All Blacks: Wanted - coach, must have prior experience

If you know a bit about rugby and wouldn't mind trying your hand at coaching, you've got 12 more days to get your application in for the All Blacks job.

Now that incumbent Graham Henry has moved aside to prepare for his knighthood, many of you probably see the appointment process as a one-horse race.

Assistant Steve Hansen is dead keen to step up and as forwards coach during the successful 2011 Rugby World Cup triumph, he presents a pretty compelling case.

But NZRU chief executive Steve Tew is adamant the process will be robust and transparent - just not too transparent - and Hansen's appointment is certainly not a fait accompli.

"We've said for the past 12 months that, regardless of the World Cup result and what our incumbent coaches decided to do, we would be running a competitive process," insists Tew.

"Obviously, Steve will be on the short list - I think I can make that prediction - with the final two candidates being interviewed by the board.

"But no one has the job yet, and I'd be very surprised if Steve or anyone close to the process thinks that.

"This is arguably the most important decision our board makes at any given time and, as we saw on the last two occasions, there is an enormous amount of scrutiny."

So it's not too late to dust off your CV, as long as you meet certain criteria. You need to have coached a New Zealand Super 15, ITM Cup or national team in the past year or at any of those levels for three years sometime in the past five.

That rules out several candidates who might have considered the job and, let's be honest, it probably rules you out too. In fact, the pool of eligible talent becomes pretty small when those conditions are applied and falls away even more steeply when our top Super 15 coach Todd Blackadder says he's not ready for the role yet.

An undisclosed number of notifications (not invitations) went out to eligible candidates when applications opened, but Tew won't (and can't) comment on the response to date.

"We'll be totally transparent, but we won't be talking about candidates," he says. "It's a normal employment process, bound by confidentiality requirements.

"We don't want to be obstructive."

So applications close on November 25, the day before another of the country's top jobs goes up for grabs. They'll be considered by a panel consisting of Tew, NZRU chairman Mike Eagle, board member Graham Cooney, high performance manager Don Tricker, All Blacks manager Darren Shand and legendary All Black captain Graham Mourie.

Candidates will be short-listed and interviewed by the full board in early December, with an appointment due in mid December.

Good luck. If you're successful, no doubt we'll be seeing you around.