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NZR's unicorn blood solution to the Chiefs coaching conundrum
It was widely considered an excellent signing when the Chiefs announced that Warren Gatland would be returning home in 2020 to coach the Waikato-based side.
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Gatland, with two successful Lions series, four Six Nations Championships, and three Grand Slams to his name, is rightfully one of the most respected coaches on the international circuit.
Couple his obvious strengths as a coach with his strong ties to the region – he won the NPC with Waikato back in 2006 – and he’s a perfect fit for the Chiefs.
Gatland’s four-year appointment came with a few stipulations, however.
Having taken the Lions to Australia in 2013 and New Zealand in 2017, Gatland will again take control of the composite side for their tour to South Africa in 2021.
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That role will directly take him away from the Chiefs for a whole season, but Gatland will also be spending plenty of time in 2020 watching, analysis and assessing the talent he’ll have at his disposal in Europe.
Gatland, the consummate professional that he is, won’t be doing a half-arsed job for the Chiefs by any means, but he’ll be effectively working one-and-a-half roles throughout the year.
It’s a situation that outgoing All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has raised his eyebrows at.
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“Having him back in New Zealand for a year, not sure how that’s going to work, because he’s going to do the (British and Irish) Lions after that,” said Hansen after New Zealand’s bronze medal victory over Wales.
“So not a lot of continuity for him or the Chiefs, but I’m sure he’ll work his way through that.”
It will make for a difficult time for the Chiefs, with the impact being further amplified by Gatland’s late entrance to the role.
The Super Rugby season will kick off on the 31st of January with the Blues hosting the Chiefs.
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Naturally, Gatland’s entire focus this year will have been on Wales and their World Cup campaign. It’s expected that Gatland will take at least some time off before jumping straight back into the coach’s seat – but that will prove somewhat problematic for the Chiefs.
On November 30, Gatland will take charge of the Barbarians in a match against Wales, who will be operating under new coach Wayne Pivac for the first time.
Despite the carnival nature of the match, Gatland will still need to spend some time strategising and coaching with his Barbarians squad before game day.
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Super Rugby pre-season will then be well underway in December – which won’t leave one of world rugby’s busiest coaches with much downtime.
Furthermore, the New Zealand Super sides will confirm their squads for 2020 on November 12th and you have to question how prominent a role Gatland had in the recruitment and signing process.
At best, Gatland’s assistants for 2020 will have been doing the rounds, compiling information to send over to Gatland so that he can have the final say.
Of course, we still don’t have much transparency over who Gatland’s assistants actually are, with Tabai Matson the only coach from 2019 who is ‘confirmed’ to still be a part of the set-up.
The Chiefs’ 2019 campaign was hindered by injuries but questions were also raised over Colin Cooper’s player recruitment strategies.
In the Chiefs’ glory years of 2012 and 2013 under Dave Rennie, on-the-nose recruitment played a big part in the team’s success. It’s hard to imagine that a similarly robust recruitment process will play a role in the Chiefs’ 2020 campaign.
2021 will then see the reins handed elsewhere – again, it’s unknown who Gatland has in his coaching team just yet – with Gatland taking his leave for the Lions tour.
That really leaves the Waikato man with just two years of fulltime preparation and coaching. It’s not an ideal set-up by any means, but it sounds like Gatland didn’t have a huge amount of say in the matter.
Gatland originally hoped to take some time off between Wales’ World Cup campaign and the Lions tour, but it wasn’t to be.
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“I got an approach from the Chiefs and felt if I didn’t take that role, then it wouldn’t be there after the Lions,” Gatland said.
“Thankfully the NZ rugby union allowed me to take a year’s sabbatical, so it will be a real challenge.”
It leaves the Chiefs faced with an incredibly disrupted couple of years ahead of them.
As if Gatland has been dining on unicorn blood straight from the wound of New Zealand Rugby, he will be living a half-life with the Chiefs, with one eye on what’s going on in Super Rugby and the other focussed intently on the Northern Hemisphere.
It’s a problem that will affect both the New Zealand franchise and the British and Irish Lions.
Throughout history, the Lions have always employed a coach who has been based in the Northern Hemisphere.
For Gatland’s previous two tours, he was firmly entrenched in the rugby up north thanks to his role with Wales.
In 2009, Ian McGeechan, who was head coach at the London Wasps, took charge of the Lions.
Clive Woodward, who took the Lions to New Zealand in 2005, had been head coach of England until 2004.
One way or another, it’s hard not to see the Lions’ preparation suffering under the current arrangement. If it doesn’t, then you’d have to think that the Chiefs will be left to deal with the consequences.
WATCH: Despite a horrid start to last year’s campaign, the Chiefs somehow still managed to make the play-offs for the seventh year in a row.
Comments on RugbyPass
Jake White is a brilliant coach and a master in the press. This is another masterclass in media relations and PR but its also a very narrow view with arguments that dont always hold water. White wants his team to win, he wants the best players in SA and wants his team competitive. You however have to face up to the reality of a poor exchange rate and big clubs with big budgets. SA Rugby cant compete and unless it can find more money SA players will keep leaving regardless of Springbok eligibility and this happened in 2015 - 2017. Also rugby is not cricket. Cricket has 3 formats and T20 cricket is where the money is at. When it comes to club vs country the IPL is king but that wont happen because the international calendar does not clash with the club calendar in rugby. So the argument about rugby going down the same path as cricket is really a non-starter
13 Go to commentsNZ rugby seem not to have learnt anything from professional rugby. Super rugby was dying and SA left before they died with the competition. SA rugby did a u turn on their approach to international players playing overseas and such players are now selected for Bok teams. As much as each country would love to retain their players playing in local competitions, this is the way the world is evolving my friends. Move with it or stay 20 years behind the times. One more thing. NZ rugby hierarchy think they are the big cheese. Take a more humble approach guys. You do not seem to have your players best interests at heart.
