All Blacks: Tension in race for top job

Wales coach Warren Gatland (above) reportedly wants a crack at Graham Henry's job. Photo / Getty Images

After six years as Graham Henry's assistant, Steve Hansen wants a crack at being the All Blacks head coach.

After a stint with Ireland and what will be a four-year tour of duty with Wales, Warren Gatland wouldn't mind a crack at the All Blacks' job either when Henry steps down - most probably after the World Cup next year.

These last two weeks have carried a little extra frisson of tension as a consequence, with both men aware the selection process has already begun.

Hansen, so well known to the New Zealand Rugby Union hierarchy; so entrenched in the All Black camp; and so obviously liked by the players; appears to be in an unassailable position.

Regardless of what happens at the World Cup, surely Hansen has done enough, been part of such a prolonged period of success that his application can survive another disaster such as 2007.

Up until last year, his employer would have believed that. But when rugby proved it wasn't bulletproof last year; when interest really did drop off; the top brass at rugby HQ finally twigged - image was everything.

Winning tests was no longer enough and the rather brusque, aggressive style of Hansen became a problem last year. He's heard a few home truths in the past eight months. The fact he appears to have taken much of it on board is a good thing - as one of the criticisms was his propensity not to listen. The dial tended to stick on transmit and never swing round to receive.

He's trying to rebuild his image, to be more effusive, more inclusive and a little less guarded. It's imperative that he wins this battle against his inner demons. Inside Hansen lies a former policeman and a distrust of what he doesn't know.

He's comfortable with the players, talks to them well, relates to them well. It's when he engages with the outside world that his discomfort comes through.

But the All Blacks are the people's team; they are nothing without universal support and, as John Mitchell found out, a coach relying on results alone, ignoring what the corporate world knows as the interface, is playing a high-risk game.

Hansen has a year to prove he's not a blunt instrument; a year to make better public use of the laconic wit he employs in private. He needs all the peripheral boxes to be tickedto strengthen his case around the core.

As the All Black lineout disintegrated last year, it unfairly took with it much of Hansen's credibility as a coach. It wiped out what had been a good five years. The All Black forwards, lest anyone forget, didn't cut much of a dash in the immediate years before Hansen.

Since his arrival they tightened, became the leading side in world rugby at the tackled ball and for a period, at least, were untouchable at the scrum.

Unquestionably the lineout could and should have been better last season. Yet, while Hansen became the focus of the nation's ire, there were points in his defence never examined.

All Black coaches are reliant on the levels below to instil the right skills and, for most of the professional age, New Zealand rugby teams have largely been blasé about the lineout. They conceded some opposition ball, confident they would win it back two phases later at the tackled ball. The turnover has been all-consuming and the hunger to forage on the ground has impacted on the ability of New Zealand teams in the air.

Hansen's weakness is not the lineout - it's his lack of head coach experience. For all the responsibility he has been given under Henry and for all that they work as a unit without hierarchy, Henry acts like training wheels. Without him, there is no guarantee Hansen will stay upright, much as Ian McGeechan was never the same coach when he didn't have the sage Jim Telfer chipping in his ear.

Hansen had a couple of years as the Canterbury No 1 and three seasons as the Welsh head coach but the bulk of his career has been served as an assistant.

It's on the experience front where Gatland is ahead.

In his early 30s, he had charge of Ireland. He then moved to Wasps where he delivered Premierships and Heineken Cups as head coach before steering Waikato to the NPC title in 2006. When he moved to Wales at the end of 2007, it took him barely six months to deliver a Grand Slam. All that Gatland has touched so far has turned to gold - he's a head coach, has it written all over him.

His is a heavyweight CV, yet there is a sense of the NZRU feeling the bitterness of a jilted bride towards Gatland.

They were desperate for him to take over at the Highlanders in 2008. Gatland turned them down - didn't fancy Dunedin. Then Wales came calling and he was off.

Any rational appraisal of Gatland's choice would conclude his decision was entirely reasonable - the Highlanders or Wales? But the NZRU are not always advocates of forgiving and forgetting.

There was also some uneasiness last year when Gatland, outraged Dan Carter avoided a yellow card for a high tackle late in the game, claimed referees were effectively scared of the All Blacks.

"If that had happened at the other end, then it would have been a penalty and a yellow card," Gatland said.

"You just want some calls to go your way. It's trying to change referees' opinions about not wanting to referee an upset."

Henry responded by saying: "I don't think even Warren himself believes that."

It was a response that alluded to a belief among the All Black coaching fraternity that Gatland will say things for effect; that he likes to niggle; and will get some mileage with a put-down or a controversy.

Just as the unsmiling-suspect-is-here-for-interview approach is not acceptable to the NZRU, neither is the come-out-firing routine. The All Blacks don't want to become a team that talk harder than they play and there lies the reservations about Gatland.

No one should read too much into the results of this two-test series - Hansen took Wales to Hamilton in June 2003, saw them hammered 55-3 and was appointed assistant All Black coach in February 2004.

The race to take over from Henry will not necessarily be won by what happens on the field - it will also be determined by what happens off it.