Obsession with NZ rugby not good for Wales

Picking Kiwis to coach and play is getting unhealthy but they haven’t had a dud yet

It’s perhaps a moot point to wonder whether Wales’ obsession with all things Kiwi is more harmful to them than it is to New Zealand. Long-term it will prove harmful to both, not that the Welsh are in any hurry to consider what impact it must be having on their emerging coaches and players to see so many New Zealanders head-hunted for the best posts in Welsh rugby.

The Welsh are fixed on the idea that their biggest jobs need to be filled by New Zealanders. Be it club or country, they want Kiwis at the helm wherever possible. Just as some car fanatics will only buy German vehicles, the Welsh are equally convinced that the quality of personnel coming out of New Zealand is the best on the planet.

Already, Tana Umaga has been linked with the Scarletts, who know they will need a new coach next year as the incumbent, Kiwi Wayne Pivac, is going to take over at the Welsh national team.

For long suffering Blues fans, it may be somewhat puzzling the Scarletts would consider Umaga, but this is a nation that obviously feels they haven’t yet landed a Kiwi dud and New Zealand has a welcome habit of tossing away good people who are more than fit for purpose.

Pivac is a good case in point. He was never able to land a Super Rugby job in New Zealand — instead bounced around provincial roles until the Scarletts hired him as an assistant in 2014.

He has been a revelation — earning promotion to the head coaching role and turning the Scarletts, who operate on a relatively tiny budget in comparison with the Irish clubs, into ProD14 champions in 2017 and back to the final this year.

Wales also picked up the badly treated Gareth Anscombe in 2015, rebuilt his confidence and turned him into a handy international footballer at either first-five or fullback.

This is also the same nation that was able to transform Blues journeyman midfielder Hadleigh Parkes into a regular test pick and that explains why there is excitement in Wales at the prospect of Blues utility back Michael Collins heading there in 2020.

And give Hurricanes loose forward Blade Thomson, who will soon join the Scarletts, three years to serve his residency and watch him storm into the Welsh team.

At some stage there will surely be a few questions asked by local players and coaches who might wonder why they are continually overlooked for imports, some of whom seem to have far from promising back stories.

They look like they are storing up trouble for down the track, but for now, there is no sense of mutiny being imminent as buying Kiwi has been good business for Wales.

Warren Gatland, who took the helm of the Welsh team after their disastrous 2007 World Cup, has been a consistently strong and successful leader.

He has taken Wales to a World Cup semifinal and won two Grand Slams, but of more significance is the widespread improvement he has brought in basic skills, conditioning, game understanding and confidence.

The Welsh like the hard-nosed attitude of New Zealanders — that perceived, or perhaps genuine, ability to recalibrate players into being exclusively task-focused and wedded to the notion of continual improvement.

What should be particularly troubling New Zealand Rugby is that the Welsh obsession is also being further fuelled by the impact New Zealand coaches and players have had in other European nations. This is strengthening the desire for more New Zealanders across the continent.

Joe Schmidt has transformed Ireland into one of the best and most consistent teams in the world. Vern Cotter tightened, rejuvenated and remodelled Scotland into a more attacking team and Milton Haig has his role in sending Georgia flying up the world rankings to the point where their case to be in the Six Nations is more compelling than Italy’s.

This Welsh obsession with New Zealand is reaching the stage of being considered unhealthy but as long as the policy keeps delivering results, it is not going to change.