Scott Robertson and Jamie Joseph will be determined by their ability to excite NZ Rugby. Photos / Photosport
Scott Robertson and Jamie Joseph will be determined by their ability to excite NZ Rugby. Photos / Photosport
OPINION:
Most job applications are essentially about selling yourself, promoting individual qualities, experiences and knowledge.
The All Blacks head coaching role, despite being publicly presented as such, is not really about that at all.
There’s a different sales pitch required to win that job, one where the individual doesn’t justsell themselves, but also a vision for the team — a big-picture statement about how the All Blacks will play and what will drive them.
When Steve Hansen won the job in late 2011, he sold New Zealand Rugby an idea they couldn’t resist: he told them he wanted to turn the World Cup-winning All Blacks into the most dominant team in history.
It was a good hook, especially when he laid out what he felt ‘most dominant’ would mean — the landmark achievements they were hoping to knock off, the way they would train, the focus they would have in every aspect of their professional lives.
He also told the board he had a second vision for the team, which was to make New Zealanders proud, and that would require players to hold themselves to the highest standards of conduct off the field.
This is the story-telling age, and so for Jamie Joseph and Scott Robertson, the two men competing to become the next All Blacks head coach, their outcome will be determined by their ability to excite New Zealand Rugby about the direction in which they plan to take the All Blacks.
The All Blacks come with a core, embedded value system built on humility, perseverance, resilience and innovation, but there’s ample scope to package new ideas around that.
Robertson, you suspect, may sell a vision of his All Blacks being built on youth: of building the next generation of great test footballers uninhibited by pressure and history and the need to conform to long-standing perceptions of emotionless interaction with the media to shield who they truly are from the public.
Crusaders coach Scott Robertson celebrates winning the Super Rugby Pacific final. Photo / Photosport
Joseph has built a reputation for being tough in his demands. He likes his teams to be exceptionally conditioned, disciplined and committed, and maybe his vision will be to wind back the clock and reconnect the All Blacks with the idea that if they work harder than everyone else, they will be better than everyone else.
An equally important part of the story both men will have to sell is the cast of characters they will have around them.
The All Blacks are a big stage production these days. It takes a cast of thousands to ready the team, and everyone who has been head coach of the All Blacks in the last 15 years will say that it’s an impossible job to succeed in if the right people aren’t in the wider coaching and management team.
There was compelling evidence of that last year when, for the first time in history, two assistant All Blacks coaches were let go midway through their contracts.
The dynamic or the chemistry wasn’t right, and it was agreed that assistants John Plumtree and Brad Mooar needed to be replaced.
The All Blacks improved, almost instantly, once Jason Ryan was brought in to coach the forwards and Joe Schmidt took over the attack, and by having such a quick and dramatic impact, those two highlighted just how important it is for any prospective head coach to present a credible coaching group capable of bringing the overall vision to fruition.
And it’s on this question of coaching teams where it becomes a little hard to be clear about whom may be aligned with whom in this situation.
Ryan does not appear to be specifically aligned with any head coach, but is instead presenting himself to be team All Blacks: ready and willing to work with anyone because his allegiance is to the national team, not any individual.
Given the impact he’s had in transforming the All Blacks forwards, it’s likely that both Joseph and Robertson have told Ryan he’ll be retained in his role if they are given the job.
Joseph seems certain to present Tony Brown as his key assistant. Those two have worked together at the Highlanders and also for the last eight seasons in Japan.
There is obvious mutual respect, but also a sense that they complement each other well — Joseph driving the standards, Brown bringing the creative touches.
Japan haven’t beaten a Tier One nation since the last World Cup, but they did show at the 2019 tournament an ability to play accurately and cleverly at a pace few other teams could live with.
Joseph is likely to present Brown and Ryan as the core elements of his coaching team.
Japan head coach Jamie Joseph and attack coach Tony Brown during the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Photo / Getty
Robertson, when he contested the job in 2019, presented Ryan and Blues head coach Leon MacDonald as his core group.
And it is thought that when there was a possibility of taking over the All Blacks in August last year, he again had Ryan and MacDonald as his key men.
But it’s not clear whether MacDonald is exclusively aligned with Robertson, or even if he is part of the Razor mix at all, as he is believed to have recently met with Joseph.
If he’s with Joseph, then that would be a team difficult to turn down. That would be the team — Joseph, Brown, Ryan and MacDonald — most likely to get the job.
And if MacDonald aligns with Joseph, that will leave Robertson in a quandary. When he was sounded out about taking over the All Blacks last August, the board wasn’t convinced by the quality and experience of his wider team.
They wanted him to see if he could inject more experience into his group and tried to see if he could find a place for Schmidt, which didn’t happen then and won’t happen now as the former Ireland coach has publicly ruled himself out of contention.
Robertson has undoubtedly sold his own credentials brilliantly by winning six consecutive Super Rugby titles.
And while he will no doubt have a compelling vision for the All Blacks, his big problem is that he may not be able to gather enough good people around him to persuade NZR that he can deliver on all he is promising.
