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Steve Hansen stayed on two years too long as All Blacks head coach says former NZR boss

By Online Editors
Steve Hansen. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

Former New Zealand Rugby CEO David Moffett believes Steve Hansen and his All Blacks coaching staff stayed on two years too long, and it cost them the Rugby World Cup.

Speaking to Martin Devlin on Newstalk ZB, Moffett argued that New Zealand Rugby should have taken plenty of lessons from the All Blacks’ semifinal exit at the World Cup, and that the applicants to replace Hansen as head coach should be able to highlight what went wrong in the build-up.

“The thing I’d be looking for is what vision they have for the future of New Zealand rugby, and what learnings have they taken from the last two years,” Moffett told Devlin.

“I have a lot of respect for Hansen but I think he and the people with him went on for two years too long.

“For the past 12 months, I don’t think they’ve known who is their best side. I think that was shown in their selections for their game against England, and I don’t think they knew what their best gameplan was.”

Moffett, who was the NZR boss from 1996-2000, believes now is the time to bring in a fresh face for the All Blacks’ top job.

“What there is a real opportunity now to do is inject some real enthusiasm to the All Blacks, and that will start with the coaching team.

“I actually think we need some fresh young new thinking into the All Blacks system.”

Moffett, who said the successful applicant should get a four-year deal with an out clause for both parties, says the key in hiring the right person would be finding someone who could work together strongly with the NZR chairman Brent Impey and CEO Mark Robinson.

“If you’ve got those three in sync, you’re halfway there, and that’s why Impey and Robinson have got to have the biggest say in the selection of the coach.

“If the wheels fall off the All Blacks because they got the coach wrong, it will rest with two people – the chairman and the chief executive.

“The guy under the most pressure in that room is Mark Robinson. If he just goes along with everybody else and gets it wrong, that will be on his CV forever. He needs to stand up and make his mark – he gets one chance to do this.

“Getting the right coach to coach the All Blacks is likely the biggest decision he’s ever going to make.”

This article first appeared on the NZ Herald and is re-published with permission here. 

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Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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