Richard Loe: Our coaching stocks are barely there

Graham Henry

I think that it's great that the NZRU have given the All Black selectors a contract, including the 2007 World Cup, but I do have one question: Who else is there?

When you get through the words, the plain fact is that, outside Robbie Deans, there probably isn't a coach in New Zealand who could step up right now and take the All Blacks.

I don't want to make it sound like I am complaining about the extended appointment of Graham Henry, Wayne Smith and Steve Hansen. I'm not. They are all experienced and talented coaches and have proved themselves in New Zealand and overseas.

As far as the NZRU are concerned, they wouldn't have wanted to rush in and give this panel a World Cup contract right away. They would have wanted to have kept a bit of an edge there, in case they didn't perform.

Chris Moller even said that the extensions had been done because the panel had shown, after those two losses in the Tri Nations last year, that they were able to stand back, analyse things and take effective measures - and that's why the end-of-year tour was such a success.

Fair enough. It's good that they have faith in the panel. But I come back to the point - there isn't anyone else.

I wonder how worried people would be if our playing stocks were as low as our coaching stocks. Robbie Deans is probably still too closely associated with the Mitchell years to be a credible alternative and Colin Cooper has not yet done enough with the Hurricanes.

And then there is Warren Gatland. Gats is coming back to coach NPC and he could challenge - but probably only after a couple of years in Super 12, which means he will not really be challenging until after the 2007 World Cup anyway.

It's one of the downsides of swapping coaches with the regularity we have in recent years. You deplete your resources. It's obvious that is why Gats is coming back - because there is a pretty big gap in the traffic.

It doesn't worry fans because coaches don't get injured or suspended, as players do. However, New Zealand does not have a good recent record when it comes to coaches' life spans and the unexpected can happen, as it did a few years back when Wayne Smith effectively pulled the plug.

And the confirmation of the All Black coaching panel is good for the players, too, although I don't buy that it will make them feel more secure. They should not feel any more secure than they did before this happened - because it's still all about performance, whether you're coaches or players.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY