Darren Shand reflects on leadership and collective responsibility within the All Blacks, emphasizing that shared decision-making and a team-aligned vision are more valuable than singular authority. He recalls being inexperienced stepping up from club to international level, feeling like an imposter, and notes the operational demands of a nomadic national team that "lives on the road."
I very quickly learned that the power of many was far more valuable than one, you know? Yes. Graeme had to make decisions about performance. That's his role. But we shared it, you know, and there was a sort of shared responsibility shared with the team in mind, shared with the legacy in mind, shared with performance in mind. And it just carried on. That's always been the way I've known it there. It's always been about a group of people working together, bringing the players with us, lining them up with our vision, getting them to buy into that vision, and then in the end, they deliver it. So it's kind of been the path here. It was. I felt a little bit of an imposter stuff. You know, I was very green. And to go really from a sort of club level to an international level was quite a big step. The All Blacks don't have a home, so we live on the road, so that comes with a huge operational requirement.
