Highlanders win game over coaches
Call it a bit of good fortune, good timing, or some very canny planning but the Highlanders will emerge from New Zealand rugby’s game of coaching musical chairs with smiles on their faces when the music stops.
The Crusaders, Blues and Hurricanes are all waiting nervously to see if they will lose key personnel to the All Blacks this month – the Hurricanes’ Jason Holland was the new name mentioned on the rugby grapevine on Tuesday – while the Chiefs will reclaim Warren Gatland for a year before losing him to the British and Irish Lions again when they tour South Africa.
By comparison, the Highlanders have begun their preparations for the 2020 Super Rugby season in a state of relative calm.
Tony Brown’s decision to stick with Jamie Joseph and Japan instead of the All Blacks has huge implications for the southern franchise, meaning it will get the services of the one of the world’s most coveted coaches for the next three years.
The Highlanders secured access to Brown because, in effect, they got in before the All Blacks. When the Highlanders brought Brown back from Japan they did it out of their own budget.
In Super Rugby, New Zealand Rugby pays for two of the five coaches employed at each franchise: say, Aaron Mauger and Mark Hammett at the Highlanders, or John Plumtree and Holland at the Hurricanes.
But Brown was paid for by the Highlanders from the outset and it allowed him to go and strike his separate deal with Japan after satisfying the Highlanders that he could manage both roles.
Brown’s deep affection for the Highlanders and family ties have also played a role in the coup but the Highlanders have also been smart in how they have managed that relationship even when Brown was in Japan.
Chief executive Roger Clark told Stuff in June that he had been in touch with Brown from virtually the day he left the Highlanders in 2017 and if head coach Mauger felt threatened by Brown’s return he did a good job of hiding it, noting on numerous occasions how the pair have frequently been in contact via video linkup (and when the Highlanders put together a video tribute to farewell Ben Smith last season, Brown was part of that, too).
Those factors have facilitated Brown’s return to the Highlanders, where his ability to improve players should make the Highlanders a competitive outfit in the coming years.
Mauger and Hammett are locked away until the end of 2020 – with Mauger heading into his third year in Dunedin and Hammett into his fourth – and while there might be a bit of movement after that there is continuity until then.
But Brown’s return is not the only coaching positive for the Highlanders.
Clarke Dermody is coming off a Mitre10 Cup Premiership win with the Tasman Mako, where he was co-coach with Andrew Goodman, and will assume more responsibility at the Highlanders to reflect his role on the training paddock.
In truth, Dermody was already contributing far more than just scrum expertise last season and he is clearly a coach on the rise, while also fulfilling Clark’s desire to have coaches from the Highlanders region play a prominent role in the organisation.
A fair assessment of the Highlanders squad is that has a lot of raw talent but lacks a bit of experience. That only increases the importance of good coaches and Brown is already on the training paddock in Dunedin to put the side through their preChristmas block.
That will put a smile on Highlanders’ fans faces but at board level there will also be contentment that they aren’t awaiting a phone call to tell them they have lost coach A or coach B to the All Blacks with the season just around the corner.