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Covid-19 brought to the surface structural problems that already existed in the game and were largely self-inflicted
After 126 representative matches across 10 months, the season that seemed to last forever is finally closing its doors. The year’s rugby in New Zealand will be remembered for the trials of the new All Black leadership regime, whose 38-0 wipe-out of Argentina at the weekend could not disguise the fact they had achieved just a 50% win rate against teams ranked sixth and 10th in the world.
It was perhaps to their advantage that the All Blacks’ re-start was almost a sideshow to 2020’s main drama. The bigger story was the performance of the off-field team, principally the new chief executive Mark Robinson and board chairman Brent Impey and, 12 months after the board selected one of their own for the executive chair, the opportunity for a reset has been missed. Continue reading...