3 Go to commentsBeaches? In Cardiff? Where?
1 Go to commentsHe is right , the Crusaders will be a threat. Scott Barrett, ( particularly), Fergus Burke , Codie Taylor, ( from sabbatical) etc due back soon for the Crusaders. There are others like Zach Gallagher too. People can right the Crusaders off, Top 8 , here we come !!
1 Go to commentsWe will always struggle for money to match the other sides but the least the WRU can do is invest properly in Welsh rugby. Too much has been squandered on vanity projects like the hotel and roof walk amongst others which will never see a massive return. Hanging the 4 pro sides out to dry over the last decade is now coming back to bite the WRU financially as well as on the pitch. You reap what you sow.
1 Go to commentsWhat do you get if you cross a doctor with a fish? A plastic sturgeon
14 Go to commentsWhat happened to feleti Kaitu’u? Hasnt played in a while right?
1 Go to commentsGregor I just can’t agree with you. You are trying to find something that just isn’t there. Jordie Barrett has signed until 2028. By the end of that he would have spent probably 11-12 years on Super Rugby and you say he can’t possibly have one season playing somewhere else. It is absurd. What about this scenario, the NZR play hard ball and he decides to leave and play overseas. How would that affect the competition. There seems to be an agenda by certain journalists to push certain agendas and don’t like it when it’s not to their liking. I fully support the NZR on this. Gregor needs to get a life.
3 Go to commentsHope he stays as believe he can do a great job.
1 Go to commentsMake what step up? Manie has a World Cup winner’s medal around his neck and changed the way the Springboks can play. He doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone. The win record of the Boks with him in the team is tremendous. Sacha can be wonderful and I hope he has a very succesful Bok career, but comparing him to Manie in terms of the next Bok flyhalf is very strange. Manie is the incumbent (not the next) and doing pretty incredibly.
1 Go to comments00 😍 U
1 Go to commentsSabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.
3 Go to commentsJake White talks more sense than anything I've read in the last 5 years. Hope someone's listening.
13 Go to commentsThe Springboks tried going down the road of only picking home-based players and it was an unmitigated disaster in 2016 and 2017. Picking overseas-based players has been one of the main reason the Boks have done so well since 2018, not only because of the quality Rassie could call on, but because of the knowledge and experience those players brought into camp from England, France and Japan. With some of the big names playing abroad it also gave younger players in SA the chance to break through at franchise level. Would we have seen the emergence of a Ruan Nortje if RG and Lood were still at the Bulls? Not so sure. I understand why Jake would want to block players leaving since his job depends on good results but it’s an approach that would take Bok rugby back to the bad old days and no South African wants to see that.
13 Go to commentsExeter were thumped by 38 points. And they only had to hop on a train.
39 Go to commentsI am De Groot.
1 Go to commentsHad hoped you might write an article on this game, Nick. It’s a good one. Things have not gone as smoothly for ROG since beating Leinster last year at the Aviva in the CC final. LAR had the Top 14 Final won till Raymond Rhule missed a simple tackle on the excellent Ntamack, and Toulouse reaped the rewards of just staying in the fight till the death. Then the disruption of the RWC this season. LAR have not handled that well, but they were not alone, and we saw Pau heading the Top 14 table at one stage early season. I would think one of the reasons for the poor showing would have to be that the younger players coming through, and the more mature amongst the group outside the top 25/30, are not as strong as would be hoped for. I note that Romain Sazy retired at the end of last season. He had been with LAR since 2010, and was thus one of their foundation players when they were promoted to Top 14. Records show he ended up with 336 games played with LAR. That is some experience, some rock in the team. He has been replaced for the most part by Ultan Dillane. At 30, Dillane is not young, but given the chances, he may be a fair enough replacement for Sazy. But that won’be for more than a few years. I honestly know little of the pathways into the LAR setup from within France. I did read somewhere a couple of years ago that on the way up to Top 14, the club very successfully picked up players from the academies of other French teams who were not offered places by those teams. These guys were often great signings…can’t find the article right now, so can’t name any….but the Tadgh Beirne type players. So all in all, it will be interesting to see where the replacements for all the older players come from. Only Lleyd’s and Rhule from SA currently, both backs. So maybe a few SA forwards ?? By contrast, Leinster have a pretty clear line of good players coming through in the majority of positions. Props maybe a weak spot ? And they are very fleet footed and shrewd in appointing very good coaches. Or maybe it is also true that very good coaches do very well in the Leinster setup. So, Nick, I would fully concurr that “On the evidence of Saturday’s semi-final between the two clubs, the rebuild in the Bay of Biscay is going to take longer than it is on the east coast of Ireland”
11 Go to commentsWhat was the excuse for the other knockout blowouts then? Does the result not prove the Saints were just so much better? Wise call to put your eggs in one basket when you’ve got 2 comps simultaneously finishing.
39 Go to commentsReally hope Kuruvoli and his partner rock the Canes.
1 Go to commentsI wonder what impact Samson has had on their attack, as the team seems less prone to trundle it up the middle, take the tackle and then trundle it up again. I lost faith in the coach last year as the Rebelss looked like a 2nd/3rd rate South African team. I also disliked Gordon standing back, often ignored as the forward battle went on and on. Maybe its our Aussie way of not getting off our A***’s until the enemy is at the gate.
86 Go to comments