The All Black’s Rugby Success Goes Beyond Team Culture

I have read countless articles that go over the greatness of the All Blacks due to the amazing team culture that instills the champion mindset of All Black players. These are valid points undoubtedly, but there are other factors beyond team culture. In fact without some of these factors this winning mindset would be minimized if not negated completely.

New Zealand has a robust economy with vast natural resources with a market size that facilitates the building of sports venues and professional leagues to develop their rugby talent. Without this economic strength, it would be virtually impossible to compete with other Top Tier rugby nations with strong economies to develop and maintain their national rugby talent.

Economic Strength. New Zealand outperforms many countries in overall economic freedom and GDP despite being a relatively small nation. This is a very important aspect of being able to create a winning culture, also to compete against other larger countries with powerful economies. The economy size has a positive boost in so many areas. However, the two main areas are:

1. Funds to develop youth, High School, and college leagues/competitions so that talent can be nurtured at a younger age but more importantly to develop the basic skill sets such as passing, kicking, tackling, set pieces etc that provide the foundation for the ability of a player to not only perform on an elite level but to flourish.

2. Development of Pro and Semi-Pro leagues. An economy that is too small or poverty-stricken cannot maintain local talent within its borders. New Zealand has a great balance of economic wealth and a market size just large enough to sustain a pro and semi-pro teams/competitions to keep local talent busy. This advantage is being greatly challenged as not just more and more players are heading to Europe and Asia but are doing so at younger and younger ages

   

   New Zealand has a major influence in determining many of the rules developed and adopted by the World Rugby. Rarely is ever rules are adopted that hurts New Zealand Rugby. Many Second Tier rugby nations, especially in the Pacific, suffer the most from rules implemented to protect New Rugby’s interests.

Hot Bed of Athletic Talent. New Zealand is located within the hotbed of rugby talent, Polynesia. The combination of NZ’s economic strengths and being so close to Polynesian players’ island homes makes NZ the easiest and most logical first country to migrate and pursue professional rugby dreams. The fact that the All Black’s is always filled with players of Polynesian descent (outside of the native NZ population of Maori’s). Many of their superstars are of Polynesian descent not to mention arguably the World’s biggest Rugby World Super Star in Jonah Lomu. This is a geographic advantage that many First Tier Rugby Countries would love to have right in their backyard.

Single Sport Nation. There is no doubt that rugby is the king of the hill in New Zealand sports and athletics. This was the biggest hindrance to players leaving New Zealand to play in Europe or Asia during their prime years. They grew up with one sport ruling supreme and one team that every kid dreamed to be on the All Blacks. The fact that just under 5 Million people self-identify with rugby and have so many parts of their lives impacted from a very young age by the All Blacks, creates a respect and awe for the All Black Jersey that promotes a culture of excellence within AB teams. Jonah Lomu basically turned down millions of dollars to play for the Dallas Cowboys is the greatest example of this. This key factor has lost some ground over the years as more and more players are leaving at younger and younger ages to play in foreign markets and basically become ineligible for the AB’s.

Hyper influence on Rules. For being a relatively small country (in relations to other top-tier rugby nations) New Zealand has a tremendous impact on the sport and the rules the international bodies adopt. They are World Rugby’s most recognized brand and AB’s probably have the largest fanbase worldwide than any other team. NZ has many times over and overused this power to enact and promote rules that many time benefits NZ’s rugby interests while sacrificing smaller tier 2 nations at the same time. Especially NZ’s influence on eligibility rules that dramatically favor NZ over second tiers nations, more specifically Polynesian national teams.

These are the foundation pieces that New Zealand Rugby Union has in place that allows the AB’s to create a unique rugby culture within the AB’s to achieve the dominance they have achieved.