All Blacks coach Ian Foster reacts to Steve Hansen's switch to the NRL
OPINION:
The Canterbury Bulldogs are a famous and infamous club - a team which has guzzled from the cup of success and choked on its backwash. Now, in an attempt to climb the highest league mountain, they've signed an All Blacks coach.
Steve Hansen, a very successful coach, despite lastyear's World Cup fizzer versus England, has hitched his wagon to Trent Barrett's attempted resuscitation of a club lying prone on the cellar floor of the NRL.
This could be construed as a stroke of genius, or a kick in the guts to leaguies across Australasia.
Although league and union have an affable relationship, the idea of bringing in someone from the other side to apply CPR to a famed Sydney league club must be like pushing in an NRL scrum. It's toyed with from time to time, but it's not necessarily common practice.
But it should be. Because men like Hansen have an innate ability to bring cohesive, constructive and communal change to groups of athletes. He is a man manager of the highest order. He understands how to stimulate athletes and maintain that excitement game in, game out. Although he is not coaching the players, he's coaching their coach, so his lack of knowledge of league's finer details won't be a hindrance to him.
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen. Photo / Photosport
Hansen also needs the stimulus. He's done everything that can be done in rugby, yet at 61 he still has a vast amount to offer professional sport. I've always had a bilious odour on my breath when I see a former All Black coach raffle themselves off to opposing rugby nations when their due by date ticks over. I don't begrudge their decision, but I don't have to like the transfer of New Zealand Rugby intelligence at a Tier One level.
In Hansen's case, it will be fascinating to see if his skills and nous can be successfully re-engineered for a different sphere. He has experienced how taking the likes of Ivan Cleary, Laurie Daley, Trent Barrett and their ilk into the All Black world has aided their progression, and I'm sure he's just as interested in applying a similar reversed theory to the Bulldogs.
It's a strong move from the Dogs and Hansen, one that we should applaud and keenly follow.
The most satisfying part of this new adventure is that All Black fans won't have to deal with the vast amount of intel he is in possession of, coming back to bite the team in the test arena. I'm sure NZR are relieved over that.
