Former All Blacks weigh in on the timing of Tony Brown's appointment

Former All Blacks Jeff Wilson, James Parsons, and Stephen Donald have weighed in on Monday’s announcement of Tony Brown as an All Blacks assistant coach from 2028.

Brown will complete his role with Rassie Erasmus and the Springboks at the conclusion of the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia, and will join whatever coaching group is contracted with New Zealand Rugby in 2028.

As it stands, Dave Rennie and the rest of his All Blacks coaching staff are only contracted until the Rugby World Cup, meaning Brown is the first piece of the puzzle post the 2027 tournament.

The current Springboks assistant is locked in on a two-year deal with New Zealand Rugby from 2028, returning to coach the side he played 18 Tests for between 1999 and 2001.

Discussing the announcement on a Sky Sport Breakdown special, Wilson and the rest of the panel were shocked by the timing of the appointment.

“Look, it’s awesome news. I think it’s great for the fact that New Zealand rugby got the man. Look, there’s no doubt that they wanted Tony to be involved, but he’d committed himself to the Springboks and South African Rugby,” Wilson said.

“Clearly now there’s that window of opportunity after the Rugby World Cup, interesting timing, but excited for New Zealand rugby once again, because you get the sense you’ve got one of the best in the world working with our best players.

“I would be absolutely surprised if there’s any coach out there that doesn’t want him, there’s too much history there.

“I like the fact that the opportunities we presented to them, and they’ve gone, we’ve got to make a decision now, we can’t sit on our hands, we can’t wait, it’s time for it to happen.”

Donald, a former All Blacks first five himself, was confused with the timing, considering the new coaching staff are yet to even take a training session.

“For me, it’s just fascinating that you can’t trust three people, because essentially I don’t know if I agree with the fact that they just announced it before this new crew comes in,” Donald told the Breakdown on Sky Sport.

“Like 100% I agree with the appointment, absolutely brilliant, let’s lock him in, but I just don’t know how you couldn’t have said right, you three people in New Zealand know, and we will just announce it after that.”

Two-Test former All Black hooker James Parsons goes down a different route, praising new High Performance Director Don Tricker for the signing of Brown.

“It [the timing] is funny, but there’s one person in this press release that I certainly have a lot of time for, and a lot of trust in terms of the process that would have been run, and the fact that it would have been transparent to the current All Black coaching group, and that’s Don Tricker.

“But he was a big coup for New Zealand Rugby to bring back as the head of High Performance, and getting teams in black winning, and you know that it would be extremely thorough.”