Cheree Kinnear takes a look at how Scott Robertson got the top spot as All Blacks coach. Video / NZ Herald
OPINION:
New Zealand Rugby (NZR) have picked the right man to take over as head coach, and by the time the All Blacks kick off their test programme next year, that’s all anyone will care about.
But there is a World Cup to be played before Scott Robertson takes over,and that creates a tense dynamic between incumbent and coach-elect that will have to be carefully and stringently managed.
NZR chief executive Mark Robinson explained on Tuesday that the decision to appoint the coach for 2024 in March 2023 was made to bring the All Blacks into line with other high-performance teams around the world.
Leaving aside whether New Zealand should be seeking validation of its strategies through conformity, the bigger issue is understanding on what basis this brings the All Blacks into line with every other leading rugby nation.
There is an argument that it aligns the All Blacks with France, Ireland, Wales, England and Australia in the broader context of knowing who will be coaching the national side after this year’s World Cup.
New Zealand’s situation, however, is unique in that the All Blacks are the only team to have anointed a successor while keeping the incumbent in place.
Scott Robertson all smiles after being named as the next All Blacks coach in Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Wales, England and Australia fired their incumbent coaches late last year or early this year and parachuted in new men on long-term contracts.
They went nuclear so to speak - making changes not because it fitted any well-considered high-performance strategy, but because they had lost faith in the guy doing the job.
Both France and Ireland extended the contracts of Fabien Galthié and Andy Farrell last year, believing in both cases that each had proven themselves so convincingly since taking over in 2020 that they had earned the right to stay in their posts for longer.
Scotland, South Africa and Argentina all appear to be prepared to wait until after the World Cup to appoint their coaching groups for 2024.
New Zealand stands alone in having a coach with a coach-elect, and while Foster and Robertson both have the requisite professionalism and mutual respect to manage what is a relatively awkward situation, there are specifics for which NZR will have to create clear guidelines to prevent chaos ensuing.
There is a whole series of questions to consider around player retention, mostly whether it would make sense for Robertson, who will be the All Blacks coach throughout the next World Cup cycle, rather than Foster, to now lead discussions with those players whose longer-term futures are not decided.
Rieko Ioane and Will Jordan have not yet signed with NZR past 2023 and both would rightly want to speak with Robertson to get his assessment about where they fit into his plans.
It seems that the smartest way to handle this particular consequence of having a coach-elect is for NZR to empower Robertson to have these conversations with undecided players so they can take place overtly and without undermining Foster.
All Blacks Will Jordan and Rieko Ioane. Photo / Photosport
Then there is the question of what to do about Robertson around the World Cup and whether he should be there in an official NZR capacity.
Should he go to France with the All Blacks - not with any ability to interact with the players or have any influence on selection or strategy, but as an observer to see first-hand how the team is operating and what sort of pressures he can expect when he takes the team to the 2027 World Cup?
It would be an incredible learning experience for Robertson, who for all his achievements in Super Rugby hasn’t been exposed to test football as a coach, and, frankly, it would be a maddening waste if Robertson is watching the tournament in New Zealand, shut out and forced to come into the All Blacks job in July 2024 without any sneak peek of what he is inheriting.
And possibly most critically, NZR needs to agree a media strategy with Robertson, whose views about the All Blacks will be sought when the test programme kicks off in July.
He can’t stop the media from asking for his thoughts on Foster’s selections and strategies, and given the enormous public interest his views on those subjects would generate, the media will most definitely be asking.
Foster, who can legitimately wonder whether he’s had his employer’s full support throughout his tenure, certainly needs it in the next eight months.
He’s going to be the first All Blacks coach in professional history operating with a successor looking over his shoulder - a scenario which has the potential to be unsettling, and particularly challenging should the Crusaders win a seventh successive Super Rugby title in July.
The last thing NZR can afford to do now is pretend that what they have set up is normal high-performance practice, and leave Robertson and Foster to work out boundaries for themselves.
