Mixed Emotions

By Aiden McLaughlin

‘You guys that know me know that I’ll tell you all the time that worry is a wasted emotion. It’s a wasted emotion because if the thing you’re worrying about happens, you need to fix it. So there’s no point worrying about it. And if it hasn’t happened, you plan so you don’t have to worry about it.’

Steve Hansen, during the build up to the first Lions Test in 2017.

Yes, but Steve, we do worry – we worry A LOT! If we didn’t worry we wouldn’t tweet as much, post on Facebook as much, text and call Radio Sport as much. It’s what we do, and we do it because we care. We’re invested. A LOT!

The thing is though, as much as we, as supporters, stress out about performances, injuries, bad luck, officials etc etc, it doesn’t really matter, because it’s out of our hands; realistically what effect will our worries or idiosyncrasies have on the big picture? Nada. Zero. Sweet FA.

Ah, if only it were that easy….

A lot of you will have watched Steve’s interview with Ian Smith after the match last night; less of you will have seen the press conference shortly afterwards, although the All Blacks generally post these live on Facebook now, making them more accessible than they used to be. Here are some quotes from the All Blacks Head Coach during that Q&A:

‘If you look back at history, particularly over our time anyway to the June series we’re always rusty, y’know we scramble away and we scramble away and we don’t play great rugby, and this is our June series.’

‘We’re not going to panic, we’ll just take a big deep breath and keep moving.’

‘We’re reasonably happy, not so much with maybe (with) the performance but we are happy with what we’re seeing and where we know we can go and I think that’s the important thing.’

‘We also see enough things in our game to get, y’know, quietly excited.’

Do you feel more relaxed now; a bit maybe? No, not really? Do you trust Steve; maybe you do, but you’re still worried?

You worried in 2011 and 2015 didn’t you and that didn’t turn out too bad did it? Ah, but you worried before and during other World Cup campaigns too and they weren’t so good by the end were they; fair point….

All Blacks fans inevitably have a higher level of expectation than supporters of other rugby nations – that’s what passion and success breeds. Steve has that level of expectation too, but he’s the least worried out of all of us – I genuinely believe that and that’s one of the reasons he’s been the best man for the job since 2012. 98 tests down, potentially another 10 to go as the top man. Deep breath everyone, one way or another it’ll soon be done and dusted and we can all worry about the next thing

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