Referee slams, haka whining and another sure sign that the All Blacks have succumbed to a losing culture

The loser loses. By my count, the All Blacks have lost 14 times under Ian Foster and Scott Robertson in 2020. With a few draws, this is undoubtedly a period of sustained mediocrity.

Other things that losers do include criticizing referees and TV match referees. They also complain about how the haka is received.

A surefire way to tell if you’ve succumbed to a culture of defeatism is to celebrate periods of promising performance.

Please save me from the next person telling me how well the All Blacks played for 65 minutes at Ellis Park.

Let’s forget for a moment that the All Blacks lost 31-27 to South Africa on Sunday morning.

Ethan Blackladder of New Zealand in action during the Castle Lager Rugby Championship match between South Africa and New Zealand at Emirates Airline Park in Johannesburg, South Africa, on August 31, 2024. (Photo by Dirk Kotze/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

I’ve already seen this movie.

I grew up watching Wellington and the Hurricanes.

Of course, they performed consistently even in small situations, defeating ordinary opponents with great ease.

But it took over a decade for NPC titles to emerge, and nearly 40 years to watch other unions defend the Lanferi Shield.

The Hurricanes could be absolutely brilliant under the circumstances, but they struggled to compete for the Super Rugby play-offs, let alone the Championship.

We’ve always been passionate about greatness and we agreed that if the team could just carry it out for 80 minutes, they would overwhelm everyone on the pitch.

Scott Barrett in Johannesburg. (Photo: Dirk Kotze/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

None of us were objective. We all saw more in the players than was actually there, and no one was ready to stand up and say the performance wasn’t good enough.

At a time when we were tired of Wellington and the Hurricanes, we concluded that it was simply coaching that was holding these great players back.

So we got what we got, year after year, season after season. We were enthusiastic about the good, but never dealt with the bad. In the end, our faith was blind.

So I don’t see a quick solution for the All Blacks.

Despite the arrival of a new coach, the performance and shortcomings are largely the same.

Are we actually going to do or say something about it? Or are we going to focus on the 60 minutes that fit our fantasies and pray that the team can punch out a perfect 80 minutes this weekend?

If this was a rookie team, I would have phrased it differently. I would be generous with them, highlight the positive aspects, and paint a potentially positive picture of the future.

Unfortunately, this All Blacks squad is not without its inexperience, and most of them are now used to losing.
So I largely ignored their recent win over Argentina at Eden Park.

The problems highlighted in Wellington last week were again evident at Ellis Park.

This is a team that still can’t manage or finish games. They need to get out of their own half, make good decisions, and execute when the results come.

It was no one’s fault but their own that they surrendered after leading 27-17 in Johannesburg, because that is the established pattern.

It doesn’t matter who the referee or TMO was, what they did or didn’t do, what South Africa did on the bench, whether the plane was flying over the ground or not. I’m old enough to remember the “flour bomb test” at Eden Park in 1981.

The jets that can disrupt the haka are nothing compared to the projectiles that were dropped on the All Blacks and Springboks when I was a kid.

But I’m getting sidetracked.

Organizations such as governments, local councils, and teams rarely change on their own.

Get a Ziggy BBQ on Grand Finals day thanks to Barbeques Galore! Enter here.

They all believe that they have the right ideas, people, and culture to succeed. They all believe that what motivates critics is ignorance, jealousy, and the tall poppy syndrome.

I’ve spent most of my life loving the All Blacks, like Wellington and the Hurricanes. When I get angry it’s because I care.

For a sports reporter, there is nothing easier in the world than covering a winning team.

But this All Blacks team is a losing team. Worse, they are a team that is unwilling or unable to learn from their increasing number of defeats.

You can keep making excuses if you want, blaming outside factors for what happened at Ellis Park, celebrating the good 60 minutes and overlooking the bad.

I don’t think it will help us at all.

Until enough people demand change, the All Blacks will continue to do the same things that don’t work.