1991 All Black bombshell: Grizz Wylie parts ways from John Hart
Sport Review #291
NEWSDESK: Former All Black coach Grizz Wylie announced late Thursday afternoon that he and co-coach John Hart have parted ways on the failed 1991 All Blacks world cup campaign.
“When I heard Razor had decided to fuck Leon out of it, I thought ‘Shit, you can do that?’. I texted John like five minutes later,” Wylie told reporters.
Wylie and Hart were an unlikely pair charged with retaining the William Webb Willis trophy at the 1991 Rugby World Cup, a campaign that ended in failure with semi final defeat to Australia in Dublin.
“Yeah, binning Harty certainly crossed my mind at the time. We brainstormed how to knife him in the Temple Bar that one night til about four in the morning,” said Wylie.
“Back in those days you didn’t talk about working styles or ideas on rugby or any of that shit, you just got on with the job. If I knew I could get rid of him for the price of expressing any kind of human emotion, I would have considered it, for sure.”
What this means for the 1991 world cup campaign, considering it happened 33 years ago, is unclear. Reaction has been swift, with David Campese tweeting several cry-laughing, New Zealand flag and shit emojis, and several posts analysing learnings appearing on business networking app LinkedIn already.
Former All Black captain Gary Whetton wasn’t surprised to learn of the parting of ways. “Grizz and Harty were chalk and cheese, very different men. There was resentment. Table banging. Tears. Some very bad language. For Gizz to sack John by text all these years later… I'm surprised it took this long to be honest.”
All Black coach Scott Robertson welcomed the move. “Grizz has to keep moving forward. If he’s looked at the 1991 coaching make-up holistically and decided the best thing for the group is for Coach John to be axed, he needs to do what’s right. I’m sure the synergy will be optimised by being this bold.”
“I can confirm I received a text on Thursday,” said John Hart from his Kohimarama bolt hole. “It didn’t make a lot of sense - ‘91. U R Out. Like Razor.’ I get a lot of texts from Alex, and thought it was most likely his dogs got hold of his 3110 again.”
Thanks for reading - Richard
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