Reuben Thorne feels the All Blacks’ playing leadership group should all take responsibility for their current predicament after their recent defeat to the Springboks in Wellington.
The Springboks delivered a dominant performance en route to their 43-10 triumph at Sky Stadium on Saturday and, in doing so, they condemned the All Blacks to their heaviest ever defeat in Test rugby.
Following that humiliating result, questions have been asked about the leadership of the side, with head coach Scott Robertson and captain and second-rower Scott Barrett the obvious people in the firing line.
Thorne represented the All Blacks in 50 Tests from 1999 to 2007 of which 22 of those appearances were as captain between 2002 and 2003 and while he admits that the skipper can become a focal point for criticism after such a heavy defeat, he feels that Barrett‘s role in the team makes it difficult for him to bear the sole responsibility for his side’s loss.
‘All Blacks have a number of very experienced leaders’
“Well, look, it depends on it. I mean, I know the focus is always on the captain more than other players, but there’s a number of very experienced leaders in that group,” he told Jason Pine on Newstalk ZB.
“Now, you know, you look at his brothers, Beauden, Jordie, they’ve been around a while, Ardie Savea, Codie Taylor. There’s a whole group of them that have a lot of Test match experience who will all be contributing, and they’ll have different roles on the field.
“Scott’s the face of it, but all of those guys are involved in that leadership and decision-making part of the game, and particularly, I guess the game management is often not the captain, particularly if he’s in a position like Scott’s where he’s head down in the scrum.
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“You are relying on some of these other key guys to make good decisions around how you manage to manage the game and manage the field.
“So, it’s easy to point the finger at one person and say, well, I don’t like his style, but in my experience, it’s generally a whole group involved in the leadership environment, and they’ll be working pretty hard to try and fix and find some solutions.”
The All Blacks were comprehensively outplayed in Saturday’s Test with the Boks and it was put to Thorne that “there wasn’t a lot to hang on to” when Barrett was interviewed as the men in black’s captain in the post-match interview.
‘Very hard in the heat of the moment’
“It’s very hard in the heat of the moment, straight after a game, when you get a camera and an interviewer coming up to you and wanting answers immediately post-match, particularly when you’ve been on the receiving end of a loss like that,” he said.
“He’ll need time to reflect on it, and they’ll look back closely on what they’ve got.
“But to expect him to front up and have answers straight away and articulate that really clearly straight after a game, it’s really challenging.
“I think we give him space, give the team some time to look at it.”