“Ka tu te ihiihi”

Stand fearless

• Maori saying

I have only ever seen two rugby matches in my life. One that I went to at Twickenham. It was England v Wales. I was bored. I was more interested in the mini hamburgers in hospitality afterwards. The other one was England v Australia on TV, in the World Cup final. It was, “Meh”.

However, the most successful sports team ever is a rugby team. The All Blacks of New Zealand have an almost 80% win-rate, and have defined the benchmark for sporting excellence for decades.

What is the recipe for a “Super Team”?

This question has challenged sports and businesspeople since time immemorial. People delight in stating their favourite super teams: the Brazilian football team of 1970, Barcelona 2004 to 2019, Liverpool in the 1970s and 80s, Manchester United from 1992 to 2012.

James Kerr has written the definitive study in the mechanics, in the DNA code of what it takes to be a super team: and he uses the All Blacks as the dissected specimen in his lab; as the matter in his petri dish.  His book Legacy, charts 15 characteristics that begin to understand the formula.

It is an exhilarating read, and one that I’d recommend to anyone interested in building teams in sports, in business, in community ventures.  In life.

Humility. Vision. Harmony.

In chapter one, Kerr talks about their cohesiveness and humble teamwork. After a match debrief, a couple of the players will pick up a broom and sweep the changing rooms. While their nation revels in the victory, watching the highlights, and kids lie in bed dreaming of glory, these superstars, these millionaires, are sweeping the floor and cleaning up. No one looks after the All Blacks. They look after themselves.

Consistency. Longevity. Sustained dominance.

There is a great set of phrases that Kerr uses, “Pass the ball. Leaders create leaders.” The players feel an obligation to an established lineage, and (as the title suggests) an inherited heritage.

Sacrifice. Ritual. Purpose.

With words like these, as chapter headings, there is also an unmistakeable and deliberate religiosity to the whole enterprise. It’s quite a moving book, to be honest. It is smilingly readable and intensely enjoyable, with digestible sections and a well-structured journey of adventure and discovery.

We enjoy extracting these lessons in the hope that we can apply them to our lives. But we’re very often like the man in the Seferis poem ‘Psychology’, who bathes “in the waters of the Dead Sea, then dons a bitter smile, for business and clients.” But let’s not abandon hope, when entering here.

One particular anecdote encapsulates the idea that ‘champions do extra.’ And it has nothing to do with rugby, but it is of the same essence as that elusive elixir which makes the All Blacks so great. The Hungarian Karoly Takacs was a shooting sportsman who was denied a place in the 1936 Olympics as only officers could qualify at that time. Then, just before the 1940 games, his shooting his hand was shattered by a grenade. He then taught himself to shoot with his left hand.  Unfortunately, the 1940 and 1944 Olympics were cancelled as war engulfed Europe. Finally, in 1948, Takacs competed in his first Olympic event, aged thirty-eight. He won gold, and set a new world record. A right hander, shooting left-handed.

Champions do extra.

James Neophytou