During the Lions Tour of 2017, I caught my first glimpse of what I’ve now come to call the strategic wormhole. It was game 2 and The Lions needed a win to stay alive. The All Blacks were down a man after Sonny Bill William’s shoulder charge of doom. For those of you completely new to rugby, the Lions tour is the biggest of the big. The best players from 4 nations combine into one epic team, basically becoming the Avengers of rugby. They had come to my home country of New Zealand to face the All Blacks in a 3 game series, our national team and current world champions. You may know them as that team that wears black, and does a dance called a haka on occasion. The Lions launched themselves at their defending rucks in an absolute state of desperation. It was here, in minute 57, that Lions prop Mako Vunipola of all people unknowingly tore open rugby's strategic wormhole for the first time. At least for me. As we sat in the stand outnumbered by Lions' fans, the incident went down. I'll talk you through how it happened.
As soon as Vunipola gently placed (slammed) his shoulder into Beauden Barrett’s face while clearing out a ruck, I began to notice very strange things happening around me. My dad was taking great pleasure in proclaiming his disgust every time Vunipola’s infringement was replayed to try and banter-off the Lions fans around us. The Lions fans' seemed sure Vunipola's face-flattener was accidental and not worth a card at all. But I had seen something during this moment that changed my view of rugby so much; I decided to write an entire book to explain it. This is the start of what will become that book.
While my Dad and other New Zealanders' around us hurled abuse at the ref (as is custom in New Zealand), the first thing I noticed all 35,000 people in the stadium were fixated on this one incident. They were 100% tuned in to this one singularity. This one point in time and space. Either they were All Blacks fans screaming for Vunipola to be sent off for what they saw as utter thuggery, or Lions fans defending Vunipola for his unfortunate gentle shoulder placement. But both sides were missing the bigger picture. I looked around and realized no one else was sharing my experience. I had a moment of awakening that only comes once in a lifetime for most people. Maybe it was my training as a rugby coach that allowed me to access the wormhole, or maybe it was my obsession with political leadership and military strategy. Maybe it was the watery, moderately overpriced beer I was drinking. I still have no idea.
At that moment I realized something that may at first sound crazy: Vunipola’s yellow card didn’t matter. It was only the final step in a picture far larger than this moment. If Steve Hansen had tweaked his team culture just slightly, his team would have already been coasting to victory and this moment would have no bearing on the result. If Warren Gatland had decided on a slightly different staffing decision, his Lions team might have already been well ahead. These decisions had far more bearing on the result, but no one was discussing them. All 35,000 people in the stadium were convinced Vunipola's shoulder re-arranging Beauden Barret's face had swung the match.
This is the strategic wormhole in a nutshell. The art of seeing past the present moment and uncovering the strategic decisions that are truly guiding the current rugby reality. These decisions, made by the greatest coaches and strategists of our time, will be the theme of my posts here for the next few months. And understanding the strategic wormhole is the most important concept we need to cover. Throughout the next few months, I will teach you how to rip open your own strategic wormhole and see an entirely new strategic universe for yourself. I will even teach you how to use it to predict the future. While you may be ready to jump into the deep end, we have to understand that power like that cannot be dropped on your head in a few minutes. I will need to take you on a journey through time, a journey through the last few years of rugby history. As I write this, the 2018 6 Nations has concluded, and club season is in full swing. Using the strategic wormhole, I will attempt to explain all of the most shocking results from before the 2015 word cup right through to the present. I will also tell you what is about to happen over the next few years and even who is going to take the ultimate prize at the 2019 world cup. Sound crazy?
We're just getting started.