Savea to cash in on lucrative Japan stint Phoenix boss hits out at NZ Football over coach saga
All Blacks star Ardie Savea provided an honest answer when asked why he had decided to take up a sabbatical in Japan in 2024 – ‘‘the money’s good’’.
The recently reappointed Hurricanes captain will head to Japan after the Rugby World Cup and spend a season with League One club Kobelco Kobe Steelers.
Savea will link up with former All Blacks and Hurricanes team-mate Ngani Laumape at Kobe and said he was excited about a change of scenery after 11 years in Super Rugby.
But the biggest factor behind his decision to play overseas was the chance to set up his young family financially.
The 67-test loose forward will leave New Zealand at the end of the year.
He will miss the 2024 Super Rugby Pacific campaign but be back by June, making him available for All Blacks selection.
Savea has committed to the Hurricanes for 2025.
‘‘Plain and simple. To set up my family. The money’s good, I’m not gonna lie,’’ he said, after reporting back for Hurricanes pre-season.
‘‘It’s an opportunity to set up my family and also to try something new. It’s a bit of a challenge and hopefully it puts me on my toes.
‘‘Not that I’m not on my toes here but there’s just something about going into a new environment and feeling young and being a rookie again.
‘‘Hopefully that sparks something in me to keep going for a few more years.’’
Ardie Savea
Savea said his wife Saskia and their three young children have planned a couple of visits, but will otherwise remain living Wellington during his stint in Japan.
‘‘We’ve got our two dogs so we can’t leave them behind,’’ he said.
‘‘Ngani is there so I told him if he needs a babysitter so him and his wife can go have date nights and I can look after the kids.’’
Savea will once again lead the Hurricanes, with coach Jason Holland retaining him as captain for 2023.
‘‘It’s something you never take for granted,’’ Savea said.
‘‘It’s such an honourable position and there’s been some great leaders in the past that have captained the Canes.’’
The Hurricanes have made a few notable signings, recruiting one-test All Blacks first-five Brett Cameron, Waisake Naholo’s younger brother Kini and promising Wellington duo Peter Lakai and Riley Higgins.
Giving the Hurricanes an extra edge, they have moved into the stateof-the-art training facility at the New Zealand Campus of Innovation and Sport in Upper Hutt.
‘‘It’s flash. It’s really good,’’ Savea said.
‘‘I live close to the airport so it’s a bit of a drive so that’s different, but it’s amazing, there are no excuses for us as players. We have a recovery centre, we’ve got a gym, got the fields, it’s a dream for an athlete.’’
Knowing he will not be here for the 2024 season, Savea said he was determined to ‘‘give it all this year’’ and help lead the Hurricanes to their first title since 2016 before switching focus to the World Cup.
Wellington Phoenix general manager David Dome says he is ‘‘extremely disappointed’’ by New Zealand Football’s failure to fully explore how the club’s men’s coach could also serve as the All Whites coach.
Ufuk Talay applied for the national team role with his bosses’ blessing, seeking to combine it with his A-League role, just as Ricki Herbert did between 2007 and 2013.
After six weeks of silence following his interview in mid-December, Talay found out on Tuesday that he had been unsuccessful, when he received what Dome described as a ‘‘template email rejection letter from the recruitment company’’.
Canadian men’s coach John Herdman is understood to have been NZ Football’s preferred candidate, though he has since committed himself publicly to his existing job, with Canada preparing to co-host the next World Cup in 2026.
Both Dome and Talay have acknowledged that Herdman, a former Football Ferns coach, was a superior candidate, having taken Canada to world football’s showpiece event for the first time in 36 years in Qatar last November.
But there is lingering frustration among those in charge at the Phoenix that NZ Football chief executive Andrew Pragnell didn’t engage in discussions as to what a job share could look like, especially as there’s now a chance the All
Whites coach search might begin anew.
After being rejected, Talay has said the ‘‘ship has sailed’’ in terms of him being interested in the All Whites job.
But in a country where football resources are scarce at the best of times,
Dome feels a combined role could remain an option in the future, which is why he finds it frustrating there was no effort to seriously explore what it would entail , even if it was ultimately going to lead to nothing in the short term.
Dome said he did eventually speak to Pragnell this week and was told the All Whites coach would have to be based in Auckland, which would effectively mean the Phoenix would have to be based to Auckland if one person was to hold both jobs. ‘‘What that says to me is that there was really never a realistic option that Ufuk Talay was being considered for that role.’’
NZ Football’s involvement in funding and providing staff for the Phoenix’s women’s team in its first two seasons has brought the governing body and the country’s only professional club closer together than they have been for most of the decade since Herbert’s dual role ended.
But Dome’s frustrations with Pragnell’s lack of engagement extend beyond the All Whites coach search.
‘‘We’ve been trying to work with New Zealand Football on a greater integration of the programmes for quite some time,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s working reasonably well in the women’s space – but it could be expanded.
‘‘Our ability to integrate with New Zealand Football and to work on a high performance arm based out of our facilities here in Upper Hutt [the New Zealand Campus of Innovation and Sport], which we think is a game changer for football in this country, is being very, very limited by New Zealand Football’s unwillingness to interact with us and even talk about it.
‘‘The CEO still has not been here. We’ve been here now almost six months and the CEO is yet to visit,’’ Dome said.
‘‘Fifa have come through it and raved about it and the CEO of New Zealand Football has yet to visit.’’
David Dome Wellington Phoenix general manager
‘‘Plain and simple. To set up my family. The money’s good, I’m not gonna lie.’’
‘‘There was really never a realistic option that Ufuk Talay was being considered for that role.’’