get sabbaticals etc. Most of the other senior players like Conrad Smith, Nonu, Mealamu, Dagg, Ali Williams and so forth have played just as much rugby as their SANZAR counterparts. Arguably more, as some like Nonu played the Japanese season too between the worldcup and superrugby. So using McCaw and Carter as an example is misplaced.
4 Oct 2012, 05:11 am
Rested dragons!
4 Oct 2012, 05:17 am
They (McCaw and Carter) are molly coddled very differently compared to the rest of the ABs and the reasons as I highlighted above are obvious, they are national treasures. Lets be frank, no current Springbok is a national treasure who deserves such treatment. And our past ‘legends’ were certainly wrapped in cotton wool when the opportunity arose, case in point the tri nations before the worldcup last year.
The reason the All Blacks don’t get as many injuries is a lot simpler…superior conditioning and a gameplan which doesn’t revolve around smash and bash ‘em “physicality” (which has still resulted in a poorer win/loss ratio top theirs). Hence why someone like Schalk Burger (who has had more or less a parallel career to McCaw in terms of timeline) already has a hospital bill longer than my leg. We like to brag and boast about how our style of play requires a physically superior tough South African mentaility and we brag at how are local derbies are bloodfests but in the end it’s this style that ultimately costs us.
4 Oct 2012, 05:19 am
And the Aussies struggle coz quite frankly they lack the depth hence they have no choice but to play themselves into the ground eg Genia, who has basically played for 3 years straight until his body has recently just given up and succumbed to injury.
4 Oct 2012, 05:23 am
The top 20 AB’s do get more rest dutring the super 15, and unless they are returning from injury they don’t play more than a couple of games in the NPC. Whereas the bok players do play the curry cup unless they are on bok duty. So overall, I think the AB’s do get more rest than your players.
Also, the AB management still rotate players over the course of the season. Using less pressured games to give younger players the chance to step up. (rotation is a dirty word in NZ since the 2007 WC, but it has stood the AB’s in good stead including at the 2011 WC.
4 Oct 2012, 05:28 am
Look most of the Kiwi’s dont play ITM cup, and neither do the Boks, until the week before semi final. But when it comes to super rugby, we do tend to play them into the ground. Time for better player management from the super rugby coaches and even the players
4 Oct 2012, 05:29 am
Mccaw and carter are getting this treatment because the nzru want them in the team to defend the cup in 2015. Personally I think this is a mistake, as I think both players are past their best and are unlikely to be world class come 2015. Even if they can hang in there, what is the chance of them both making it through the WC uninjured? Virtually nil!
While it will hurt our results for a couple of years, I think we should retire mccaw at the end of this year, and demote carter to a bench role.
4 Oct 2012, 05:30 am
With the season even longer, its time to have a squad of that can realistically play almost two sides in super rugby
4 Oct 2012, 05:39 am
If Victor Matfield had taken a few months off here and there he might still be playing but no the bulls played him into the ground.
4 Oct 2012, 05:42 am
People are pulling out stuff like “the top all blacks get rested during super rugby” but what is this based on?? have we all been watching the same season coz I certainly can’t recall a single all black outside of McCaw and Carter being given preferential treatment by any NZ franchise with regards to rest. The only ones that missed a few games were the ones who did so coz they were either fat/unfit/out of form ie Weepu and Nonu just after he returned from japan. Otherwise I saw all the other core senior players slugging it out week in week out for the Canes/Highlanders/Saders/Blues. And as for ITM cup well it’s no different to SA where most Boks miss the majority of the currie cup comp coz of international duty then return to play the finals
Case in point, probably the 3rd most valuable NZ player after McCaw and Carter this year was SBW and he ran out for The Chiefs all year long and was straighjt into international duty when the season ended. So I don’t know where this fantasy assesment of them being rested is coming from.
4 Oct 2012, 06:00 am
Well SARU have also been taking advice from Noakes, who has recently been exposed as a fake who has no idea.
That is right Tacklers toy thing was and is wrong, telling people to tear pages out of his book instead of offering a full refund for the garbage.
4 Oct 2012, 06:25 am
If we were less obssessed with running over people our players would not have so many injuries. But since we do not want players with brains its unlikely to happen very soon.
