Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Razor's proven himself on this northern tour

Are you convinced by Razor yet? 

Cause I feel you should be, because what Razor has managed to do on this northern tour has been pretty impressive.

If the All Blacks beat Italy this weekend - which apparently they will because it’s supposed to be a foregone conclusion - then we can say the All Blacks have come within one point of a clean sweep of the northern tour.

Which is remarkable, because we haven't done a clean sweep of the northern tour since 2017.

Now obviously, we haven’t done it this time either. But we’ve come within one point, which is impressive because this is Razor’s first year. He's taken over a team that, frankly, sucked a lot of the time.

I mean, don't forget why we wanted to get rid of Fozzie. The All Blacks were all over the show - they lost a series at home to the Irish, they got smashed 26-10 by the Springboks, and then there was the Twickenham disaster where the 'Boks smacked us 35-7.

So it's actually not bad to turn those performances into a very-nearly clean sweep of the northern tour in just one year.

Now look, let’s not pretend it’s perfect out there, because it isn't.

The discipline's a major problem, there was that weird call to try for two penalties in the last six minutes of a game - where they obviously should have gone for a try, that was the wrong call. And we're talking about wins, but they're not exactly massive margins.

But let's be fair - think of any other discipline out there. Think of a business where a CEO takes over, you don't expect perfection in the first year, you just expect improvement. And I think we've got it.

I think we can say that short of something horrible happening this weekend, Razor's proved himself.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right, are you convinced by Raiser yet, because I feel
like you should be, because I think what Raisers managed
to do on this Northern Tour is pretty impressive. If
the All Blacks beat Italy this weekend, which apparently the
Ginner apparently that's a foregone conclusions account, that is a win.
If they beat Italy this weekend, then we can say
that the All Blacks came within one point of a
clean sweep of the Northern Tour. Now why that is

(00:21):
special is because we haven't done a clean sweep of
the Northern Tour since twenty seventeen. Now, obviously we haven't
done at this time. I'm come within one point, but
a one point is not bad because you have to
think about where we're at with the squad. Right, this
is RAS's first year. He took over a team that
frankly sucked a lot of the time, didn't they. I mean,

(00:42):
don't forget why we wanted to get rid of Fozzy
because these guys sucked. The All Blacks were all over
the show. They lost a series at home to the Irish,
they got smashed by the spring Box twenty six ten.
And that's not even to mention the worst one, which
was the Twickenham disaster where the box got smacked smacked
US thirty five seven when that's huge. That hurts, didn't it.
So it's actually not bad to turn those performances into

(01:05):
a nearly clean sweep of the Northern Tour in just
one year now. I mean, looks, let's not pretend that
it's perfect out there, because even the match that we
watched this weekend was at times, frankly a little irritating,
wasn't it, if not horrifying. I mean, the discipline's a
major problem. Giving away three pointers all the time is
not ideal. There's that weird call to try for two

(01:25):
penalties in the last what was it, six minutes of
the game or something like that, when they were obviously
they should have gone for a try and then they
would have won. I mean, there was obviously the wrong
call to make. And we're not even talking, by the way.
I'm talking about wins. But they're not massive convincing margins,
are they. But let's be fair. I mean, think of
any other discipline out there right, Think of a business,

(01:46):
for example, where a CEO takes over. You don't expect
perfection in the first year. You don't expect a CEO
taking over a business to suddenly turn an absolute stinker
into a blind do you. You just want to see
that it's headed in the right direction. You're getting some improvement,
and I think we've got it. I think we can say,
short of something horrible happening this weekend, raise has proven himself.

(02:09):
Nine two nine two is the text number on that one. Now,
there are calls for us to start upping the fines
for speeding, so researchers found that drivers who get speeding
tickets are three times more likely to be in a
crash than drivers who don't get any speeding tickets. Speed
is a factor in about a third of the fatal
crashes that happened last year. Now, the guy behind this
research is doctor Darren Walton from the University of Canterbury. Darren, Hello, Darren,

(02:34):
did this surprise you?

Speaker 2 (02:36):
The result surprises us in that it is always the
case that people who accumulate more and more tickets have
an increasing odds of having a crash. And the purpose
of tic getting people is to change their behavior. So
you would normally expect that, you know, the fines that
people accumulate would reduce the chance that they'd have crash.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, because obviously you speed. Like, this's how work for me? Anyway,
I sped, I got busted. It was such a big fine.
I pretty much tried never to do it again. That's
how it should work. So why is it not working
like that for people?

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Well, some of these people who have accumulated a large
number of tickets, so four or five tickets over a
couple of years. It's quite a rare thing to do.
It's quite hard to do because these are all officer
issue tickets. So that's a rare event. You do that
a few times, it shows that you are out there
with a proclivity to speed, and that speeding is what

(03:31):
is altering your cressuous.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
Oh okay, so it's not so much that, because I
wondered if what it was was you get a speeding
ticket and actually a lot of people isn't that expensive,
So they go bugger and I'll just keep on speeding.
So almost you know, encourages them because because the punishment
isn't sufficient, they keep on doing it. But that's not
actually what's going on here.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Is it? It's not It could well be part of
it because we have not changed our fine regime since
nineteen ninety nine when that was introduced, so overtween five
years that thirty dollars ticket for the minimum fee that
you would get for a speeding ticket is almost the
same as a parking ticket. You can get a parking

(04:09):
ticket that's more than that these days, and so whether
that is a suitable punishment for the type of behavior
is moote. But it is certainly out of council with
the rest of the world. Be lots of other places
have larger fines than we have in newself.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
Well, the alternative explanation is that the reason that you
end up with so many tickets is because you're a
bit of a home and you like to give the
finger to authority, and so you are a problem already, right.
It's more a reflection of your attitude. Potentially.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
The point that I would take from that is that
when you are accumulating tickets, what we tend to do
is we treat those as independent events. But we actually
once you've got three or four tickets and you're being
pulled over by a police officer, it is an opportunity.
Is the police officer knows that in order to offer
an intervention, at least offer that crash risks to that individual,

(05:02):
I would increase the fines.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
But okay, how much, Sarren? Where are we pushing these fines?
To stop these terms?

Speaker 2 (05:09):
The opportunity is to apply a multiplier, So you could,
if you don't treat them as independent events, increase science
portion to how many tickets persons they've had over the
two year period. You could alter the demerit points, because
that is one mechanism that we have for at least
changing the risk profile. People know that as they get
closer and closer to the edge of losing their license

(05:30):
that they might change their behavior that way. But it
is certainly possible to have four or five tickets for
over a two year period and retain one's license, and
that is an extraordinary risk to carry in terms of
the crastionalities that we've done.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
What's the maximum vine you can get at the.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
Moment six one hundred and thirty dollars for a forty
six to fifty kilometer per hour. After that, it's a
criminal offense, but that is small relative to other places
in the world.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
So okay, Darren, but tell me what do you think
if six hundred and thirty bucks isn't putting you off,
and Jesus it put me off. But if it's not
putting you off four or five times of that, what
do we increase it to to put you off?

Speaker 2 (06:13):
Some people would suggest it should be income or wealth related,
that the fine is associated and the proper a proper
deterrent to accumulating such a ticket. But I've got to
say a forty to fifty kilometer hour over the speed
limit ticket is an extraordinary event, and that's why it's
said at that maximum rate, a ticket of one hundred

(06:33):
and twenty dollars for doing fifteen to twenty k's an
hour is not getting followed four or five of those.
That's what people are accumulating. But that risk is really
unacceptably high.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
Darren's really good to talk to you, mate. Thank you
for running U through. That's doctor Darren Walton of the
University of Canterbury.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
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