'Sack the lot', says Meads

IAIN McGREGOR/Waikato Times

END OF AN ERA: Former All Blacks hard man Colin Meads was not quite in tears as the hammer fell but he did admit that the auction of his beloved 102-hectare Te Kuiti farm was "emotional".

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Player of the Century Colin Meads has finally delivered his take on the NZRU's shambolic handling of the All Blacks' World Cup humiliation.

"I say sack the whole lot of the bastards (administrators)," said Meads, a NZRU life member.

Meads has watched on since the All Blacks ended their World Cup in the quarterfinals the country's worst finish as the NZRU:

• announced a "independent review" of what went wrong

• re-hired the All Blacks coaches and management before the report was published

• and then outed Richie McCaw and the team's senior leadership as one of the reasons for failure.

Meads is amazed coaches Graham Henry, Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith were reappointed after their conditioning and rotation policies backfired.

"We have been promised so much by coaches. The past three (All Blacks) coaches' opening statements, when they got their jobs, was: `You give me what I want and I'll give you the World Cup'."

Meads, who played 55 tests between 1957 and 1971, pointed out the NZRU got rid of John Mitchell after his side lost in the semifinals in 2003 but allowed Henry to go to France with twice as many staff and money.

"He ruined New Zealand rugby by taking the players out of the Super 14 rugby at the wrong time of the year," Hawke's Bay Today reported.

"He admits his rotation policy was not right and we still selected this man.

"When the report was out the only one who was discredited was Richie McCaw because he didn't instruct someone to have a dropped goal.

"Yet Graham Henry swears he sent down messages to them. What the bloody hell is rugby coming to? You have someone sitting in the box and trying to get a message to the captain.

"In our days we weren't even allowed to leave the field at halftime. Once the game was on the captain was in charge and you never even heard from the coach until after the game.

"I think we're getting over-coached and over-organised. You now have four selectors, a tackling coach, a scrum coach, a lineout coach and you have a couple of technical advisers. Now, which of those buggers do you have to listen to?

"We've become too technical. I heard a player say on Monday that they have light training and are watching a videotape with this video analyst bloke telling them which side the ball and player are going and all that.

"Well, how bloody boring can that get after a while and how confusing is that?"

Meads came off the ropes against Henry in Sunday News in May 2006 over the coach's planned conditioning programme which saw 22 All Blacks rested from the first half of last year's Super 14. He said Henry was being "foolish."

"I just can't come to grips with resting All Blacks at the beginning of the season," Meads said.

"I don't see what good it is going to do resting them in February and March. They'll be sitting at home knowing that others are putting their bodies on the line and that there's a good chance some young buck is going to stand up and play terribly well and take their place. One or two of them are likely to miss out on the World Cup."