4 Oct 2012, 06:47 am
Stubborness kills SA rugby. SA looks at what the rest of the world is doing successfully then stubbornly decides to ignore it. SA in general very slow to adapt to change whatever it is. CONSERVATIVE to the max.
4 Oct 2012, 06:57 am
@corporal punishment-7:
‘past their best’ ?
McCaw, on 1 leg, completed fked-up Pocock – supposedly ‘the best openside in World Rugby” – on 1 leg during the RWC Semi. And then bettered that with complete domination of the same player in Sydney this year.
He then showcased his incredible athleticism vs Boks in Dunedin in no less than the 75th min when tired opposition looked like statues as he scorched up to a kick that hit the post and collected it on the half-volley in 1 hand. Incredible.
McCaw has such a hoodoo on the Boks, they can send 2 of their biggest thugs crashing in to his face, and he still stands up, unfazed, in just enough time to see them marched off.
As for Carter being ‘past his best’, not too many others can recuperate from injury for 5weeks and then return, for a tough away fixture, and play spellbinding rugby like he did in Buenos Aires.
4 Oct 2012, 06:59 am
*cue Tacitus to tell you Cardinelli that NZ have the “communist” central contracting system because they’re poor!
In SA, Tac says, why should a fush union like the Bulls be punished for their fiscal discipline & success?
why should the Bulls stand cap in hand at SARU headquarters with financial failures like the Lions waiting for their ration of players?
4 Oct 2012, 07:07 am
@corporal punishment-7: they may not be as good as they use to be a few years ago (even though I think McCaw has become better) they are still the best in their position.
2015 is a long way away and who knows whats going to happen. I personally don’t see much differents in the amounts of players that get injured from both countries, some are just missed more than others.
4 Oct 2012, 07:13 am
@flanka-1: here we go…
http://www.allblacks.com/news/16330/Blues-and-Mealamu-show-player-management-blueprint
4 Oct 2012, 07:16 am
Damn you Trannie, for stealing my thunder.
Glad I read through the comments first, before compiling a detailed reply, cause it would just have said what Trannie summarised in post 15 above.
4 Oct 2012, 07:17 am
@The Donkeys Egg-14: Was it at that point you climaxed ? .. Go off to Silverfern and drool over Reeche …
4 Oct 2012, 07:20 am
its a sausage fest….
blegh….
4 Oct 2012, 07:37 am
@The Donkeys Egg-14: eggy McCheat is going to break down before 2015 due to old age, and all the cheats men will not be able to put him together again.
4 Oct 2012, 07:38 am
@RL-11: Told you so, pilgrims… heh heh…
4 Oct 2012, 07:47 am
@The Donkeys Egg-14: ag please you sound like a teenage girl swooning over an idol you p us s y.
flo completely killed him in dunedin. in fact besides for sitting on the ground on his a r se and fiddling in the ruck which got him the facial massages he was looing for, i barely knew he was on the field.
4 Oct 2012, 07:49 am
@The Donkeys Egg-14: p.s. he is the finest cheat to ever play the game.
a serial cheater who leads teams taught to cheat.
a cheating pied piper if you will?
4 Oct 2012, 07:50 am
Personally I believe that the S15 teams should be allowed to expand their squad sizes and then use the extra players to rotate the ‘run-on’ team better – this should lighten the players work load and therefore assist with avoiding injures and burnout,
Perhaps make S15 squads 40 (up by 10) and do something similar for the Currie Cup as well.
4 Oct 2012, 08:00 am
@rangerman-23:
That won’t go down well with Bellywobble.
4 Oct 2012, 08:04 am
@gunther-26: i think he got so flustered after his ode to reechee that he had to go for a lie down.
4 Oct 2012, 08:12 am
SA coaches are too afraid to rest their stars and give fringe players a go, and I don’t see why. WP had to have 5 injured flyhalves a couple of years ago before they discovered Catrakilis. Look at all the young centers coming through now. And dropping a player for a week or two does wonders, eg. Bekker.
I use the Stormers as an example because I’m a fan and I think they are the worst of all the SA teams at this. It doesn’t help you grind your players and win all your games and the players are done when it comes to the main event. They have done this now for 3 years. How much longer before we learn?
