Taking everything into consideration, Mark Robinson, the head coach of New Zealand Rugby, can rest assured that he has gotten through a challenging year with at least a few wins. He rode the ups and downs of the metaphorical rollercoaster in 2022, much like his flagship team, the All Blacks, but he draws a line under the year with a degree of satisfaction he might just have got up in the ones that mattered.
Yes, the All Blacks won the Bledisloe Cup and Rugby Championship despite their frustrating inability to string together consecutive standout performances.
They also finished the year undefeated, if not unbeaten, in their final seven test matches. a very, very long way from July’s despair.
Even though he dropped some balls along the way, Robinson still approved an eight-year extension of the trans-Tasman Super Rugby partnership and a $200 million investment from private equity giants Silver Lake. He also oversaw the most successful women’s World Cup in the sport’s history and helped his Black Ferns win a historic victory that has the potential to be a turning point in the history of the female game.
In point of fact, it was the kind of New Zealand Rugby year that could have been written by Chales Dickens. the best times and the worst times, respectively. There is some hope that lessons have been learned and that wrong turns have been made because the conclusion was significantly better than the beginning. at least in a few places.
By asking this straightforward question, you can probably judge who is running the Kiwi game this year: Did NZ Rugby’s actions cause the Black Ferns to win their first World Cup on home soil and reclaim their nation’s affections or did they do so in spite of them?
If you answered “yes” to the first question, you probably have a tendency to give Robsinon and his organization credit for accomplishing the most crucial tasks successfully. All is well in the end. You might not be as generous in your assessment if you tend to the latter and think that the World Cup was just one of those moments when the Black Ferns had to figure out their own problems with a little help from a professor and an old headmaster.
NZ Rugby’s long-running Silver Lake saga, which took two years to resolve and undoubtedly harmed the organization’s relationship.
with its players, was unquestionably one of the negatives that remained in the year 2022. to the Black Ferns review, which resulted in a change of head coach and revealed systematic flaws in that environment; to an All Blacks coaching shakeup in the middle of the season that was unprecedented. Two assistant coaches were fired just months after being reappointed, but not the person who selected them.
Additionally, other issues have surfaced. The careless tweet on International Women’s Day was one example.
the ongoing issues that have arisen in the relationship with Australia regarding Super Rugby, which reflect poorly on both parties; the majority of so-called independent reviews being written by NZR-aligned individuals; the failure to meet Sport NZ’s diversity goal for the board (resulting in a $280,000 hit); as well as the scheduling error that resulted in the All Blacks’ match against Japan in Tokyo occurring at the same time as the Black Ferns’ World Cup quarterfinal match because, well, no one at NZ Rugby thought to check.
In addition, the drama surrounding the All Blacks’ subpar season (four losses, one draw, eight wins) has not been handled well.
Examples include the cancellation of press conferences following the home series defeat to the Irish, the communications mess surrounding the review of Ian Foster’s job while he was in South Africa, and the mismanagement of coaching success story Scott Robertson, who was effectively poised to take over the national team until he was forced to step down at the last minute.
Additionally, many point to the fact that NZ Rugby has effectively appointed Foister three times to the position before giving in to internal pressure in August when it was clear that they intended to fire him. NZR bottled what England and Wales did.