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Martin Devlin: The All Blacks need to go back to all black

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Mon, 23 Nov 2020, 3:25PM

Martin Devlin: The All Blacks need to go back to all black

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Mon, 23 Nov 2020, 3:25PM

If I was in the All Blacks this is what I'd do. As a team I'd go back to being All Black. And the instant I say that, I know you know what I mean.

All in black, everyone as one. There are no individuals, you don't stand alone, you stand together.

Do you see where I'm going with this? We are the ultimate team's team. That has always been our strength. No individual ever bigger than the collective will.

Yes, it might sound like yet another marketing guy advertising gimmick but rather than let the creative tossers take ownership, do it because it's the perfect way of saying everything we need to say without having to say anything at all.

Imagine the visual effect. All in black, total black from the boots on up. A black wave, an infinite black tide, with no beginning and no end just this constant menacing wall of blackness.

Leave the individualism to all the other countries. Let them express their own personalities through multi-coloured boots and wacky funster barnets.

Because we have never been that.  We've never needed to. It's not what we're about, in fact we've always been the exact opposite.

Even the biggest superstar to play for us, Jonah Lomu, constantly reminded everyone he was just another cog in the AB wheel.

We are the very definition of all for one and one for all, that IS the All Blacks. A champion team, not a team of champions, and what better way to demonstrate this than the togetherness of being all black and only all black.

Heck, it might well be the dumbest idea ever suggested. But if I was in the  All Blacks that's what I'd do. Get the whole team to go back to being what our name says we are. And in doing so make a huge statement without having to say a single word.

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