The one thing everyone’s missing in the All Blacks coaching situation

Source: Radio New Zealand

Analysis – Scott Hansen has become the most talked-about man in the All Blacks, which is somewhat fitting given he isn’t short of a word himself when he wants. Back in March 2019 he gave one of the more memorable post-match press conferences, after his Sunwolves side hadn’t just caused an upset in Hamilton but given the Chiefs an absolute hiding.

It was no surprise that Hansen was more than happy to answer any questions about the result, but in what is probably a first for rugby coaches, he decided that not enough questions had been asked and offered to keep the microphones rolling while he talked through just what the win meant.

Fast forward six years and Hansen is now the All Black staff’s second in command. The somewhat convoluted way in which that’s been made official has certainly garnered headlines, exposing the knowledge gap between those in the know and the common fan, but also called Hansen’s credentials into question.

Then there’s the radical calls for Scott Robertson and Hansen to be replaced, with the sole name being bandied about that of Jamie Joseph.

But here’s the thing that ties that last two points together. Probably due to the fact that Hansen’s coaching career has been so massively overshadowed by Robertson, no one seems to have remembered that Hansen was part of Joseph and Tony Brown’s Japan coaching staff during their historic 2019 World Cup run, then for four years afterwards.

So you can’t really tell the story of Joseph’s greatest achievement, which is what is being held up as the main credential over Robertson’s relative inexperience at test level, without acknowledging Hansen’s role in it.

The power Joseph had in Japan was arguably even greater than what Rassie Erasmus enjoys with the Springboks now, which was understandable at the time given they were determined to make an impression as World Cup hosts. Joseph was able to control every aspect of his player’s schedules in the lead up to the tournament, keeping skipper Michael Leitch in cotton wool and using the Sunwolves reserve team as a shadow national selection for live training exercises.

The delegation to Hansen even extended to Tony Brown handing over the Sunwolves coaching duties, which resulted in the aforementioned win over the Chiefs in his first game in charge. The rest of the Sunwolves’ season only garnered one more win, admittedly, but Hansen returned to the Japan national team to help engineer landmark wins over Ireland and Scotland at the World Cup.

A lesson in clarity

If nothing else, this has been a lesson in clarity for Robertson and NZ Rugby. Around the time Hansen was being given the Sunwolves job, Robertson was making his ultimately unsuccessful play to be the next All Black coach. His ticket was clear: he would be the head coach with Leon MacDonald as his assistant, which made perfect sense given their long history of first teammates and then coaching together.

Robertson was ultimately passed over for Ian Foster. But at some point, in the dramatic next four years while Foster dealt with the massive on and off field pressures, the dynamic between Robertson and MacDonald changed. Just exactly when that was is a bit of a mystery, but it’s clear that also at some point the relationship between Hansen and Robertson formed into one that not only led to an employment arrangement, but a role for Hansen as the 2IC.

The theory goes that while the situation wasn’t made official publicly, by the time the arrangement got put into practice it wasn’t to MacDonald’s liking and led directly to his exit after only three tests.

Since then we’ve had Hansen, Jason Ryan, Jason Holland and Tamati Ellison as assistants, with Ryan likely the one that more than a few All Black fans would’ve presumed would be the right hand man given he’d already been in the set up before Robertson arrived. That sort of misconception should’ve been cleared up, especially as problems with the wider coaching staff was one of the major things hindering Foster’s time in charge.

Is it that bad?

It’s exactly that comparison that does put the current situation into perspective, though. Hansen’s role isn’t even the most pressing issue, it’s that MacDonald and Holland have left. It’s obviously not great, but even then, they weren’t fired like John Plumtree and Brad Mooar were.

In fact, as far as All Black coaching dramas go, this isn’t even really on the first page and not just because it’s come after the Foster era. John Mitchell made himself so unpopular he got let go after one of the most successful records in history, Grizz Wyllie and John Hart got made co-coaches despite hating each other, and Fred Allen quit in part because NZRFU chairman Tom Morrison allegedly tried to influence selections – only for Allen to be succeeded by Ivan Vodanovich, a co-owner of Morrison’s Wellington menswear shop.

It’s also worth taking into account that Robertson has been open about his grand strategy of creating depth for the 2027 World Cup, although probably not open enough about just how much of his role is doing that. Without knowing the exact inner workings of the team, it feels like Robertson is more of a director of rugby. Which in itself might not be a bad thing given the development success so far, but he should’ve just given himself that title up front.

But the key thing here, as always with the All Blacks, is results. If Robertson is in strategic command, Hansen is the tactical leader and that’s where the team has been found wanting in three very different but all completely disappointing losses this season. Had those been wins, we likely wouldn’t even be talking about this.

If he is head coach in all but name, Hansen should be the one fronting after those results, or at least sit next to Robertson post-match the same way Foster would as assistant to Steve Hansen, so that tactical questions can get addressed. At the very least, he should be up for media and therefore answering to the public as the official 2IC on a weekly basis.

The big unknown here is just exactly what the most important people in all of this, the players, feel about this situation. There’s been plenty of conjecture and very little of it good, but the only way those stories are getting told any time soon is through the official team review.

That’s due sometime in January. If there are more departures from the coaching staff, we’ll know exactly what was said.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand