Rugby: AB coaches tweak roles

Steve Hansen(right) will take over the All Black defensive coaching duties from Aussie McLean, who will focus on analysing the opposition. Photo / Getty Images

Lofty All Black aims also have a practical purpose, as style provides substantial benefits, writes Gregor Paul.

The All Blacks coaching staff will be retained en masse through to the World Cup but there will be a tweak of duties - with defence coach Brian "Aussie" McLean switching to the newrole of analysing opponents.

Head coach Steve Hansen will pick up McLean's defensive duties, meaning the latter will exclusively focus on feeding information into the mix about the strengths and weaknesses of the teams the All Blacks are playing.

The decision to create the new role is a significant shift. Since Hansen took over from Graham Henry after the last World Cup, the All Blacks have tended almost exclusively to focus on their own game. They have kept analysis of their opponents to a minimum in the last two years, believing their preparation time would be better spent fully understanding their own intentions.

"Since the end of the year, we have had a couple of sessions where we have sat down and reviewed everything and three key things have come out," says Hansen.

"We are not that far away from the World Cup and we are taking the attitude of what do we need to do to be successful? We felt we needed a greater presence in our analysis of the opposition. We have looked at the people within the group who are best suited for that role and Aussie McLean is the guy we think is best suited.

"I'll take over his defensive coaching duties. That's the big coaching change we have made."

An announcement is expected to be made shortly to confirm that McLean as well as forwards coach Mike Cron, skills coach Mick Byrne and assistant coach Ian Foster have earned contract extensions through to the World Cup.

Hansen's contract was extended midway through last year but the New Zealand Rugby Union held off reappointing the wider coaching team. They wanted to see performance and results in 2013 before making that commitment. The All Blacks' perfect season, the quality of the team's performances and the players' generally positive feedback about the coaching team eliminated any doubt about the outcome.

But, despite gaining the confidence of their employers, Hansen says his coaching team are aware of the need to deliver another lift in the team's performances in 2014.

There continue to be areas of their work falling short of expectation. Somewhere near the top of the list is the breakdown, where the All Blacks were second best in all three of their Northern Hemisphere tests last year.

With England coming for a three-test series in June, Hansen sees the perfect opportunity to sharpen the team's work in that critical facet.

"Technically, there are things we have to address at the breakdown. We are not that far away but, because the game up there [in the Northern Hemisphere] is more combative than maybe Super Rugby, I think naturally there is a greater emphasis on the breakdown from them.

"The Irish game last year was another example where they really hoed into us. But some of that was about our mental attitude and our mental preparation to really go and take the game rather than expect the game to come to us. We have to have that mental attitude that we are going to take the game."