Head hunters

Do the ABs need fresh blood or an old hand to replace Steve Hansen?

As predicted ( Sport, November 9), we’re now engaged in a debate over who should succeed Steve Hansen as All Blacks head coach. It’s open to all comers: former Springbok and South African assistant coach Brendan Venter’s two cents’ worth is that Scott Robertson should get the gig.

Interestingly, Venter’s argument – that, as Crusaders coach, Robertson is familiar, and obviously in tune, with half the present All Blacks team – undercuts another argument made on Robertson’s behalf: his three Super Rugby titles. Former All Blacks coach Laurie Mains wonders “has [Robertson] had to work in adversity and bring a team that’s not quite so good up?”

With the head-coach role now as much about leading a group of specialist trainers as being hands-on, the quality of the various candidates’ assistants will count for a lot. Jamie Joseph got off to a flier here by securing an exclusive arrangement with the highly rated Tony Brown. In fact, Joseph was ticking plenty of boxes until he went and spoilt it all by resigning with Japan through to 2023. Former Chiefs coach Dave Rennie, another fancied candidate, has also taken himself out of the reckoning by becoming the new Wallabies coach.

So, now it would seem to be a two-horse race between Robertson and All Blacks assistant coach Ian Foster: radical change versus cautious continuity. Foster’s vulnerability is a relatively modest record as a head coach, although the same criticism was directed at Hansen in 2011. On the plus side, there are rumours that he’s assembled an all-star cast.

Pertinent or trivia? You be the judge. Of the eight coaches whose teams made the World Cup quarter-finals, the least experienced was the man in charge of the eventual winners, South Africa’s Rassie Erasmus.

He assumed the role only in March 2018.