The famous All Blacks collector cards have been a staple of children’s breakfast routine for generations. Hopefully the infamous ability of the All Blacks to collect cards won’t be as ingrained as the cereal freebees.   

This is getting beyond an inconvenient truth of international rugby for the nation’s male first 15. When recidivist action becomes a predictable part of behaviour, it becomes a habit. We know how difficult habits can be to break.  

Those indiscretions have cost the team dearly, last week’s sloppy defeat at the hands of Los Pumas underlined and emphasized it in bold italics.   

Granted, the Argentines played well, but I can’t accept that as a primary driver for their unlikely victory, although their consistent pressure and more disciplined play was impressive.   

Los Pumas didn’t win that game, the All Blacks lost it. They were clumsy, out of phase with each other, and showed ill-discipline bordering on recklessness, which is essentially just stupidity pretending to be bravery.  

The iconic 1971 film Vanishing Point had this memorable line, “This radio station was named Kowalski, in honour of the last American hero to whom speed means freedom of the soul. The question is not when's he gonna stop, but who is gonna stop him”.  

I feel the same about the All Blacks’ questionable red card/yellow card spiral.   

The question is not when it’s going to stop, but who’s going to stop it?  

The malaise they are, and we are, experiencing could be explained many ways. Is it the overly judicious refereeing phalanx? The apparent inability of the players to switch from the perilous red head space to the measured blue head zone? The coaching staff not providing the foundations for a stoic and immovable state which will not, cannot be shaken even under duress?  

You choose. Like most disasters though, this card chaos is not a result of one action, it’s a combined effort across numerous areas.   

Calling it a disaster may seem heavy handed, but when this rapidly evolving habit costs the team a world cup, it will be seen as such.