Next All Blacks coach: New Zealand Rugby faces contract battle over Jamie Joseph or Dave Rennie – Gregor Paul
THE FACTS
Right now, the question is who, but the issue will soon become when, because New Zealand Rugby faces potentially delicate diplomatic challenges to extricate both of their leading candidates for the vacant All Blacks coaching job from their current contracts.
New Zealand Rugby (NZR) will get its man – that’s not in doubt – but when exactly it gets access to him, be it either Jamie Joseph or Dave Rennie – is a big unknown.
With applications for the job having closed on Tuesday and strong reason to believe Joseph and Rennie are the only two candidates that will be interviewed, NZR is hopeful that it will have the next All Blacks coach signed within six weeks.
On that timeline, the new man will likely be announced in early-mid-March – which will be sometime between rounds five and six of Super Rugby Pacific, which kicks off next week, and about week 10 or 11 of the 18-week Japanese Top League.
Getting Rennie – he’s with the Kobe Steelers – out of Japan will likely be simpler and less fraught than dealing with the complexities and sensitivities of hauling Joseph out of a Super club midway through a campaign.
Rennie is off contract at the end of the season (early June) and signalled to Kobe some time ago that he would not be extending his stay beyond the current season.
Kobe have already secured coaching replacements for next season and Sir Wayne Smith is joining as director of rugby – and so the assumption is that having been transparent with the club about his future, Rennie has declared to his current employer that he has applied for the All Blacks job.
If he is successful, the question will become how quickly he can be extricated from Japan and whether Kobe will be willing to release him before the end of the season so he can have more than just a couple of weeks to prepare the team before the July tests.
The other issue will be how feasible it is for Rennie to select an All Blacks squad when he is in Japan.
There would be some risk to the All Blacks if Rennie can’t be released from his Japanese commitment until late May/early June (depending on how far Kobe go in the competition).
But NZR will be hoping Rennie’s honesty with the club, combined with a compensation payment, may be enough for Kobe – who have a quality assistant in former Scotland halfback Mike Blair – to agree to an early release.
In the case of Joseph, the picture is more complicated, because while he’s contracted to NZR, he’s coaching a team which is more than 80% owned by private investors.
While the investors will be more than supportive of Joseph taking the role, they will, rightly, have concerns that they could lose their head coach midway through a campaign.
And this is where the balancing act may kick in for NZR. It has to set the All Blacks up to succeed and would ideally want the new coach in place and free of all other commitments as soon as possible, but it needs to be respectful and mindful that the Highlanders investment group have made a significant commitment.
On the other side of this, the Highlanders would ideally like to hold on to Joseph, if he is successful in his All Blacks job quest, until the end of the campaign, and so the discussion point will be whether there is a compromise scenario that enables both parties to feel they are not disadvantaged by one man being in demand from two teams.
It must also be recognised that Super Rugby has endured prolonged reputational damage over the years as a result of accommodating All Blacks’ requests to rest star players. Seeing the Highlanders punished for developing the next All Blacks coach will be another poor and potentially unjust outcome.
Had this scenario arisen a couple of years ago under the previous NZR board, the Highlanders would likely be nervous about how things might play out – wary that there was unlikely to be any open dialogue or appetite for genuine consultation.
But the Herald understands that the incumbent NZR board, which will make the decision about who should be the next All Blacks coach, is aware of how disruptive the process could be to the Highlanders and will work closely with the club on an exit strategy for Joseph should he be successful.
Super Rugby Pacific’s final is scheduled for June 20, and the All Blacks’ first test, against France, is on July 4.
Discussions will focus on determining how hands-on Joseph can remain with the Highlanders when he’ll have obligations to select an All Blacks squad, plan the season and work with his fellow coaches and management team to ensure the national side is ready for what is unquestionably going to be one of the hardest years in decades.
The Highlanders, who have former head coach Clarke Dermody on staff, are also believed to be willing to accommodate the All Blacks’ needs, and it may be that a plan is agreed whereby Joseph splits his time between the two roles, gradually increasing his focus on the international job.
Gregor Paul is one of New Zealand’s most respected rugby writers and columnists. He has won multiple awards for journalism and written several books about sport.