Ardie Savea is understood to be exploring options to play in Europe. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
World-class loose forward Savea<\/a>, who captained the All Blacks several times in Scott Barrett\u2019s injury absence last year, is among those believed to be seriously unhappy.<\/p>\n Multiple sources have told the Herald that Savea is exploring discussions to stay on with Japanese club Kobe beyond this year \u2013 or join a European club, with Irish club Leinster believed to be a possible destination.<\/p>\n Unless major coaching changes<\/a> are made, Savea may not return to the All Blacks.<\/p>\n At this stage, though, he remains contracted through to 2027 and NZ Rugby expects he will return from Japan. <\/p>\n Savea is believed to have delivered strong feedback to NZR chairman David Kirk on last year\u2019s Grand Slam tour<\/a>.<\/p>\n The 32-year-old is, however, far from alone in his dissatisfaction with the way in which the All Blacks are being run.<\/p>\n One senior Blues player is also understood to have declined an invitation to join the All Blacks in their final test of the year in Cardiff from the All Blacks XV.<\/p>\n Issues have been evident on the field with the All Blacks displaying wild inconsistencies, third-quarter fades<\/a>, struggling attack, high-ball vulnerabilities and defensive lapses.<\/p>\n Two assistant coaches, Leon MacDonald and Jason Holland, voluntarily departing in the last two years sparked red-flag concerns too.<\/p>\n But the latest stinging feedback from within \u2013 with communication, trust, strategy and selection all believed to have been raised \u2013 cannot be glossed over.<\/p>\n With NZR chief executive Mark Robinson<\/a> concluding his six-year tenure in December, general manager of community rugby Steve Lancaster assuming the reins in an interim capacity and the next NZR boss yet to be appointed, the timing of the leadership handover<\/a> enhances pressure on the national body to tackle the storm brewing within the All Blacks.<\/p>\n While the NZR board will have some say on the All Blacks coaching team, chairman Kirk sits in the kingmaker seat with the biggest decision of his role thus far.<\/p>\n With a daunting six-week tour of South Africa<\/a> featuring four tests against the world champion Springboks looming in August and September, NZR must address the All Blacks\u2019 issues or they could face a backlash from disgruntled players.<\/p>\n Liam Napier<\/a> is a Senior Sports Journalist and Rugby Correspondent for the New Zealand Herald. He is a co-host of the Rugby Direct podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ardie Savea is understood to be exploring options to play in Europe. Photo \/ Photosport World-class loose forward…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,5263,9082,806,7022,8136,4500,49722,17890,95448,6119,3273,139229,78,139228,10118,20439,661,20494,111,43,139,69,1523,9617,21411,762,106645,6327,9083,26531,100842,7187,102,80],"class_list":["post-235317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-all","tag-ardie","tag-as","tag-black","tag-blacks","tag-changes","tag-coaching","tag-doubt","tag-doubts","tag-faces","tag-future","tag-hovering","tag-in","tag-instigate","tag-internal","tag-jersey","tag-major","tag-mounting","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-player","tag-pressure","tag-review","tag-revolt","tag-rugby","tag-savea","tag-saveas","tag-scathing","tag-team","tag-with","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}