Excuses that made us cringe

It's been a Kiwi sporting year where teams, coaches, administrators and players have regularly looked for theories to cover the failings of one campaign after another. Rugby has had its share from the Super 14 shortfall to the World Cup disaster and on to the lack of public appeal for the Air New Zealand Cup. But what's been the lamest excuse of all?

THE BURDEN OF BEING AN ALL BLACK – Marc Hinton

I can't go past Dan Carter's whimpish reflection on the "burden" of being an All Black and bearing the brunt of so much expectation from a public who actually expect them to win every World Cup.

Now, let me just say first that I like Carter, he's a genuinely good bloke, hell of a talented footballer and with a pretty good attitude to the whole fame game that he, in particular, has to play.

But I nearly gagged when I read in his recent interview with The Times in the UK what appeared to me to be a pretty serious bleat. And a fairly average contention to boot.

First the comment in question. Carter was asked by The Times' bloke about the number of All Blacks who are leaving New Zealand. Here was the Crusaders maestro's response:

"Since winning in '87, we have been expected to win every other World Cup. That becomes quite a burden, a real weight on your shoulders. There's always that pressure and it is part of the reason some of the guys come over here."

I'm sorry, but I just don't buy that as a reason players are leaving New Zealand. If he'd said because the clubs are paying us twice as much as we could earn back home and some players just want to play in an easier league where there's not so much acid on to perform, well I could have swallowed that.

But to play the old "burden" card, puh-lease.

These guys are paid pretty handsomely to represent the All Blacks and some, like Carter, are lucky enough to double or treble that stipend because their profile gained by playing their sport allows them to sign lucrative endorsement deals. So in terms of their "burden", they are certainly adequately compensated for it.

And last I looked this is sport they are playing. There are winners and losers and the whole idea of it is to end up on the right side of the ledger.

The higher up the totem pole you go in terms of level of competition, the more rides on the outcome.

And playing for the No 1 side in the world, as the All Blacks are inevitably ranked, certainly means that there's expectation there to win.

But no more than that faced by any professional sportsman playing for a side with a history of success.

Take the England footballers. They don't even have a history of success and their public expects them to do well.

Only last weekend, on the back of their home Euro qualifying defeat to Croatia, every England player was booed by their own fans when they went back and played for their clubs. Now that's a burden of expectation.

So, sorry Dan, I just don't buy this so-called "burden" as a reason for fleeing the coop.

Just about every All Black I’ve met has a burning desire to be the best, and they relish the pressure that goes with being expected to win every test they play. They expect to win themselves and wouldn’t have it any other way.

So to play the card now as though it’s forcing players away from their homeleand just doesn’t wear. Players are buggering off because they’re getting paid handsomely to perform less onerous tasks. It's about the money first and foremost, and just a little bit about the change in scenery which does appeal to us all.

Not because they can’t handle the pressure of being an All Black.

BLAMING THE REFEREE – Duncan Johnstone

By all accounts the All Blacks coaching staff used English referee Wayne Barnes as a central theme to defending their shock quarter-final exit from the World Cup when they eventually fronted the NZRU review.

Few would disagree – and I number myself amongst the critics of the ref - that Barnes had a shocker and played a significant role in France's 20-18 upset of the All Blacks on that fateful day in Cardiff.

But to use him as a scapegoat for a failed campaign is stretching things way too far.

It's a simplistic approach that deserves to backfire on Graham Henry in his quest to hold on to his job.

Win, lose or draw it wouldn't be hard for coaches to come up with an incriminating video on refereeing efforts from every test played.

Referees are an easy target and that's why they get so much protection from administrators in every code.

There are double standards here as well. Henry and his coaching staff haven't uttered a word in public about Barnes because they know the entire rugby world will castigate them for being bad losers.

Yet they seem prepared to use the referee to their own advantage in their time of need behind closed doors.

The All Blacks problems ran far deeper than Barnes' undoubted ineptitude.

Henry, quite purposely, went down a different path to the previous four failed New Zealand Cup campaigns in his attempt to end New Zealand's embarrassing drought. Yet he met an even more dramatic dead end than in 1991, '95, '99 and 2003.

Reconditioning and rotation backfired on him.

Apart from a stunning opening 20 minutes in the first match of the tournament against Italy, the All Blacks never hit their straps. Served up a diet of dubious opposition Henry continued shuffling his troops when there was a clear need to get some cohesion going with his first-choice players.

So when the heat went on courtesy of a passionate French effort, the All Blacks crumbled – or choked – just as they had in previous tournaments.

This despite the All Blacks enjoying a wealth of possession that they never managed to utilise against a French outfit they had completely destroyed throughout the Henry era.

The rotation policy failed to dish up cool heads when they were required most in a frenzied final few minutes as a makeshift backline, deprived of some star quality through injuries, questionable selections and substitutions, were completely rattled.

The glaring lack of dropgoal attempts from close range was more damning than Barnes' lack of penalties.

New Zealand took an arrogant attitude into the World Cup, determined to show that their attacking brand of rugby that had dominated the global game in 2005 and 2006 could indeed win a knockout tournament where a more judicious approach has historically triumphed and did so again courtesy of the efficient Springboks.

Truth be told the All Blacks rarely got close to top gear throughout 2007. We were frequently reminded by those in charge that was because everything was geared towards the World Cup.

Sadly that never eventuated. This was New Zealand's worst cup effort and on the form being displayed at the tournament there were no guarantees that even without bumbling Barnes or with a successful drop goal that the All Blacks would have gone on to triumph.

That's hypothetical but one thing is for sure - their problems certainly appeared to run far deeper than singling out the man in the middle.

- © Fairfax NZ News