Following the Māori All Blacks’ fairly comprehensive 0-73 dispatch of hosts Chile in Estadio San Carlos de Apoquindo in Santiago this weekend, there were many comments on the Māori All Blacks Facebook page, asking where the value is in playing sides such as Chile. The Māori’s played a three-game tour, starting with a 22-59 dispatch of the USA, followed by a 3-35 encounter with a fired up Brazilian side and finishing with a big response to down the Chilean team. So where is the value for the hosts and the visitors? Surely nobody benefits from a result like that?

THE HOSTS

Profile

The biggest thing of course for the hosts is the massive boost in the profile of the sport. The Māori All Blacks are a separate team to the All Blacks, with whakapapa (Māori genealogy) a must for members of the squad. However, the association is still there from fans, and they are still a high calibre and performance side. For any hosting Union and its fans alike, it’s an honour to welcome them. You can look at positive marketing from the host Unions (and take nothing away from them) but to see record Rugby crowds in both Brazil (over 30k) and Chile (sold-out at 15k) tells you all that you need to know; the Māori All Blacks are a big-name side and will generate significant interest and a profile for the sport.

To put this in context, I understand that Chile’s previous record attendance was around the 2k mark. For the Māori’s they sold out San Carlos de Apoquindo at 15,000 capacity and it was the first ever live Chilean International rugby game to be televised in the country. It even drew a multiple page spread in one of the Nation’s largest papers, El Mercurio.

Young people and Prisoners

There was also an attempt to try and secure a legacy for the sport in the country, with swathes of young people invited to watch and meet the Māori players at their open training session at Escuela Militar, along with many young people present at the game. The Māori boys were great when it came to the young ones. They spared no effort in signing their kits and take pictures, whilst also performing Haka’s in multiple locations such as a restaurant and in one of the cities’ largest shopping centres’, the Costanera Centre, all to the delight of the fans.

The players also paid a visit to the high security facility ‘Colina Uno’, where the prison guards had started a rugby team as a means of social reintegration, using the values of the game. The inmates had the pleasure of doing some drills with a few members of the Māori side, including a full warm up, some tackling drills, and a game, followed by the learning of the Haka, which can be seen below. All of this, inspiring people to take up Rugby, or at least to give it a crack.

For the Chilean team

In terms of what the Chilean team gained from the experience, you might imagine that there’s not much to take from a 73-0 defeat. However, this is far from the case. As a team with aspirations to climb into the top 20 of world rugby and eventually further, this experience will be invaluable. Many of the players were still relatively young and playing to a 15,000 strong crowd will not only give them experience of high-pressure moments but will motivate them to see how the sport could grow. Yes, they were against big name opposition, but the better the team play, the more likely they are to experience that again. That’s going a huge driver for these Chilean players.

You also have the coaching side of things. Speaking to the Māori coaches, despite the score-line they were actually relatively impressed with the Chilean defensive shape and how they reacted at certain points in the game. What lead to the result was in large part down to strength and conditioning, pressure of the occasion and the massive response that the Māori boys were looking for after the Brazil game. It really was men vs boys.

The other aspect you have is the unseen. Throughout the week the Māori coaches held sessions with Chilean coaches across all levels to discuss practice. This again covered all areas, from the more direct in game elements of coaching and how to lead a side, to being a head coach, on the medical team, and how the physios and other backroom staff should go about their business. Having this kind of advice right from the horse’s mouth is invaluable to these developing rugby nations.

Finances

Whilst I have no actual figures, I know that Chile Rugby have made a profit on this game. With the added revenue streams of increased media exposure and a fully sold out stadium and with an influx of merchandise sales, it is not hard to see why. During the week there were discussions and musings from many in the organisation as to how the money would be spent. Perhaps concerning that nothing has yet appears to have been finalised, but the intention is that the investment goes back into National Rugby and hopefully securing a bit of a legacy from the game.

THE MΑORI ALL BLACKS

Players and Staff

The final group to consider is the Māori team and staff. It would seem that they perhaps have the least to gain here and perhaps that’s true to a certain extent. However, that’s not to say that it’s an entirely useless exercise; in fact, there’s still a lot to gain and been learnt from an experience like this.

Realistically, the Māori’s would be expecting to win all three of their games and quite convincingly. However, that will tell you a lot about characters. Do the players seem to be giving less to training because they perceive the position to be lesser, or are they still pushing themselves to be better every-day? Are the coaches still doing detailed analysis, are the strength and conditioning team pushing their men and are the rest of the staff preparing as they normally would? Are the boys taking the Māori cultural learnings into their training and games? All of these things are tested on a tour like this where it might be easier to switch off. In addition, when things don’t quite go to plan, how do the players respond? After the Brazil test, Captain Ash Dixon was the first to say that, although they didn’t execute their game plan, you must credit Brazil for pushing them so well, a real sign of character and respect- exactly what you want in your captain.

Then you had the response of the players in Chile- the match result certainly shows that the majority of them were in the right mind set and responded. Whilst they may not have been pushed on the field as much as they might be against stronger opposition, the challenges in this instance are entirely different. When Tier 3 Nations host a pro side from a tier one nation, there are differences in many aspects, Latin American efficiency being one. The players had to adapt to different surroundings and environments, whilst remaining focussed on the job at hand. (I should add that in the case of Chile, they did the Māori’s proud, but I wasn’t present to comment on Brazil.)

Conclusion

Whilst on the field it may be harder to see the benefits, when you include the whole experience for everyone involved, rugby events like these are invaluable. It helps to push rugby on in these developing markets- Chile will have their first professional rugby side starting in two years’ time and this will have done no harm to initial levels of interest. For the tourists, they will have found out a lot about their players and staff and will have helped to build a legacy and a profile for the sport we all love. Personally, I’d like to see more A-sides doing tours like these, though I doubt their draw would be as strong as that of the Māori All Blacks.

The Scribbler, 20th November, 2018

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