All Blacks: Ex-manager on ‘awesome’ Graham Henry confession, why Ian Foster ‘didn’t have a chance’ and ‘skill’ that transformed Richie McCaw’s captaincy
Ex-All Blacks head coach Graham Henry (centre, with Wayne Smith and Steve Hansen) and, inset, Darren Shand
Former All Blacks manager Darren Shand has shed light on his 20-year involvement with New Zealand, starting when Graham Henry took over following the 2003 Rugby World Cup and ending two decades later after Ian Foster’s tenure in charge concluded.
Shand has revealed the moment he was bowled over by a confession from Henry at their first ever meeting in a Christchurch café in 2004. He also spoke about the New Zealand Rugby governance changes that, from his perspective, left Foster without a genuine chance of being a successful All Blacks head coach.
He reflected as well on the evolution of Richie McCaw’s captaincy of the team, going from the tricky spot of World Cup quarter-final elimination in 2007 to lifting the trophy in 2011.
Shand learned his team managerial craft during his four years at Super Rugby level with the Crusaders before interviewing for the role with the All Blacks.
“Pretty special…”
It was a job that he did for two decades until he was told he would be leaving in 2023 after a visit to his house from then NZR CEO Mark Robinson ahead of that year’s World Cup after it emerged that Scott Robertson would be taking over as head coach in 2024 from Foster.
Appearing on the Between Two Beers podcast, Shand reflected on some of his biggest takeaways from all his years working for the All Blacks – memories that included his first introduction to Henry, who said something at the time that still resonates with him today.
“We met in a café in Christchurch, we didn’t know each other,” he said, casting his mind back to an era where the All Blacks were looking to pick up the pieces following their wounding 2003 World Cup semi-final loss under John Mitchell to Australia.
“It was, ‘You do everything else, I’ll just coach’. I said, ‘How about we do that together?’ and he goes, ‘Yeah, that will be good’. The other thing he said to me on that day that has always stuck with me around his leadership was he said, ‘I’m going to employ Steve (Hansen) and Wayne (Smith)’.
‘I said, ‘Oh, that’s awesome’. And he said, ‘Yeah, it’s because they are better than me’. I was. ‘Wow’. There’s not many people in sport and probably even in industry prepared to do that. It took a while for that to seamlessly connect but in hindsight, it made him a better coach and we had the three head coaches working side by side.
“Probably today when I look back at sport, I really worry about that, that coaches think I have just got to bring people that they know or they use trust lightly and it’s more about control.
“I look back at that era and go, that was pretty special how he [Henry] did that. Steve brought Ian in and he had never coached with him and it probably made him a better coach. Ian brought Joe Schmidt in.
“Yes, there was circumstances surrounding that, but he still had to ask him and sell the vision for Joe to come in and do it. Joe is reasonably picky too and he comes from the right place. It’s really important in leadership and it’s vital.”
Shand was part of the All Blacks group that won back-to-back World Cups in 2011 – under Henry – and 2015 – under Hansen. They then went on to reach the semi-finals in 2019 before Hansen handed the reins over to Foster.
The promoted assistant ultimately managed to qualify New Zealand for the 2023 World Cup final, but Shand felt that Foster wasn’t given a proper chance to be successful due to the level of upheaval at the NZR which diluted its connection with the All Blacks set-up.
Looking back at how the Foster era unravelled, with the coach getting told before he went to the World Cup in France that was being replaced no matter how the All Blacks did at the finals, Shand said: “I was sad that we had lost so much of what we were good at and particularly the upline management, executive and board.
“We had this stability with Jock (Hobbs, chairman), with Mike Eagle (chairman), with Steve Tew (CEO). All that had gone, just disappeared. Brent Impey came in (as chairman), very different style from what we were used to. Totally wanted to grow things in a good way but it just wasn’t the same and as that progressed and as Silver Lake came on, there was just so much tension everywhere.
“Like the players were getting dragged into the conversations about should we, shouldn’t we, there were decisions being made around equality and gender balance and all those things were surfacing, so that’s forcing decisions at governance level that are in my opinion wrong.
“I agree with gender balance, but I also agree with what are you there for first, so we have got to get that right too. If I go right to the end, I really felt for Dame Patsy (Reddy). She was asked to a job (as NZR chair).
“I have huge respect for what she achieved in her corporate role, but she was asked to do something – it was like Richie (as captain) in 2007 – she just wasn’t ready for that role and the legacy of her time would be the All Black coach who got sacked before he had finished.
“I found that so sad, that this tribe I had been part of for so long had gone, it didn’t exist. We were a silo, we were an island floating along, putting the walls up and just going to do the best we can knowing that we don’t have the backing like we used to. So that’s very sad for me.
“Mark Robinson was a player that I worked with in the Crusaders. In fact, him and I once went to Robbie (Deans) on behalf of the players to challenge Robbie around some of the ways selection was happening. So, I felt really close to him, him and I used to have a coffee when he was a board member and then in 2023, he is coming around to my house to say, ‘You’re done mate, you’re past your use by date, we need a new voice inside the building’.
“It was hard to take. I didn’t feel like I was past my best. I certainly think my last two, three years weren’t my best years. My marriage finished, I was really battling with depression, so I wasn’t anywhere near my best.
“In hindsight I’m glad I got told to go actually because in the end I finished in a dignified way and made my peace with the organisation and left well. But that was a rough period given all that we had done before and when you chuck covid in as well, I have to say Ian didn’t have a chance really.
“Certainly, Gilbert (Enoka, mental skills guru) was a really strong anchor for Ian. There was a few times in that campaign when ’Bert was away so I probably got closer to Ian than I did with some of the other head coaches because I was always really careful about how close do I get.
“I still had to wear the organisational hat too and sometimes I was going to have to be divorced from them to deliver the role because I was so conscious that I’m different and I can’t just follow, I have to lead here and at least have to say it because that was what the role demanded.
“I was not just representing the team, I was representing rugby in general. It was tough. I read Ian’s book, and I thought I knew 100 per cent. I only knew 80 so how he held himself was remarkable through that. When it’s coming at you from the wrong side, it’s hard to be that dignified.”
Aside from speaking highly of the head coaches he worked with, Shand also singled out McCaw for the hard work he put into becoming a much better team captain. “You have got to improve your craft not only physically but, in another space, mentally and he sought people out that would help him with that.
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“He was deliberate with that, incredibly deliberate and consistent about learning in that space, as much as he was improving about passing and tackling and all those things. When others saw him doing that [improving his leadership], our other leaders jumped onto that bandwagon too.
“It’s not turning up for a meeting once a week and I’m called a leader, it was actually, ‘This is a skill, I’ve got to learn it more, I’ve got to trial it and I need help, I need to ask people to help me with it.”
Shand added: “He got quite isolated at times, Richie. Probably his two best mates were the two most diverse people, Andrew Hoare and Ali Williams. That is who he spent a lot of time with, and I was, ‘Wow, where did that come from?’… I just loved that he was prepared to step forward and he would always step into things.”
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