Rugby’s direction
Steve Tew speaks exclusively on ABs coaching roadmap
Steve Hansen has a lot to think about over the next few weeks – but accepting a director of rugby super-role with the All Blacks is not one of the things that will be keeping him up late at night.
New Zealand Rugby chief executive Steve Tew, in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Star-Times, has clarified two important aspects of the process involving the decision around who will coach the All Blacks following next year’s World Cup in Japan.
Tew emphatically denied that a director of rugby role has either been, or is being, created to entice Hansen back. He also swatted away reports that the incumbent coach had already been offered a two-year extension to continue through until the end of 2021.
But the long-time NZ Rugby chief did confirm he was expecting to hear from Hansen before the end of the month on whether he wanted to be considered beyond 2019. Hansen has been part of the All Blacks coaching setup since 2004 and head coach since 2012.
‘‘Steve has now signalled he will make a decision and announcement before the end of the year on what his preferred future will be,’’ said Tew yesterday. ‘‘That’s helpful. We’ve obviously heard [Ireland’s Kiwi coach] Joe Schmidt do the same thing, so that’s another piece of information that gets fed into it.
‘‘Steve has been very clear he wanted to have some time after the tour to sit back and reflect and talk to his family.’’
But Tew, who is close to Hansen, emphasised that the highly successful All Blacks coach is not deciding on a specific role that has been offered to him, contrary to reports in some media outlets.
‘‘The board hasn’t made a call on the reappointment of Steve … that’s another conversation we’d have to have when we know what his thinking is,’’ he added.
‘‘All I’ve said to our team, because we’re the ones communicating this, is that we should prepare as though we’re looking for a coach, and then we’re ready. And if we don’t need to then that’s fine but at least be ready for it.’’
A report out of Ireland that quoted second-hand conversations with former All Blacks and Sky TV pundits Jeff Wilson and Justin Marshall said Hansen was set to be offered a newly created director of rugby position with the All Blacks post2019.
Asked if such a position was being planned, Tew said: ‘‘We don’t have a director of rugby in the sense you’re talking about but we certainly have a highperformance director and he is heavily involved in all our highperformance programmes.
‘‘Last time I looked, Marshy and Goldie weren’t running NZ Rugby. I’m not sure where that information came from.’’
Tew also said a recent report that indicated Hansen had a twoyear contract extension offer in front of him was ‘‘not true’’.
Asked to clarify that Hansen’s looming decision was purely about his availability and not deciding on a specific role, Tew replied: ‘‘That’s correct. No one has been offered anything post2019 in terms of the coaching staff.’’
Tew did confirm that if a new All Blacks coach had to be appointed, that process would be contestable and would not play out until after the World Cup.
‘‘We will run a very thorough but quick review of the campaign, and if we’re looking for a coach we’ll go to the market after RWC. We’ve got a little bit of time. We’d like to have a new coaching structure in place before Christmas of ’19.
‘‘The reason for doing it this way is it allows the campaign to go ahead uninterrupted.’’
Tew accepted that timeline could see them miss out on a potential head coach but felt on balance it was the best way forward.
‘‘We’ve communicated very clearly with all the coaches we think will be interested and we’ll be interested in and they know the process.’’
Tew also offered an interesting response when asked if he was surprised Schmidt had effectively removed himself from contention for the All Blacks job by confirming he would be taking a break from coaching after RWC.
‘‘We stay in contact … he has signalled for a long time he wanted to get home, just when that happened was the point. He’s signalling now he wants to have a break from coaching. Those of us that have watched him develop into a world-leading coach would hope that break is not too long.’’