4 Oct 2012, 08:13 am
@Transformation-17: As far as i can see after reading that article, they’re (in a nutshell) talking about less training. It’s a Blues centred article that has nothing to do with NZRU policies or the ABs. You can barely use that article to laud the NZRUs masterplan. Far from what JC is trying to (falsely) imply that there’s somekind of big meeting that happens at NZRU offices where a grandskeem is concocted to rest and rotate senior All Blacks throughgout the Super season. The article you’ve posted more or less agrees with my point regarding Mealamu playing week in week out. Were you posting the article to agree with me or disagree? A little confused…
4 Oct 2012, 08:18 am
@flanka-29:
I agree with you flanka on your second post regarding superior conditioning and gameplan…..I would add a little more rest too helps with the conditioning and recupperation
4 Oct 2012, 08:18 am
@flanka-3: Agree.
The game plan needs to change as well. Someone else also mentioned it once. The Boks can never be dominant force for a long period because of the way we play. The players will eventually get injured.
4 Oct 2012, 08:21 am
@Transformation-17: And in that article the Blues management of players by reducing training during the week is mainly for their Finals campaign benefit, not the All Blacks. And not to forget that the article is being highlighted because it was 2011 (RWC year) and if I’m correct a lot of senior boks got a whoooole lotta rest before the worldcup too.
At the end of the day we see more injuries in our players because of our playing style and physicality that doesn’t get partnered with smarts, which still reaps a mediocre win/loss ratio….thats the reality. Our playing style worked in the amateur days before professionalism, it doesn’t work now. In modern times you can’t play the game like a Schalk Burger and expect to have an injury free long prosperous career. The NZ and aus sides lick their lips duriong superrugby when they have to play an SA side the week after a local derby.
4 Oct 2012, 08:24 am
@Te Rangatira-30: Yup…balanced training, better conditioning and a smarter gameplan. Not bigwigs in the NZRU Wellington offices drafting a skeem to protect senior players. It’s not rocket science. But then again, neither was dropping Morne Steyn earlier in the championship…we are a little slow in picking up on things sadly
4 Oct 2012, 08:27 am
Truth be told, if most, if not all, NZ S15 franchises weren’t joined at the financial hip of the NZRU, they would gladly wring every last drop out of their players, irrespective of their status.
However, I also believe the assumption Cardinelli has made is flawed. NZ regularly suffers injuries to key players just like SA, but the impact of those injuries has been less this year.
4 Oct 2012, 08:38 am
@flanka-33:
Sorry, the AB’s coach has the ability to advise franchises in how they want NZ central contracted players to be used.
The Super 15 coach may elect to ignore that “advice”, but like any employee anywhere, disregarding instructions from a superior had better pay off spectacularly, or there will be hell to pay.
4 Oct 2012, 08:59 am
The NZ system is far ahead of ours in all aspects, not just the physical management of players, but also in the development of potential emerging Boks. They would never allow franchises to hoard young players with AB potential at the expense of other franchises and the players exposure to gametime in the S15.
We currently have a situation where the best Lions players are going to Franchises who already have young players in those positions whilst the Kings are forced to recruit foreigners.
I realise that the LIons and anti Cheeky supporters believe this a welcome payback but it does nothing for SA rugby or the players.
4 Oct 2012, 09:00 am
@Brads-35: I know that, thats not my point. My point is it doesn’t happen. JC is basically trying to take of the advantage of the fact that the ABs currently don’t have injuries to try make it seem like Hansen waves his magic wand all over NZ belting out commands to the coaches, which simply isn’t true. ABs play just as long
4 Oct 2012, 09:05 am
When you compare the boks against the ABs (best team in the world), you probably look at player vs player in each position first… Our team dont really stand back in most positions…
Secondly you look to compare defence, attacking, skills, scrum and tactics/gameplan (coaching) etc. If the team selections keep on improving and the players implement, hopefully a superior tactical game, they will become the best… But like this article suggested, player management will have to be the best in the world too….
So we all know we have the players, so after a year is it fair to say that the coaching will be to blame if the boks dont become just as competitive as the ABs…?
Or will player management carry more weight when we dont reach that ‘realistic’ goal to become the best team in the world?
Here’s hoping we come on top, but what factors will have to become world class?
