Why Zinny found failure hard to handle

When he went into business at The Stoop as a one-man salvage operation, Zinzan Brooke had the results to reinforce his reputation as a player for whom nothing was too much trouble.

As well as doing everything expected of an international back-row forward, with such a supreme combination of turbo-charged athleticism and innate footballing skills that he invariably did it better than everyone else, he would also drop a long-range goal, as he did during two celebrated matches towards the end of his career.

The bigger the occasion, the better he played, dropping a goal from 45 yards during the All Blacks' blitz of England at the World Cup semi-final in Cape Town in 1995 and dropping another in Pretoria the following year which he followed up with a try-saving tackle to clinch New Zealand's epic series win over the Springboks.

What that meant to him, 12 months after losing the World Cup Final to the same opponents in the same country, could be seen emblazoned across his T-shirt the next day. 'Unfinished Business Finished', it shrieked in large black letters. 'Score Settled'.

By the time he had taken his final leave of the Test arena after the British tour in late 1997, New Zealand's most admired player had acquired one of the rare trappings of sporting greatness, an abbreviation accepted the world over. Like Zatopek, Pele and Tiger, he had been reduced to one name - Zinny.

Harlequins, a suitable case for treatment if ever there was one, pushed the boat out far enough to persuade him to finish his playing days in England. If they had conveniently overlooked the fact that great players do not always make great coaches, then it could also be said that Zinny never imagined he would find himself up the creek without a paddle.

Quins having refused to pay New Zealand a transfer fee on top of their £200,000-a-year investment, Brooke had to wait six months until September 1998 before he could start in his dual capacity as player-coach. During that first full season, Quins finished amid the heights in fourth place.

With the reward of a place in the European Cup, the London club became increasingly confident that Zinny could fix it. He had, after all, begun his working life as an apprentice plumber.

But then it began to go wrong. Like many great players before him in various football codes, he found it hard to deal with professional players of considerably lesser ability. As one former player put it: 'The lack of basic skills was what he found hardest to comprehend.'

He appointed fellow All Blacks John Gallagher and Bernie McCahill in his management team, then dragged Will Carling out of retirement, a decision which, in hindsight, can at best be described as unfortunate. Carling had quit the previous season, storming out after a row with Brooke's coaching predecessor, Andy Keast.

When he returned it was, according to the former England captain, because he wished to leave in a more positive way. Instead he disappeared almost without trace, injury having restricted him to a handful of 80-minute appearances as the team returned to its bad old ways, finishing third from bottom.

Now they are second from bottom - after 12 defeats in 14 matches - cushioned only by Rotherham. Once he had finished as a player, Zinny could have called it quits and gone home to resume life as a prophet with honour in his own land. Instead he took a pay cut of more than £100,000 and stayed on as head coach.

He probably saw the writing on the wall some two years ago after Quins had lost four of their first five matches. 'This isn't rocket science we're talking about,' he told me at the time. 'It's a game of footie. There's no point the coaches doing all this work if the play-ers don't have the same desire.

'They have to realise this is their bread and butter. They are well looked after and well paid. There comes a time when you have to give something back.'

A team creaking not so long ago with too many players on the wrong side of 30 had been rejuvenated last summer under a new management regime. This would be the season when Zinny would make an impact or face the consequences.

Now, sadly, he has paid the inevitable price. Ironically, when Quins produced their one astounding result of the season, an improbable 11-6 Tetley's Bitter Cup win over European champions Northampton at The Stoop last month, Zinny had not been there to supervise it. Instead he was at home in New Zealand collecting another major award.

Back for the Saracens match, Zinny responded to a depressing home defeat with what sounded like a damning indictment of his team: 'We seemed to be throwing the towel in at the beginning.'

In the end, not even the man acclaimed by former New Zealand coach John Hart as the greatest All Black of them all could pull Quins out of the mire.

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