Rugby: Blues want the world's best

Nick Mallett is out of work after his contract as Italy's head coach expired and he lost out on the England job. Photo / Getty Images

The advert says head coach but really the Blues are looking for a whole coaching team - probably at a heavy financial cost - to lead them out of the worst slump in their history.

Experience and proven track record will be important when the Blues and New Zealand Rugby Union come to sift head coach candidates at the end of next month.

The key to getting the job, however, will be the strength of the overall coaching team that is proposed. The days of one man landing the job and then finding an assistant are gone.

The Blues want certainty about the overall package - clear proof that whoever they appoint as head coach, already has in mind the make-up of his wider team.

The failings of their set-up this year - with just two full-time coaches - have been horribly exposed and next year the Blues will operate with an expanded team of full-time coaches.

"It was felt the best way forward was to get the position out there for 2013 and to get the best coaching group together for 2013 that we can," said Blues chief executive Andy Dalton when announcing the job was now up for tender.

Former Blues assistant Joe Schmidt is currently head coach of high-flying Leinster, where former All Blacks Jono Gibbes and Greg Feek are part of the wider coaching team.

That trio would be an attractive package to the Blues but Schmidt is contracted until 2013, with the Irish province keen to tie him in for longer. Clermont coach Vern Cotter has worked with Schmidt in the past - both at Bay of Plenty and in France - but he too is under contract until next year and allowed to break it only if he is offered the All Black job. Another renowned ready-made Kiwi coaching team is Lions duo John Mitchell and Carlos Spencer.

It is believed that if an overseas coach is appointed, the NZRU and Blues would be keen to see at least one domestic assistant in the coaching team. Tana Umaga would be a strong option as backs coach. It is not impossible, but unlikely, that Pat Lam could be retained as a forwards coach.

The Chiefs have shown the value of a wider coaching team and the need to have like minds in the group that can gel and work without egos bashing against each other. The Brumbies have also shown what can be achieved if a franchise stretches itself to bring on board a world class coach such as Jake White.

Both those teams, though, had to increase massively their investment in coaching personnel. If the Blues want to build an effective team of coaches, they are going to have to be prepared to dig deep.

The reason they have brought forward the advertisement of the head coaching job is to ensure they have a chance to attract the biggest coaching names in world rugby.

If they held off until August, men such as Nick Mallett and Martin Johnson may have committed their futures elsewhere.

These are the calibre of men the Blues are hoping to entice, which is why they are going to have to throw enormous money into their coaching team. The Chiefs made that decision when they signed Wayne Smith and did so knowing they would have to cut investment elsewhere.

"We initially had a three-man coaching team in mind when we appointed Dave Rennie as head coach," says Chiefs chief executive Gary Dawson. "He had his two assistants in mind but when the possibility of securing Wayne came up, we thought it was too good an opportunity to miss.

"We have had to cut back on our marketing budget and other areas and there has even been some cutbacks on the expenditure on some of the team costs."

The Chiefs' position at the top of the New Zealand conference and the booming interest in the franchise have made the investment in the coaching team worthwhile.