Editorial: Win the Cup, good sirs, then stand aside...

Graham Henry. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Opinion

The early stages of the Rugby World Cup campaign provide perhaps the last chance to consider who should be our next All Black coach.

The selection of that person needs to be in the front of people's minds now, while the qualities of international allcomers are on display, and before sudden-death matches overwhelm all else.

It is not a topic that can wait until after the winner of the Webb Ellis Cup has been decided.

The danger then is if New Zealand emerge victorious, Steve Hansen, the forwards coach in the current All Black triumvirate, will be anointed by the New Zealand Rugby Union as the only incumbent left standing.

In the present set-up, Graham Henry, the head coach, is expected to bow out and Wayne Smith will take his talents to the Chiefs. That leaves Hansen, having helped the All Blacks' fortunes to historic highs and depths over the past eight years.

He presents as the down-to-earth Kiwi bloke, with a range of impatient aphorisms of the "flush it down the dunny and move on" variety.

New Zealanders now get a dose of this contrived laconicism - and a "we-know-best" tone - on Tuesdays from the team's media presentations.

Even weekly it is wearing more than a little thin and it must be a moot point whether the public would tolerate even two more years of the Hansen factor.

It is not just the man but, win or lose, the longevity. The Prime Minister, John Key, acknowledged last week that the very things he is now liked for will be the things that, over time, the voting public will turn against. In sporting terms, Hansen has been in place for an eternity.

Four other cup head coaches - John Kirwan, Robbie Deans, Warren Gatland and Kieran Crowley - hail from this country. Of these, Deans has ruled himself out by re-signing with Australia. But Kirwan, who is in charge of Japan and has previously coached Italy, was upfront this week about his ambition to coach the All Blacks.

Intriguingly, Henry is on record as saying someone like himself, a lifetime coach rather than a former top international player, is less likely in future to rise to such a position.

One obvious impediment to many of the men coaching overseas is the union's rules on eligibility, including a strong preference for experience in the Super 15. Present circumstances and the limited number of opportunities in that competition make it difficult to sustain such a position. Indeed, one other sacred cow might have to be reassessed.

That a New Zealander should coach the All Blacks has long been regarded as a given. Yet bringing in someone from overseas has worked for other sports. Take Steve Rixon in cricket, or Andrej Lemanis, another Australian, who this year guided the Breakers to the ANBL title. An outside eye can sometimes approach things with critical perspective denied someone more steeped in a particular sporting culture.

The selection of the All Black coach is never less than highly contentious. It can inflame passions, as happened when Henry, having failed at the 2007 World Cup, went head to head with Deans.

It is time though, to be thinking ahead. Come grief or glory, an irascible, eight-year incumbent is unlikely to be the answer.