4 Oct 2012, 09:15 am
@flanka-37:
Okay, I accept you clarification.
Yes, the Bokke confrontational style of play, “running through players” as distinct from the AB’s “running between players” is inherently more likely to cause injuries.
But that said, NZ is not immune to injuries. We have had them in spades over the last few years, it just happens we are lightly affected at the minute.
4 Oct 2012, 09:16 am
@rangerman-23:
you talk a big game for a team that loses 4 out of every 10 tests it plays
4 Oct 2012, 09:32 am
@flanka-1: The key difference is that they look after their fetcher and flyhalf, the 2 most NB players in a team. O and they select the best ones on a consistent bases
4 Oct 2012, 09:39 am
@flanka-29: I’m with you 100% on this. Firstly that article was written last year, and secondly, the layoffs to McCaw and Carter were injury enforced. When they’ve been fit I cannot think of a single example of them being “rested”, certainly not at game time anyway.
If it has more to do with how they are managed at training time, who’s to say that we can’t (and don’t) do the same??
i know for a fact that Alistair did implement that sort of program this year, not that it helped mind you.
I’d like a concrete example of a top 35 player (i.e. someone important to the AB cause) being rested at game time. McCaw and Carter I’ve dealt with above. The case of Carter is actually an illustration of the opposite, as they played him before he was totally recovered in a few games, just taking his kicking duties away from him and in some cases playing him at 12.
McCaw played through last year’s WC with a foot injury that he would otherwise have rested, and Carter missed it. Their 2 best players. (Yes they won it anyway).
It may well have to do with the way they play, that’s possibly part of the explanation, another part of it may be the type of gym work that they do, I’ve watcher videos of their training and the gym work is comparatively light, enough to keep them physical, but not that extra 10 or 20 % that may put extra strain on the tendons etc that we seem to relish. Much of their training is on the field with more commando type training, body-weight exercises etc.
4 Oct 2012, 09:43 am
@flanka-29: “Far from what JC is trying to (falsely) imply that there’s somekind of big meeting that happens at NZRU offices where a grandskeem is concocted to rest and rotate senior All Blacks throughgout the Super season.”
since 2007 Henry has been allowed to RECOMMEND what he would like to see happen to his players for example in one year – 2010 or 2011 – he recommended a mandatory 2 week break on top of the byes – for all his core players, the NZRU agreed and duly informed all the coaches to adhere to it and impliment it.
remember in ’07 when Henry pulled all this All Blacks from the 1st half of Super Rugby? he made the call the NZRU discussed and agreed!
4 Oct 2012, 09:46 am
@NZINCHINA-40: Not when he’s talking about a team that loses about half the time against the boks.
All Blacks record against the boks 55%
All Blacks record against the woblies 68%
4 Oct 2012, 09:49 am
@stormersboy-42: agreed. even when jake white arrived at the brumbies he made a song and dance about how professional the science behind the players was, diet/conditioning/training etc….sadly i think we’re still a bit behind in this regard and so our only excuse is “the provinces play them too much”…not quite true
4 Oct 2012, 09:52 am
@Transformation-43: Those are RWC measures and we’ve done them before too, both in 07 and 2011. obviously the central contracting in NZ makes it slightly more smoother, but it still happens in World Cup years in SA.
4 Oct 2012, 09:53 am
@stormersboy-42:
Pre 2007 WC Henry took his first choice players away and put them on a conditioning program and held them back from Super rugby duties until a few weeks into the competition.
When these guys eventually turned out for Super games they looked imposing with muscles bulging all over their bodies.
Then the s.hit hit the fan with injuries.
4 Oct 2012, 09:54 am
@rangerman-24: LOL
4 Oct 2012, 09:58 am
AB’s out this season due to injury – Ali Williams, Isaiah toeava, Richard Kahui and Anthony Boric and Jerome kaino (shoulder reconstruction, which was the reason he decided to go to Japan in order to prolong his career). Richie missed most of the super 15 season and was obviously of the pace in the first two matches against Ireland. Dan carter been out for majority of tests this season as well.
4 Oct 2012, 09:58 am
@rangerman-24: Why has no one asked why the brain dead one hit Richie when he was in an offsides position
and the ref made no attempt to penalise(r m)
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