Why Hansen could stay on in ‘the best job in the world’
If coach Steve Hansen decides in the next few months he wants to continue after the 2019 World Cup in Japan in what he calls ‘‘the best job in the world’’, another All Blacks mould could be shattered. For eight years after rugby went professional in 1996, appointing national coaches stayed much as it did in the amateur days. The World Cup cycle of four years was considered a good yardstick, and quite long enough for one man to have control.
But when you look at sports that have been professional for more than a century, a coach is judged by results, not the calendar.
Bill Belichick, who has won more Super Bowls than any coach in NFL history, has been running the New England Patriots for 18 years. Basketball’s Pat Riley won his first NBA title in 1982, his last in 2006. Sir Alex Ferguson was ‘The Boss’ at Manchester United for 27 years. As it is when coaches are judging players, the most difficult decision for administrators with a coach is to decide when experience is outweighed by declining abilities.
But if the All Blacks return from their northern tour with wins over Australia, England and Ireland, who in their right mind would consider that Hansen has lost his touch?
There would still, probably before the end of the year, be a big decision to make for Hansen, his wife Tash, and their blended family of six children, two of whom will still be at school next year.
Being a husband and father who runs a team that in New Zealand is basically considered public property, comes with genuine pressures, as obvious as the time Hansen has to spend away from home, to a loss of privacy for the whole group.
But if the family decision is for Hansen to keep going, why on earth would you close down the career of a coach who hasn’t just kept the All Blacks at No 1 in the world, but has changed the shape of how test rugby is played more than anyone since Fred Allen in 1967 decided it was time that wings ‘‘didn’t spend all their bloody time freezing on the sideline’’.
Yes, extending Hansen’s contract would be a tough call on other very good coaching candidates. But sometimes, as openside flankers Marty Holah, Chris Masoe and Adam Thomson found during the 15-season reign of Richie McCaw at No 7, sport, like life, can present insurmountable challenges.
Unlike the controversy that raged when Graham Henry, Hansen and Wayne Smith were not sacked after the cup quarterfinal loss in 2007, I believe a Hansen reappointment would be largely welcomed by rugby supporters.
Talking in the last month to people deeply involved in the game, from true heartland men at a reunion of the 1988 Thames Valley championship side, to the diverse city membership at the Ponsonby club in Auckland, to venerable former players at the Barbarians at Eden Park, there was overwhelming support for him.
What do they like? Success for a start. World Cup won. Bledisloe Cup superglued to a plinth in Wellington. Just that drawn test series with the Lions as a burr under the saddle.
The attacking style the All Blacks play. As one Valley veteran said to me: ‘‘It can come unstuck, but God, it’s fun to watch.’’
And they enjoy the way Hansen himself presents, which reflects the laconic, slightly tongue-in-cheek attitude, that Kiwis get in a heartbeat, but which, as I observed with amusement during the 2015 World Cup, can puzzle, and even irritate, the more precious members of the British media pack.
Hansen has already demolished the mindset of the coach as dictator. ‘‘All opinions are valued inside the All Blacks,’’ flanker Sam Cane told me. ‘‘We say a form of leadership is to be vulnerable, and accept that you don’t know everything. It doesn’t matter where the right answer comes from, as long as we get there in the end.’’
It would feel fitting if the most laconic revolutionary in Kiwi sport also upended ideas over how long a coach can run the All Blacks.
As one Valley veteran said to me: ‘It can come unstuck, but God, it’s fun to watch.’