NZR boss: We will
New Kiwi rugby boss Mark Robinson hasn’t even slipped his shiny shoes under his flash corner office desk yet and already his to-do list is growing exponentially. He can safely add the All Blacks coaching appointment process to that catalogue of head-scratchers.
Robinson, who doesn’t officially start as New Zealand Rugby’s new chief executive until late January, has already been what you might call fully immersed in his transition into one of the most important jobs this country has.
He spent much of the World Cup doing the rounds with the old boss Steve Tew, shaking hands, sipping coffee, slurping Ramen and meeting the global movers and shakers he’ll now be dealing with on a regular basis.
Since then he’s been embedded in an ever-so-flawed process to flush out and assess contenders to be the next All Blacks coach.
He was part of a panel that included former national coach Sir Graham Henry, NZ Rugby chairman Brent Impey, NZR head of high performance Mike Anthony and ex-Silver Ferns coach Waimarama Taumaunu.
In the end they decided to promote assistant coach Ian Foster to the top job – a decision unveiled in rather hasty fashion in Auckland on Wednesday – after he was preferred over the only other candidate, serial winner and Crusaders mentor Scott Robertson.
Ultimately New Zealand Rugby may have got the right man. They certainly think so and Foster made a strong first impression as he acknowledged his own and his team’s shortcomings and pledged to reinvent himself, to be innovative and to stamp his own mark on a team that has ‘‘lost some its mana’’ on the rugby field.
They were only words, but they were exactly what a sceptical New Zealand rugby public needed to hear after their preferred candidate, the charismatic, breakdancing, surfing super coach was overlooked. The average punter might still be doubtful about Foster’s abilities as a head coach, but there can be no doubt that he at least has his head wrapped round the challenge he is stepping into.
Robinson told Stuff, in a sitdown interview after Foster’s unveiling, they were supremely confident the process had thrown up the right man. Given they only had two to run the rule over, you would hope no stone was unturned.
But the new chief, who steps into some pretty big shoes himself, admitted that the way the process played out, postWorld Cup, with several potential candidates already snapped up by swifter rival nations, was worthy of some heavy scrutiny.
‘‘It’s something we’ll certainly look at,’’ Robinson told Stuff. ‘‘We were very clear this time last year what the process was, so if people were interested they knew what they had to do. We were hopeful people would take up that challenge.
‘‘But there are a lot of