Honesty card

In 1998 Wayne Smith and the Crusaders themed their campaign on Henry the Fifth.

Smithy launched the theme with a video. It featured parts of the Battle of Agincourt speech from the Kenneth Branagh film, and sacrificial acts from Crusaders from the previous year.

“We entered the season using that video to establish what our vision and what our values were gonna be for that year; identifying with what we'd seen in the video and how we're gonna run as a team.”

And then Smithy did something really important: He turned it over to the players to decide how they were going to translate their theme and values into behaviour.

“They came back to us with an idea of having an Honesty Card.”

Angus Gardiner was the Keeper of the Card.

“You had to earn the card. You didn't just get given the card. A group of leaders determined who had earned the card this week, and there'd be a presentation ceremony often in the changing rooms before training, after training, or even after games; who had earned the card? Not for rugby things necessarily, but for behaviours off the field; for sacrificial acts, for gratitude.”

“And you could get the card taken off you again if you didn't live the behaviours. So it became a guiding light for us, really, for how we were living what we said we're gonna live.”

“Eventually, I had players putting cards under my door if they considered their own behaviours weren't good enough. Hence the name Honesty Card. And so I'd give those back to Angus. He'd keep an eye on those guys. Then they'd have to re-earn the card.”

It worked.

“There are players from '98 who still have this card in their wallet today. And it really shaped who we were and how we were going to be.”