Former All Blacks coach John Mitchell has denied suggestions by former skipper Anton Oliver that Mitchell promoted a booze culture in the team.
Binge drinking was part of the All Blacks culture until recently, Oliver said in newspaper excerpts from a biography due to be released this week.
Oliver believed the situation ”spiralled dangerously out of control” during the period when Mitchell was at the helm from 2001 until after the 2003 World Cup.
But Mitchell, now coach of the Perth-based Western Force team, which joins the Super 14 competition next year, said drinking was kept under control during his tenure.
”For a group of alcoholics we did quite well, winning two Tri-Nations and a Bledisloe Cup,” Mitchell was quoted as saying in the New Zealand Herald on Monday.
”These accusations have been thrown at us before. We had clear and controlled protocols for drinking and everyone knew those,” he said.
Oliver tells of a team bonding session before a Test against Argentina in 2001 when many players were so drunk they were still suffering the effects days later when the All Blacks narrowly avoided defeat.
”We had several young men in the team and I thought, ‘we are teaching them that this is what it is to be an All Black, to drink a lot of booze’.”
But Mitchell said the narrow 24-20 victory was more to do with jet lag after travelling from Scotland than the effects of drinking.
He said the players were not enjoying themselves when he took over from Wayne Smith and he thought they needed more balance in their lives.
”We agreed on protocols for drinking and decided to treat them like men,” he said.
Oliver had only played five out of 28 tests during Mitchell’s tenure as coach due to injury and being dropped from the side, he added.
The 30-year-old hooker returned to the All Blacks at the end of last year but missed this year’s Test matches through a calf injury. – Sapa-AFP