{"id":515314,"date":"2026-03-03T05:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T05:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/515314\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T05:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T05:21:10","slug":"nic-gill-plays-down-all-blacks-rest-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/515314\/","title":{"rendered":"Nic Gill plays down All Blacks rest policy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Departing All Blacks<\/a> Head of Performance Nic Gill has opened the lid on what goes on behind the scenes at New Zealand<\/a> Rugby, about players resting throughout the opening rounds of Super Rugby Pacific.<\/p>\n

All Blacks players have often been held back in Super Rugby pre-season, giving them extra rest in order to stay fresh for the absorbing international calendar.<\/p>\n

Some fans and pundits believe it hurts the product, while Gill believes it is near impossible to ask the top-level All Blacks to play every week from the start of February to the end of November each year.<\/p>\n

Speaking on\u00a0Afternoons with Mark Stafford on Sport Nation NZ,\u00a0Gill outlines what the guidelines have been from the coaches to the Super Rugby Pacific<\/a> franchises.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe actual guiding principles that we adopt over many years is we all want the player at their best, playing their best footy, for their club and their country,\u201d Gill said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we want Crusaders<\/a> playing amazing for the Crusaders. And we want Crusaders that are lucky enough to be picked into the All Blacks playing great rugby for the All Blacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge people don\u2019t understand is playing rugby from February through to November is impossible, physically and mentally. The long season a rugby player has in New Zealand is not great for the athletes longevity or performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, it\u2019s a balancing act then, and I think that way back in 2007 we learned that if players didn\u2019t play enough rugby, they didn\u2019t play well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The long-time strength and conditioning coach explained that many people believe that they\u2019ve found the sweet spot, which includes giving some All Blacks a week off here and there in Super Rugby Pacific.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we think we\u2019ve got to a point where we\u2019re getting the most out of our players.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of our players are playing 20 to 30 games a year and still playing well, and so we feel like we\u2019ve got a bit of a sweet spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiving the odd All Black a week off within a Super season is a great thing for their entire year, not just for them, but for the club and for the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gill described the process as \u201cnot a big deal\u201d and said that there are different approaches to each situation and player.<\/p>\n

\u201cEssentially there\u2019s sort of two levels of players. There\u2019s a senior All Black who\u2019s been around for a while and then there\u2019s a new, young All Black that maybe only played this year, so there\u2019s sort of two categories,\u201d Gill told Mark Stafford on Sport Nation NZ.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne category is just play them, and then the Super Rugby clubs will make a plan that they think\u2019s right for them, so that might be All Blacks having the rest during Super Rugby. That\u2019s got nothing to do with your All Blacks coaches looking after a key player of theirs.<\/p>\n

\u201cLikewise, a senior All Black, let\u2019s just pick one out. Will Jordan<\/a> one of the best fullbacks in the world, is likely to have one week prescribed rest that the Crusaders get to decide when they do it and how they do it, so they manage their squad based on some guiding principles.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that\u2019s as complicated as we get, and so it\u2019s not that big a deal, it\u2019s what good coaches will do anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll look after the squad, you need a Super Rugby team to get into the finals and then be firing on all cylinders. And you don\u2019t get there by having every single one of your key players playing 80 minutes week in, week out.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo individualised, not really, but it\u2019s more a couple of different categories, and then the clubs figure out how it works for them, without compromising their ability to put their best team out week on week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Departing All Blacks Head of Performance Nic Gill has opened the lid on what goes on behind the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-515314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}