Three coaches under pressure to deliver

1 Nick White [Auckland]

Mitre 10 Cup coaches are shown to receive a little more rope than those at franchise level but in the case of Auckland’s White, how much does he get? Conceding 30 points a game last season isn’t something to crow about or even mention at review time, and there was nothing outrageous in the Auckland attack to mitigate the charitable defence.

White still has a lot of quality players on the roster but the systems are broke and no team boasting that much star power should be missing the semifinals.

With new and dynamic leadership at the top of the ARU, another failed season in the biggest city won’t be shoulder shrugged at.

2 Glenn Delaney [Canterbury]

Delaney played for the Linwood club before heading overseas and forging an impressive coaching CV including London Irish. Coming back to continue the Canterbury dominance is a daunting prospect, but the pressure to perform isn’t necessarily to keep his job for 2018 but to sway the people who turn up at AMI Stadium.

Winning eight of the last nine seasons has bred understandable expectation and a failed season will be seen as a dud. Delaney, who must be eyeing up Super Rugby in the future, doesn’t want to be ‘that’ guy who derailed the dynasty.

3 Chris Gibbes [Wellington]

There’s no mincing words with the straight shooting former Waikato coach and there’s the distinct impression there’s no confusion about the end target from his paymasters.

The capital city has looked up at the Premiership for the last two editions and that’s long enough. In employing Gibbes, the Wellington Union have opted for someone with a vast depth and variety of experience from club coaching in Europe to working with Japan at the 2007 World Cup. With enough talent at his fingertips, Gibbes has only one acceptable direction to go.