Hansen stays if All Blacks need him
OPINION: Does he stay or does he go? Whatever Steve Hansen decides today regarding his All Blacks future post-2019, you know he will do so with the team’s best interests at heart.
Yes, Hansen’s decision will weigh up his family’s best interests, and, if in the positive, it still only supposes that New Zealand Rugby will want him to stay on post-Japan. Some water needs to flow under that bridge just yet.
If the team is best served by him walking away after Japan, he’ll do that. If he senses he can help the transition to the next head coach, he’ll hang about and smooth that pathway.
Hansen has many quirks and one or two weaknesses to balance his multitude of strengths as a rugby coach and leader of men; but above all he is a proud head of the All Blacks organisation and understands both the privilege and responsibility he has with his current role.
It’s the primary reason he has such an incredible record with the All Blacks (even with this year’s stumbles, they have won 85 of their 96 tests since he took charge, and lost just eight) and has been a principal figure in back-to-back World Cup triumphs.
Hansen sets standards that only the very best players and people can aspire to, and as a result his teams are invariably better equipped to prevail in the white-hot environment of the test arena. He fights for what he believes in (ask the Super Rugby coaches) and he demands high levels of output from his players (ask Akira Ioane).
So, with all that in mind, which way does he go? That’s the question everyone wants answered ahead of today’s muchanticipated announcement.
Hansen is playing his cards close to his chest on this one – and rightfully so – but if you were a betting person, you could do worse than plop a lazy fiver on him declaring his interest in staying involved beyond next year’s World Cup.
For the reasons mentioned above, it might well be that Hansen will serve the All Blacks best by extending his involvement with them beyond the unprecedented 16 years he will have been part of the coaching team – eight as an assistant and soon to be eight as the shot-caller.
There is a strong possibility New Zealand Rugby already has a succession plan in place for the All Blacks head coach position. And that it involves the outstanding Joe Schmidt.
But, as we now know, Schmidt, the standout coach of Ireland, is not available to step right into another coaching job after next year’s World Cup.
But, presuming that Schmidt still has interest in the All Blacks role – he is a Kiwi and a rugby coach, so why wouldn’t he? – then maybe the succession plan just gets put on the back-burner for a year, or two.
That creates an awkward interim. There is no sense appointing someone with real head coaching mettle if you’re just going to yank the job from under them after a term or two.
In that case it would make sense for Hansen to stay on, and guide the next generation of All Blacks for the first season or two of the next cycle. Schmidt, if he’s the successor, could then be eased into the role under the watchful tutelage of the man with arguably the most All Blacks coaching intellectual property of all time.