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CARDIFF - The new All Blacks coach may need to be signed on quickly if reports of Welsh hunger for the best New Zealand coaches and management staff prove to be on the ball.
The Wales on Sunday newspaper said a high-powered group of Wales Rugby Union (WRU) officials was to leave for New Zealand tomorrow in pursuit of a national coach to replace the sacked Gareth Jenkins.
WRU chief executive Roger Lewis, chairman David Pickering and vice chairman Gerald Davies will spend four days in the country, sounding out up to five candidates, the newspaper said, having already decided they won't appoint a Welshman as coach.
The newspaper listed All Blacks assistant Steve Hansen, Waikato coach Warren Gatland, former All Blacks and current Western Force mentor John Mitchell, Crusaders success story Robbie Deans and South African coach Jake White as leading candidates.
It said the WRU would offer a four-year contract until the 2011 World Cup hosted by New Zealand and it would be the best-paid post in rugby, surpassing the A3;250,000 believed to have been paid to Graham Henry when the current All Blacks coach was in charge in the principality.
"We need somebody who is tough," Pickering said.
"They must be somebody who demands high standards and has experience of coaching at the highest level.
"They have to be able to manage professional and demanding athletes and have a clear direction they want to take the team.
"But, above all, they have to be credible candidates and have a real rugby pedigree and ability to do the job."
New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) chairman Jock Hobbs wasn't concerned about the spreading Welsh tentacles, believing his union's appointment process would move quickly enough to ensure no leading candidate slipped through the net.
"We don't think we'll take too long completing this process," Hobbs said.
"It'll get under way now our campaign has come to a finish.
"I need to talk to the coaches, I need to establish the process but we believe we can get all of that completed by Christmas and we don't think that will compromise our opportunities."
Whoever gets the Welsh job will work under a newly-created elite performance director position - an all-encompassing role.
Several Welsh newspapers this week have said that New Zealander Andrew Hore is favoured to be given the role.
Lewis recently described Hore - no relation to the All Blacks hooker of the same name - as the "perfect fit" after a worldwide search.
Hore was the Welsh fitness coach from 2002 to 2005 and is presently a player development manager with the New Zealand Rugby Union.
- NZPA
