Friday 7 December 2007
Interpreting Failure
Big news in New Zealand today is Graham Henry's reappointment as coach of the All Blacks. This is big news given that the All Blacks recently fell out of the four-yearly Rugby World Cup at the quarter-final stage. It's the first time ever a coach who failed to win the World Cup has been reappointed. Remarkably, the majority of public opinion backs his reappointment.
I think it's a great rejoinder to all those who think NZers are over-obsessed with rugby and World Cups in particular. I also think it's remarkably rational to concede that results are sometimes outside the coach's (or anyone's) control and that statistics are more meaningful than one-off results.
Naturally, there are a lot of misguided people complaining both that Henry was too focused on the World Cup and that World Cup results are everything so he should have been sacked.