It was tough on the ego: Umaga
Tana Umaga admits he had to check his ego at the door to accept an unprecedented coaching demotion with the Blues.
Thankfully an eight-year, 74-test career as an All Black prepared him for the toughest decision of his career – to stand down as head coach of the failing Blues Super Rugby franchise and step back in as an assistant for the man who succeeded him.
The Blues announced yesterday that Umaga, head coach for the last three seasons, and due for one more crack in 2019, would now be an assistant for the upcoming campaign and that his one-time All Blacks team-mate Leon MacDonald would take over in the top job, after initially being appointed to the No 2 role.
It is a dramatic and decisive shakeup of the Blues coaching team – a decision the new New Zealand Rugby-mandated board believed was necessary to start the process of turning this underachieving franchise around.
For Umaga it was a difficult and intensely personal decision that he concedes his long All Blacks career helped him deal with.
‘‘I’m not going to say it was easy,’’ he told yesterday after a quick trip back from Dublin. ‘‘I’ve had a lot of time to think about it and I’m never one to point the finger at others.
‘‘If it’s not working, is there something I could have done, or something else I could have done better? There’s no doubt I can improve.
‘‘I love working with this club, and I know we’re not far away, and hopefully what Auckland have done [winning the Mitre 10 Cup Premiership] is a little snapshot of what we can do at this level.’’
The new Blues board are now convinced MacDonald, an astute All Blacks utility, so versed in the Crusaders way that has spawned so many fine coaches, is the right man to lead the revival. And that Umaga still has a role to play at his side, as defence specialist, and a senior adviser to the three-year Tasman Mako shot-caller.
Umaga told it took him a little while to get his head round this unprecedented move in Super Rugby – going from head coach straight to an assistant with the same franchise – but in the end his head and heart told him the same thing.
‘‘I haven’t admitted defeat,’’ he said. ‘‘I wanted to fight to be a part of it again because I have the utmost belief in this group of players and in the way this club is going forward.
‘‘It was tough on the ego. But this wasn’t about me. I’ve been fortunate to be part of teams where your ego has got to be checked at the door and to get success sometimes it’s not about you. You’ve just got to go back to past experiences.’’
The fact he had a strong relationship with MacDonald, as both a player and when they coached the New Zealand Under20s together, helped. Immensely.
So too did the fact ‘‘Leon is a very astute man and for him to keep me on board, I’m very fortunate. It’s important we’ve coached together. Players is different – that’s someone else picking you. But from a coaching point of view we see the game very similarly, yet we’re different enough to have different viewpoints.’’
Umaga indicated ‘‘a lot of people’’ had been part of a decision that was clearly a consensus. Quite simply, something had to change.
‘‘I don’t think I’d be here if it was just me. It was the new Blues board, New Zealand Rugby . . . I’m fortunate they saw the positive aspects around keeping me on board. Now I’ve got to repay the faith they’ve shown in me and, more so, get in behind Leon and repay the faith he’s shown in me.’’
At times over the last three years, as Umaga has struggled with a franchise that has struggled with consistency, performance and results, it has seemed as he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.
Won’t it be nice to have some of that burden removed?
‘‘I don’t enjoy that,’’ he says with a smile of reassurance. ‘‘I’m a person that loves taking that responsibility, and I don’t want to shirk it. Yet it can be difficult. That’s part of the experience I want to pass on to Leon.’’