LESS IS MOORE WHY THE BLACK FERNS STILL NEEDED A CHANGE
0Less is Moore why the Black Ferns still needed a change
Comment Even before New Zealand Rugby's woeful Black Ferns culture review. Glen Moore's position as coach deserved to be put under scrutiny. writes Jamie Wall. We used to joke that Glenn Moore had the dream job in NZ rugby. Coaching a world champion Black Ferns team that hardly ever lost. containing players so good they would barely need to be told what to do. A couple of trips away a year and nowhere near the sort of pressure that came with his previous gig as head coach of the Highlanders. That was a few years ago. mind you. Before the pandemic. before the worst Black Ferns season ever and. most importantly. before the comprehensive review into the team's culture and his tenure as coach. Fair to say we don't make that joke anymore. When I say 'we' I'm talking about a group of journalists so small a leper could count them on one hand. It's sadly ironic that for all their success. the largest amount of media attention they've got now has been when everything has turned into a shambles. but the old saying 'if it bleeds. it leads' has never been more true this week. The report into the Black Ferns' environment opened up a hemorrhage the size of which hasn't been seen before in any NZ rugby team of national significance. It showed how the team's success was more or less papering over some serious cracks. ones that wouldn't stay hidden when the wins turned into losses. But the main character in the whole saga has been Moore. the man who now finds himself in the strange and unenviable position of having a detailed report released that's been described as 'damning' on one hand. while keeping his job on the other. The 62 year old frustratingly didn't face the media this week. which was a very questionable move by NZ Rugby or indeed Moore himself. Questionable yet not surprising from the governing body it has to be said. who continued an over century old commitment to hoping things will just blow over. Instead. Moore sent out his own press release one which said not very much and an awful lot. all at the same time. But before getting into that. it's important to note how unfortunately out of character this reticence was. In his seven seasons as Black Ferns coach. Moore always had time for the media and cultivated good relationships with the often meagre turnout. He gave the usual cliches in his press conferences. sure. but was happy to go off the record to get a bit of context across. In short. I found him to be a decent guy who was doing his best to be in charge of an obviously underfunded and under resourced team that nonetheless kept winning and had a very strong camaraderie amongst its players. During the Black Ferns' trips to Australia to play the Wallaroos as part of Bledisloe Cup double headers. Moore was certainly more fun to deal with than his All Blacks counterpart Steve Hansen (especially in 2019 when the Wallabies put a record score on the All Blacks). By the end of that season though. the aforementioned cracks were beginning to show. While all the attention has been on the disastrous 2021 tour. the long layoff between test matches due to the pandemic had meant that consecutive losses to France slipped from people's memories. Really. the results from last year shouldn't have been that much of a shock Moore named no less than nine debutants for what was the Black Ferns' 100th test match. as well as the fateful selection of hooker Te Kura Ngata Aerengamate. The result was a record loss to England. followed by another one the week later and then two heavy losses to the French again. Selections raised eyebrows. with clearly out of form players retained. but the real question marks came over the kick heavy game plan. The underdone Black Ferns' set piece was woefully unprepared for the consequences of such actions. Would they have beaten the far more professional English and French had they played a different style? Probably not. but the damage would have been far less than the insane commitment...
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