Poisoned chalice?

New Zealand Rugby is taking unjustifed heat over the ABs top job.

According to the Arab proverb, “Four things come not back: the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life and the neglected opportunity.”

New Zealand Rugby chairman Brent Impey will be ruefully aware that words uttered can’t be unspoken. His media announcement early last month that 26 New Zealanders had been invited to apply for the vacant All Blacks head coach position caused perplexity at the time and seems risible now that the field is apparently down to two ( Sport, November 30), without rugby bosses having to do much of the winnowing.

Warren Gatland has opted for the Chiefs and British and Irish Lions rather than put his hat into the ring. Jamie Joseph is staying with Japan and John Mitchell with England, while Dave Rennie has been unveiled as the new Wallabies coach. Little wonder the process has been labelled “an embarrassment” and the position itself “the job nobody wants”.

At the risk of appearing a party pooper by declining to join in the media ritual of heaping scorn on New Zealand Rugby at every opportunity, I’d suggest it’s more a case of it being the job that only one person can have. What we’re seeing, I suspect, is invitees deciding a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush and opting for well-rewarded sure things rather than putting themselves into a competitive process against highly qualified joint favourites in the form of All Blacks assistant coach Ian Foster and Crusaders coach Scott Robertson.

Some argue the vacancy should have been filled months ago, as other countries’ were. Those countries shoulder-tapped because a contested process would’ve been disruptive and impractical in the build-up to the Rugby World Cup. If New Zealand had followed suit, we would have had little choice but to appoint Foster, since to do otherwise would have been to lob a giant spanner in the works of the All Blacks’ cup campaign.

It’s a shame Gatland, Joseph and Rennie have opted out since that eliminates the middle option between continuity and radical change: change without inexperience. But it’s not New Zealand Rugby’s fault. It’s just

the way of the world.