Smugness over NZ coaches stupid
Taking talent from our ranks will keep harming game in in this part of world
New Zealand rugby fans will be flattered that as speculation mounted about the future of England’s incumbent coach Eddie Jones, three Kiwis are on the hypothetical short-list to replace him.
The English bookies, who are surprisingly apt at successfully predicting the future, have Jones at 11/10 to be sacked by November and Warren Gatland as the favourite to take over.
Crusaders coach Scott Robertson is at 4-1 to be appointed, with the Daily Telegraph newspaper offering former All Blacks coach Steve Hansen as a short-term outsider.
But as much as this Kiwi-heavy short-list is a reason to feel a little smug, it should also serve as a warning for New Zealand Rugby not to sleepwalk into making the same mistake they made four years ago when they sat back and let the rest of the world help themselves to their best coaches.
Delaying the process until after the World Cup was an ill-conceived gamble that the All Blacks job holds such allure, heavyweight contenders would turn down alternative offers.
It was a spectacular failure of judgment as the Wallabies swooped for Dave Rennie.
Wales hired Wayne Pivac. Gatland committed to the British and Irish Lions. Jamie Joseph and Tony Brown extended their contracts with Japan and Vern Cotter said yes to Fiji.
New Zealand waited until after the World Cup to run their process, but none of their rivals did, and while they still got two credible and worthy candidates in Ian Foster and Robertson, neither had access to the sort of high-calibre assistants that have been a key factor in the All Blacks’ success since 2004.
If the process to replace Hansen had happened earlier in 2019, might the coaching group be Foster, Rennie and Brown, or Foster and Cotter, with the door held open for Joe Schmidt to join in 2022 as he has?
What’s apparent is waiting until after a World Cup to appoint the next coach is dangerously outdated.
It fails to appreciate the realities of the global marketplace.
Their opponents won’t be waiting until November 2023 to determine coaches for 2024 and beyond.
This desire to wait also fails to appreciate the attraction that offshore jobs hold for career coaches.
It’s true that most Kiwis feel driven to coach the All Blacks, but if Scotland, Ireland, Wales or England come calling for their services ahead of the next World Cup, it takes an incredible resolve to turn them down all to gamble on landing the New Zealand job.
But ultimately this wait until after the World Cup approach is a hangover from the bad old days of persistent failure.
It’s a relic from New Zealand’s forgotten past when, such was their desperation between 1987 and 2011 to win another World Cup, that coaching careers were validated or terminated solely on the basis of one six-week tournament.
It’s clear no one at rugby headquarters in Wellington should be flattered by offshore interest in New Zealand coaching talent. Instead, they should feel threatened by it. .
They should protect the best Kiwi coaches.
The ink is barely dry on Foster’s two-year contract to coach the All Blacks through to the next World Cup, but such is the nature of this business, that by the end of this year, the national body will have to decide whether to offer him another extension beyond 2023 or hold a competitive tender for the role.
This is how professional sport works. It is cold and clinical but the best organisations make decisions quickly and effectively based on clear assessment and good judgment.
If Foster delivers in 2022, then back him all the way to 2025, telling him his tenure won’t hang exclusively on what happens at the World Cup.
The only time NZR were brave enough to break the pattern and let the All Blacks go to a World Cup with their incumbent coach locked in beyond the tournament, they won.
If there is not, by the end of this year, enough faith to extend Foster’s time beyond 2023, then why wait until after the tournament to determine who should replace him?
Waiting only restricts the number of candidates, and is so cavalier, it borders on recklessness.