Cheree Kinnear takes a look at how Scott Robertson got the top spot as All Blacks coach. Video / NZ Herald
OPINION:
The indications are the process to find the All Blacks wider management team for next year will be conducted collaboratively between head coach-elect Scott Robertson and New Zealand Rugby.
This will be a new way of doing things, but also the right way of doing things given the importanceassistant coaches have taken on in recent times.
But it will also be a process that will require careful negotiation because historically, All Blacks head coaches have been able to autonomously determine with whom they want to work.
In the past, this whole business of securing assistant coaches and specialist support staff has been deemed a kind of no-go for the national body.
The head coach has been given the luxury of picking his own people on the basis his relationship with them will be fundamental to the success of the team.
NZR has been happy to trust that theory is right and only get involved in securing people at the stage of agreeing salaries and benefits.
The historic process has mostly worked and All Blacks coaching teams have been functional and harmonious for the duration of the time they were contracted.
But there’s a little nervousness within NZR now about being hands-off and trusting the head coach to secure the right people.
NZ Rugby chair Dame Patsy Reddy, Scott Robertson and NZ Rugby CEO Mark Robinson speak to the media. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Some of that confidence has been eroded by the team incumbent coach Ian Foster put together in 2019.
To be fair to Foster, the team he ended up contracting was not his preferred choice.
When former All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen announced that he would not be seeking reappointment after the 2019 World Cup, Foster, in deciding he would make a bid for the soon-to-be-vacant head role, sounded out Jamie Joseph and Tony Brown.
They were interested, but when the process was put off until after the World Cup, both pulled out because they were offered major financial incentives to stay in their roles with the Japanese national team.
That left Foster scrambling at late notice to find alternatives in a market where most quality coaches were already contracted.
He was able to persuade John Plumtree to join as forwards coach — a move that was possible because the then Hurricanes head coach was contracted to NZR and therefore didn’t have to be bought out of his existing deal.
And the final position in his team was taken by Brad Mooar, who had only just begun a three-year contract with Ospreys and therefore NZR had to offer the Welsh club a compensation payment.
As it transpired, these two last-minute appointments didn’t work out. Neither Plumtree nor Mooar impressed the players — both reviewed poorly in 2020 and 2021 according to well-placed sources — and in July last year, after the All Blacks lost the home series to Ireland, they were removed from their posts.
That was a big moment as it was the first time in professional history that any coaching staff had been fired from the All Blacks.
Former All Blacks assistant coaches Brad Mooar and John Plumtree. Photo / Photosport
And it was a moment that has made NZR rightly guarded about who is brought into the All Blacks set-up as it has become apparent that the number of players now involved in a squad, the intensity of the build-up and need to be microscopic in the detail of each game plan, has elevated the importance of the role assistant coaches and support staff play.
Coach-elect Robertson listed forward Blues coach Leon MacDonald, Hurricanes coach Jason Holland, Crusaders defence coach Scott Hansen and All Blacks forwards coach Jason Ryan as his preferred team when he was sounded out about taking over from Foster in August last year.
He has only hinted this would be his preferred team in 2024, and the fact he hasn’t clarified should be read as confirmation that NZR is going to scrutinise his choices and possibly even veto some.
Ryan is a certainty to stay as he’s been phenomenal in his role since taking it in August last year.
But NZR may not approve of taking two Super Rugby head coaches out of their roles next year and could argue that Holland doesn’t yet have the requisite breadth of experience to be elevated to the All Blacks.
It seems probable NZR may want to work in tandem with Robertson to try to secure Brown — one of the more creative and innovative thinkers in the game.
And, given the board encouraged Robertson to try to find room in his team last year for former Ireland coach Joe Schmidt, it’s possible NZR could lean on their coach-elect to find a similarly seasoned campaigner to bring a greater weight of test experience to the mix.
Everyone seems to think they know the make-up of Robertson’s likely wider coaching team, but probably right now, not even he can be sure who he’ll secure.
