Sport A coming change at the Hurricanes’ helm prompts talk of who might take rugby coaching’s top job.
A coming change at the Hurricanes’ helm prompts talk of who might take rugby coaching’s top job.
Hurricanes coach Chris Boyd provided the biggest talking points in the build-up to the new Super Rugby season, which, for the five New Zealand teams, gets under way this weekend. (For those who can still be bothered trying to keep up with tournament organiser Sanzaar’s incessant tinkering with the format, it’s back to being a 15-team competition, following the axing of Australia’s Western Force and South Africa’s Cheetahs and Southern Kings.)
First, Boyd announced that after this, his fourth campaign with the Wellington-based franchise, he’s off to England to coach the Northampton Saints. And although he dutifully insisted that he’d always aspired to coach in the English premiership and was “excited and humbled” to have landed the Northampton gig, it was all somewhat undercut by the downbeat presentation and admission that “in a perfect world I would’ve stayed at the Hurricanes for 10 years”.
So what would be different in a perfect world? We don’t know, because no one’s saying. A possible explanation is that Boyd regrets having shaken hands on a rugby version of former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke’s 1988 undertaking to step aside for deputy Paul Keating after the 1990 election (when the time came, Hawke reneged on the deal).
According to this interpretation, Boyd is honouring an agreement to step aside for his long-time coaching sidekick John Plumtree, but reluctantly, and perhaps at the prompting of the Hurricanes organisation. Plumtree, younger by seven years, gave up an assistant-coach role with Ireland to become Boyd’s No 2, and last year turned down the role of head coach for the Highlanders.
Boyd added the gratuitous revelation that he hadn’t spoken to All Blacks coach
Steve Hansen for three years. Hansen says otherwise, but won’t go into detail. Although there’s something undeniably risible about blokey rugby types giving each other the silent treatment, the fact that Boyd clearly just wanted to take a public swipe at Hansen suggests New Zealand rugby hasn’t entirely eliminated the coaching rivalries and associated rancour that have long been part of the game.
New Zealand Rugby (NZR) general manager Neil Sorensen’s comments about succession planning for the
All Blacks coaching role received less attention, but were far more significant. There’s an expectation that Hansen will step down after next year’s World Cup and be succeeded by his loyal assistant, Ian Foster, in the same way as Hansen was elevated after eight years of assisting Graham Henry. Promoting from within now tends to be seen as providing desirable continuity, as opposed to
jobs for the boys; a decade of domination will have that effect.
But in a radio interview,
Sorensen indicated the NZR board has reversed its position on the eligibility of overseas-based Kiwi coaches, to the point that Foster’s lack of offshore experience may count against him. For years, NZR required New Zealanders coaching abroad to spend a couple of years re-familiarising themselves with the local environment before they could apply for the All Blacks job. Now, says Sorensen, “all Kiwi coaches offshore will be available”.
It sets the scene for an intense competition involving our top coaching talent.
It’s a slightly curious shift, since the rest of the rugby world clearly believes the Kiwi system provides the best grounding a coach can get. On the other hand, it does set the scene for an intensely competitive process involving a who’s who of our coaching talent.
Keep an eye out for a ticket of
Joe Schmidt and Vern Cotter, who have previously teamed up at
Bay of Plenty and at French club Clermont. Schmidt coaches Ireland, who are ranked third in the world and regarded as serious World Cup contenders. Having transformed Scotland, Cotter is back in France – at Montpellier – and reputedly the highest-paid coach in the game.