STRAIGHT

TALKER

John Mitchell could

get his point across

when he needed to.

TOP

editor’ s

// NZ RUGBY WORLD // JUNE/JULY 2015

JOHN MITCHELL

When John Mitchell took the All

Black coaching job in September 2001, he was

universally seen as a good rugby man. A straight

shooter who had been a provincial legend in his

day and a man who knew how to call a spade a

spade.

The simplicity of his communication and

thinking are what led Sir Clive Woodward to

oer Mitchell a place in his wider coaching team

between 1997 and 2000.

But with no real explanation, Mitchell became

downright weird when he became All Black coach.

He began to talk in riddles and half sentences.

He made no sense about being on a journey and

it was part laughable, part sad that a once up the

guts No 8 was trying to reinvent himself as some

kind of snake charming mystic.

NZ Herald columnist Paul Thomas wrote of

Mitchell: “There are certainly times when Mitchell

seems to ﬁnd sturdy old English as we know it

an inadequate vehicle for the powerful thoughts

rocketing around inside that imposing head.

“Most of us would think ‘evolution’ has stood

the test of time but he prefers ‘evolvement’.

Nothing is said or told, it’s ‘shared with’.

“What’s interesting is that Mitchell is capable of

brutally precise language - for instance when he’s

rattling through the host of reasons you wouldn’t

want Cullen playing fullback for your work-up-a-

thirst social team.

And who could forget zingy one-liners like,

‘Taine knows my phone number’ and ‘There’s no

such thing as loyalty in professional rugby’.”

Mitchell was eectively dumped in 2003 and

may have been even if the All Blacks had won the

World Cup that year.

CLIVE

WOODWARD

As time moves on, it becomes clearer

that the British Lions tour of 2005 was

a massive disaster caused by the ego

and random actions of coach Sir Clive

Woodward.

A hero in 2003 when he provided the

tactical and motivational base that

saw England play a ruthless brand of

rugby to win the World Cup.

But by 2005, he’d presumably

started to believe his own hype and

inﬂuence.

As became apparent Woodward

had pretty much lost the plot in all

aspects. He took 45 players to New

Zealand – a ludicrous number for an

11-game tour and there were plenty

who didn’t feature for more than 40

minutes.

The weirdest thing he did was bring

Alistair Campbell with him as his

media man. Campbell was the former

spin doctor to UK Prime Minister Tony

Blair and was on tour, seemingly,

to sensationalise and manipulate

incidents out of all proportion.

It never felt like a rugby tour and

after the Lions had bumbled their way

to a lucky win against Otago – having

bumbled their way to other lucky wins

against provincial sides – Woodward

proudly declared in Dunedin: “I have a

warm feeling about the ﬁrst test.”

The Lions were hammered 3-0 and

the source of Sir Clive’s warm feeling

became an issue of considerable

speculation.

RUDOLF STRAEULI

When Rudolf Straeuli was

appointed Springbok coach

in 2002 it felt like he was

the right choice. The former Springbok had

shown himself to be an astute coach with the

Bedford club in England.

But things went badly awry relatively

quickly. South Africa lost to Scotland in

November 2002 and the following week

slumped to a record loss to England.

Another record defeat followed in July

when the All Blacks put 50 on them in

Pretoria and it was obvious that the coach

and the players were not on the same page.

So Straeuli hit upon the idea of creating a

pre World Cup boot camp.

In theory it wasn’t a bad idea – expose

the players to some adversity and tough

conditions before the tournament.

But this was less of a boot camp and more

of an SAS-style recruitment challenge. The

players at one point were left naked in ice-

cold water with various national anthems

blasted at them. They were asked to pump

up rugby balls under water and those who

tried to leave were allegedly forced back at

gunpoint.

“Creativity is killed and a conservative

approach is encouraged,” one player who

asked not to be named told the Guardian.

“You are too scared to think for yourself and if

you do, you have to face up to Straeuli.

“I can tell you one or two incidents that I

think are shocking, but when Straeuli is ﬁred

I will tell you all about it. Any guy who speaks

will ﬁnd himself with a problem and he will

have to go and play in France or something.”

Straeuli left his post in December 2003.

SOUTHERN

STING

Sir Clive had a warm

feeling after the

game in Otago.