‘It’s hard to say goodbye’
Departing All Blacks coach Steve Hansen still feels the time is right to step down after returning to New Zealand yesterday.
All the players and coaching staff returned to the country to a small welcome from All Black fans at Auckland Airport.
Fans were outnumbered by the media who came to hear some of the last words Hansen will say after 16 years in the job.
Despite the semifinal exit at in Japan at the Rugby World Cup, Hansen insisted he was proud what the team achieved at the tournament.
‘‘I’m really proud of them,’’ Hansen said. ‘‘Obviously disappointed at the same time, we just dropped one game at the wrong time in the competition and paid the price for it.
‘‘But either side of those games we played really good rugby.’’
Hansen admitted it has been emotional for this group to say their farewells, knowing that for some, including himself, he wouldn’t be back.
‘‘It’s like any place you work at for a long time, it’s hard to say goodbye,’’ he said. ‘‘But it’s the right time and the right thing to be doing.’’ There hasn’t been any nationwide outrage at the All
Blacks not winning the World Cup, and compassion shown towards the players who displayed their emotions after the semifinal defeat to England.
Hansen believes it’s good that the public got to see how hurt the players were. ‘‘You’ve only got to look at the stats for New Zealand
suicides and mental health and it’s not great,’’ he said. ‘‘So allowing yourself to be vulnerable and show emotion is really important.
‘‘We get called role models and I’m not so sure if we are or not. But if people want to call us role models, it’s great these guys are
role modelling the fact you can be emotional and vulnerable.’’
The next All Blacks coach will be announced by the end of the year and Hansen all but said he wanted his assistant for the past eight years, Ian Foster to get the job, believing the former Chiefs coach has grown during his time with the team. ‘‘He’s like all of us, we continue to develop and he’s a very intelligent rugby man.’’
Hansen added that keeping continuity inside the All Blacks coaching team was a philosophy that had worked in the past. ‘‘It’s not for me to say who should take over but continuity has won us two World Cups,’’ he said.
‘‘You’ve only got to look at the stats for New Zealand suicides and mental health and it’s not great. So allowing yourself to be vulnerable and show emotion is really important.’’
Steve Hansen
Were there ever to be such a thing as a Rugby World Cup of coaching, then New Zealand would win by a record margin. The sheer depth of rugby knowledge on these shaky isles is unparalleled. So appointing the next All Blacks coach should be a no-brainer. Scott Robertson, Jamie Joseph, Dave Rennie, Warren Gatland, take your pick, they would all do a good job.
But one man undoubtedly worries the nation. That may be fair, that may be unfair, but it is a fact, nonetheless. Most New Zealanders steeped in rugby are not comfortable with the idea of Ian Foster taking over the top job. They believe he got the position as All Blacks attack coach because he is Hansen’s mate and they do not see anything in Foster’s record that justifies his elevation to prime minister.
But while the All Blacks were munching all before them in 2013 Hansen was able to plant the seeds of an idea, swiftly watered and nurtured by Steve Tew, that continuity was all. It was a simple story. Hansen had learned from his time under Graham Henry. Foster was being similarly enlightened. Hey, we’re building a dynasty here.
But the dynasty of continuity has always been a sporting myth. It gained real credence when Bob Paisley took over from Bill Shankly as manager of Liverpool Football club. Paisley had been everything to Liverpool. He had been club captain, physiotherapist, reserve team coach and then assistant to Shankly.
Reluctant at first to accept the top job, Paisley won six league titles and three European Cups and would go on to become one of the most successful managers of all time. The boot-room tradition was furthered by Joe Fagan and Kenny Dalglish as Liverpool continued to dominate English football.
The club thought it had found the secret of turning base metal into gold. It all seemed so simple.
Only it wasn’t. Liverpool appointed Graham Souness as their manager and Souness was followed into the job by Roy Evans. The centre could no longer hold. Liverpool were in unmistakeable decline. The continuity theory was fine if you had a great coach taking over from a great coach. But anything less and it fractured.
That is the decision which now faces New Zealand rugby. Does Ian Foster taking over from Steve Hansen meet the definition of a great coach taking over from a great coach? I think the answer is indisputably no, however good a man Foster may be. Many would describe Hansen as a great coach but few would define Foster in the same way.
I do not believe that even Hansen fits the description. His record with and without Wayne Smith is noticeably different. He has also struggled to win both with Wales and then with New Zealand at this World Cup when his players have not been markedly better than the opposition’s. Nor has Hansen always inspired loyalty, both within his team and within New Zealand Rugby.
When Sonny Bill was asked about Hansen the coach, he pointedly replied, ‘‘For myself, there’s a lot of coaches that’ll be leaving this year. One thing that I’d probably put to the NZRU, [is that] it would be good to see a Pacific Islander or a Ma¯ ori in the coaching system that would have a bit of influence.’’
Was that a small dig at Hansen? I suspect it was. Williams obviously felt he was not getting the best out of ‘‘the island and Maori boys’’. But note Williams was not asking for a non-white coach in the top job, he was just pleading for some diversity in the system. And he has a good point. Hansen had too many palefaces in leadership roles. It was bound to be noticed by the Maori and Pacific Island players.
How extraordinary it is that Rassie Erasmus, with all the problems that South Africa have, was able to bring a team that diverse together. The same, on a much smaller scale of course, could be said for Jamie Joseph with Japan. The same could be said of what Dave Rennie achieved at the Chiefs. Hansen cannot make the same claim.
Joseph is Maori, Rennie is of Cook Islands heritage. One or preferably both of them has to be involved in the new All Blacks set-up. And you sense a shift, particularly with the news that Rennie was asked to apply.
I was told a few months ago that Robertson would either be the next All Blacks coach or the one after that. I think his time is now because he has worked with so many of the players, but much will depend on who he is able to persuade to work with him. He
‘‘This is too big a job just to give to the bloke who interviews well.’’
built a great team of coaches at the Crusaders. Can he do the same at the All Blacks?
A dream team might look like Robertson head coach, Tony Brown attack coach, John Mitchell defence coach, Jamie Joseph forwards coach with Rennie and Smith co-opted as advisers and selectors. But you
could perm many variations on that mix.
OK, so it’s not going to happen, but if you take that as the starting point, you might just get to somewhere good. When Henry was re-appointed in 2007 it was because Robbie Deans, the favourite, had not laid out a team of coaches that he would be working with. The hierarchy at New Zealand Rugby was surprised and wondered how much he really wanted the job.
But this is too big a job just to give to the bloke who interviews
well. New Zealand Rugby needs a wish list, they need to know who they want, what they want and why they want it. That has to include diversity. If Erasmus, the coach and the year, and Joseph, the only other serious contender, have taught us anything, it is surely the art of brotherhood.
Michael Leitch leading the phalanx of conjoined Japanese players and Siya Kolisi lifting the Webb Ellis trophy are the defining images of this World Cup.