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The Rugby Effect
Richard Dawson, 6 November 2015
Is there anything we can learn as a church and as Christians from the All Blacks win last week. I know many of you don’t follow the Rugby and, indeed, think of it as something of a blight on our culture and I can understand this but the feat of being the first team to win back to back titles in this competition and of being now the ‘winningest’ Rugby team in the world given that we have fewer player of the game than many other places in the world should not go un-noticed. These things don’t just happen by accident. In particular the AB’s lost badly in ‘91, ‘95, ‘99, ‘03 and ‘07 and in many of those tournaments they were considered the best team. What has changed? One thing I believe… Team culture. Particularly in ‘99 and ‘03 the AB’s were considered arrogant and aloof. This may have begun to change under coach Graham Henry by ‘07 but clearly prior to this there was a sense of entitlement and indifference towards the opposition who took full advantage of this. What has been so noticeable this tournament is that all that is gone and in it’s place is an essential humility and respect for both players and the wider public. Furthermore, the coach embodied this in his daily comments before the Press. He was respectful always, downplayed the AB’s achievements and showed great restraint always when answering questions around his own abilities. The culture in the team from what I can gather echoed this public display. It was focused and yet aware of the needs and desires of the public and it was nowhere more accentuated than in the amazing act of kindness from Sonny Bill Williams who rescued a young boy from a security guard who had just tackled with undue vigour the boy for being on the grounds illegally. He then handed the boy his winner’s medallion and allowed him to walk away with it. We can learn a lot from this team and this win!
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