Rugby Asteroid

Growing up in NZ we used to have a saying: “I support two teams – the All Blacks, and any team playing the Wallabies.” How times have changed.

Today I had a very interesting conversation with the lady who runs the Champions store under AMI Stadium. As you can imagine, she sells a lot of Crusaders’ gear, plus gear for the other NZ Super 14 teams and the All Blacks. She told me that when Robbie Deans signed on to coach Australia, she quickly sold out of Wallaby jerseys and that the people buying them were embittered All Black fans.

“Surely not!” I protested. Surely she was speaking about some double-minded group of flip-floppers and not die-hard AB supporters. Yes, the ABs had a poor finish to 2007, but no one respects the fair-weather fan. These could not possibly be former AB supporters – it’s unthinkable.

But she was adamant. She explained to me that there was a lot of bitterness among local supporters, especially towards the NZRU, and this was causing them to jump ship. With careful precision she identified four causes of this sorry state of affairs: (1) the AB conditioning programme which was run to the detriment of the 2007 Super 14 tournament, (2) Henry’s unpopular rotation policy, (3) the unexpected quarter-final elimination at the RWC, and (4) the poor treatment dished out to Robbie Deans during the coach-selection process at the end of last year.

She reserved her strongest feelings for that last point. “The NZRU planned to rehire Graham Henry all along. They just interviewed Robbie Deans to give the whole thing legitimacy and that was shabby. Worse, in doing so they assumed that they were smarter than the average fan, that they could fool us. They were wrong.”

In my 3 months in NZ, I’ve met fans from every provincial side north of Otago. I have picked up a view that Cantabrians are both rabid supporters and intelligent critics of the game. It’s no exaggeration to say that when it comes to rugby, Canterbury is to NZ, what Pretoria is to South Africa and NSW is to Australia. I’d read about it in the paper but I didn’t believe it until today. Cantabrians are so mad at the NZRU, that they’re buying Wallaby jumpers in support of their exiled coach.

If you’re reading this outside of NZ, let me put the importance of Robbie Deans in some context. I’m currently staying near Deans Avenue. Yesterday I took the family for a walk through Deans Bush and visited Deans Cottage, which is the oldest surviving settler building in Canterbury. That cottage was built by Robbie Deans’ great-great-grandfather. Robbie Deans is the embodiment of Cantabrian rugby. His creed is shared by all in this part of the world: “the team comes first”.

On the ferry down here I met an Aussie and asked him how he felt about Robbie Deans being the new Wallaby coach. He replied with a glint, “ve-ry, ve-ry happy.” The sentiment here in Christchurch is the exact opposite. Everyone I talk to speaks out of a sense of loss and this has led to the truly bizarre and unprecedented outcome of AB fans buying Wallaby jumpers.

I’m still trying to process all this. Your thoughts, please.