Former All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has accused New Zealand Rugby of leading a string of failures in an astonishing attack that labeled the relationship between the All Blacks players and the board as “the worst it’s ever been” .
Hansen came out in an interview with Today FM’s Tova O’Brien, following weeks of fierce public criticism of the All Blacks, with coach Ian Foster being forced to take on all flak while NZ Rugby remained silent.
That seems to have been the last straw for Hansen, whose criticism will put intense pressure on NZ Rugby to respond.
“They’ve come out and aired all their dirty laundry at the front of the property rather than at the back,” Hansen said of recent reviews to Ian Foster and former Black Ferns coach Glenn Moore.
“So their job [NZ Rugby] is to run it with strength and leadership, but in a way that you’re going to take care of the people who work for you.
“Otherwise, you’ll get high staff turnover, which I think they have at the moment.
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Former All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has accused New Zealand rugby of being in charge of a string of failures.
“So the relationship between the board and the director and players right now is probably the worst it’s ever been.”
Hansen said the problems are years old, pointing to the completion of the process to get US investors Silver Lake on board.
“The way they handled the new money arrangement…[former chairman] Brent Impey came out and just rostered the players absolutely without consultation,” Hansen said.
“I don’t think they’re doing their job right at the moment. You have a group of eight All Blacks captains who come out and form a group and start talking to them, and ‘Kirky’ [David Kirk] was recently in the paper saying they didn’t feel they were being listened to.
“So let’s start there and let’s do it right. If you look back at the time when we were really successful from about 2010 to 2019, which was our most successful era, the rugby union board and director are humming.
“There was complete togetherness and connection to the actual All Blacks team.”