Adversity essential for coach – Mains
Laurie Mains has mentioned Jamie Joseph, Scott Robertson and Dave Rennie as possible All Blacks coaching contenders but says the next coach needs to ‘‘have experienced adversity’’.
Mains, who coached the All Blacks team to an extra-time defeat in the 1995 Rugby World Cup final, told Radio New Zealand there were a number of options to replace Steve Hansen, who will step down after Friday’s Rugby World Cup bronze medal game against Wales.
Adversity meant ‘‘getting the very best out of a team and clearly demonstrating the ability to build a team or rebuild a team’’.
But Mains said it was also important the new coach could ‘‘show that durability under pressure and make correct decisions under pressure, I think is really important. And, obviously they have to have had some success’’.
Mains said Joseph and Rennie had demonstrated they could rebuild teams and while he stressed he was not saying Robertson could not coach the All Blacks, he noted the champion Crusaders coach had only worked with ‘‘a winning team’’.
Robertson, who became the first man to coach three consecutive Super Rugby champion teams, has ‘‘got a really good record,’’ Mains told Radio New Zealand. ‘‘He’s a winning coach, but he’s always had a winning team, in other words a team that’s at least been as strong in playing personnel as the teams they’ve played against.
‘‘We probably
haven’t
seen him under adversity so much.’’
Mains said Robertson was ‘‘still pretty young, as a coach. I’m not saying he’s not ready to take on the All Blacks . . . but he has got more time in front of him.
‘‘Some of the others – Dave Rennie, Jamie Joseph – they are probably at the peak of their powers now.’’
Rennie is coaching the Glasgow Warriors in Europe’s PRO 14 competition and is reportedly Rugby Australia’s first choice to replace Michael Cheika as Wallabies coach.
Mains has a lot of respect for Rennie for his Super Rugby transformation feats with the Chiefs, who he guided to the 2012 and
2013 Super Rugby titles. ‘‘Dave Rennie is a clever individual, he’s got a very good rugby brain.’’
Joseph – who coached Japan to a World Cup quarterfinal place for the first time – was in Mains’
1995 World Cup squad as a hardnosed blindside flanker.
Mains said Joseph had experience rebuilding teams.
‘‘First of all he did it with Wellington and then he came to the Highlanders with a team that wasn’t performing and built them into not just a successful Super [Rugby] winning team but a team that played very exciting rugby.
‘‘He seems to have the ability to produce great forward packs but with an adventurous style of play that’s a part of the All Black mantra now.’’
How do you solve a problem like Maro? That’s the challenge facing the next All Blacks coach no matter who that might be.
England lock Maro Itoje gave a performance so commanding on Saturday that if he had been required to nail a penalty a goal with seconds to go you suspect he would have done so.
He was like John Eales, Victor Matfield and Martin Johnson rolled into one – the sort of player who emerges every now and again to get inside of the All Blacks’ heads and cause them all sorts of pain.
Itoje is 25. He’s not even at his peak. But there he was, winning every collision, ripping the ball off Codie Taylor, winning turnovers and playing the leading man in a balletic English lineout performance that outfoxed the All Blacks.
Did Sam Whitelock and Brodie
Retallick miss the input of Luke Romano, the lineout student who can influence a game even if he isn’t playing?
So, where do the All Blacks go for answers? It is not clear because lock is an area where they don’t enjoy England or South Africa’s depth.
When the All Blacks next play England, in November 2020, Retallick will be on a break as part of his four-year-deal.
Therefore, it will be Whitelock and either Scott Barrett or Patrick Tuipulotu to take England on at