Rugby: Split Blues board won't shift on Kirwan

John Kirwan. Photo Heath Johnson/Photosport.co.nz

The Blues board remain deadlocked on coach John Kirwan's future.

Blues chief executive Michael Redman today updated the media on the saga, which he admitted had the potential to turn prospective players away from the franchise.

"The board hasn't met this week so they are working through the process through the chairman. There's no formal meeting scheduled but that will happen soon," Redman said.

In the meantime, the Blues' board will almost definitely miss their deadline of the end of May for an announcement on the coach for next year and beyond.

"The original deadline was the end of May and ideally we'd stick to that but I expect it will push out now but not far we hope."

Redman added: "It's not ideal and certainly the way things played out last week is not ideal for our sponsors, members and fans, but in the end it was always going to be challenging when you're needing to make a decision and review mid-season," Redman said.

"This is one of the biggest decisions our club will make every few years. It's not surprising there's strong and passionate views around the table. It's important the achieve the right decision rather than a fast decision."

Redman said the franchise had attempted to keep the players informed. "We brief them. They read stuff in the paper and we clarify the bits that we need to and they have assured us that they are focused on preparing each week.

"Inevitably there will be some current players and players who would like to come here that would like to see the outcome of the process before they commit, but it hasn't been a huge feature of our negotiations so far, but the longer it drags on the more impact it will have on recruitment and the board is aware of that and that is another reason why we want to resolve that as soon as we can."