Steve Lancaster: 'I think the role and the opportunity speaks for itself'

And now Vern Cotter is out. The prospective head coach with best record. Good company for Schmidt, and Smith, and Brown etc. All the best are disappearing…

So it’s Joseph’s by default, despite his ordinary record. And the fact his career is based around coaching 2nd tier teams, where losing is tolerated as a product of lack of resources, even though with the Highlanders Joseph was directly responsible for that lack of resources.

NZR won’t appoint Rennie or Gatland, too much bad blood, so the real question is can they get them to work for Joseph? With Gatland you have to wonder if they would even want him on those terms. His resentment about the way he was treated in 2017 runs pretty deep, so his emotions under pressure could become an issue.

Odds that in the end that the only real change will be replacing Robertson with Joseph? Getting higher with every defection. Particularly given that Hansen, the supposed problem in Robertsons coaching team, is still employed by NZR. And despite repeated claims in NZ peculiarly stupid and bigoted rugby media, did have test coaching experience before the AB’s.

With Japan. With Jamie Joseph. At RWC 2019.

Hilarious.

So many ticking bombs in this whole process.

1. Results. Always the basis of the assessment of the AB's, irrespective of any drivel about trajectories. The AB's lose 4 or more games in 2026, particularly SA three times, particularly if all three are in SA, then lose to England, costing them a place in the Nations Championship grand final, then it will all hit the fan. More losses than that, it will be a storm. As has been stated repeatedly, all AB coaches are three losses away from being fired, as Robertson has been. This will not change, for all the delusions of those who supported Robertson's sacking.

2. Process. It's all unbelievably shoddy. There is no one with any experience of coaching professional rugby making this decision. Tricker is the only one on the panel qualified, both as coach and from a high performance POV. Again, if results go wrong, then the second guessing will begin and build in crescendo with every loss. Any major misjudgments by the coach will be seem to be a product of a poor choice by the NZR. That coach will have their previous record picked apart, Joseph will be coach of "2nd tier Japan," Rennie will be "the coach with the worst record in the Wallabies history," while the losers in this beauty contest will be elevated to spurned saviours. I can already see the headlines.

3. Ardie Savea. The almost inevitable captain. Player feedback destroyed Robertson, and Savea seeking options overseas drove the knife home. His role in all this will follow him around, and if the AB's start losing and he makes mistakes, too which he is prone, and particularly if his form slips any further, then everything he has done will become a major issue. And that's beyond his internal position against those players who did not want Robertson fired.

Tick, Tick, Tick.

You can wrap that bike however you want, but when it’s under the Xmas tree we know damn well what it is.

So give it to Jaime Joe, chop chop.

A poster commented that Wayne Smith was heading for a job overseas.

Does anyone know anything about this that could provide more details?

NZR should just get on with it. If they don’t know who their man is already, it’s concerning.

Most of the top candidates are already in jobs with other countries or international clubs. It’s not a great look for your current employer to be applying for another job, with no guarantee of success. It’s delusional to expect them to, no matter how great you think your position is.

Schmidt has already ruled himself out in respect to his current employer. Brown similarly too. We don’t know if Renee is prepared to risk damaging his current working relationship to apply for a new job he might never get. It will be difficult to run this whole process in secret.

If NZR expect these guys to walk away from their current commitments, they need concrete offers on the table to consider doing so. Expecting a flood of CVs in their inbox, because the opportunity speaks for itself, is misguided at best.

“All it is really is an acknowledgement that we’re halfway through a World Cup cycle, two years out from the next World Cup, and we simply don’t have time for someone to find their feet in international rugby,” the interim NZR CEO said.

This is an amazing acknowledgment by NZR. And I've said it many times now - but when they appointed a coach and team with almost zero international experience in the first place - then 4 years is enough time for someone to find their feet in international rugby.

Now they’ve gone and burned their feet, wasted time and given the next poor soul 18 months to win the World Cup.

Good job guys.

Is there a link one can send their applications too? Or an email address? info@nzr?

Asking for a friend.

Can this get any worse. Clearly no contingency plan and all assistant coaches staying. What on earth happened - a complete mutiny?

Jamie Joseph hit the ground running when he was appointed the AB’sXV head coach 30 September, 2 months prior to their winning 3 from 3 November tour.

Joseph or Rennie, we seem to be heading towards that showdown, even though Cotter or even Mitchell should not be ruled out.

A New Zealand coach (which rules out ROG), with mandatory international experience.

Moreover, what Lancaster says about the assistants is interesting. A very highly qualified staff… He also says that the future head coach could continue to work with them, even though at this stage it remains rather unclear.

By the way, could the loser of the presumed duel between Joseph and Rennie ultimately become the other’s assistant?

I also interpret this as yet another snub to Robertson.

In 2022, NZR had concluded that Foster needed to be surrounded by more highly qualified assistants to get things back on track. This time, the board unanimously concluded that it was the head coach who was not properly managing his (qualified) group of assistants and was not delivering the expected performance. That is extremely harsh on Robertson.

Rennie international experience Basically Sacked by Aussie

JJoseph international experience Japan

I don’t belive that this makes them more qualified than a successful coach of SR or even NPC.