‘Writing was on the wall’ for Scott Robertson as Eddie Jones predicts next All Blacks coach
Former All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson and an inset of Eddie Jones.
Eddie Jones believes that New Zealand Rugby’s criteria for the next All Blacks head coach are on point and has predicted who will take on the job.
Earlier this week, NZ Rugby publicly advertised the vacancy, inviting New Zealand coaches with international experience as head coach to apply for the position.
Those requirements have ruled out several coaches around the world, including the likes of Pat Lam and Clayton McMillan, while Joe Schmidt and Vern Cotter have both made themselves unavailable.
NZ Rugby shows good leadership
Ian Foster and Scott Robertson did not have experience as international head coaches before taking on the All Blacks‘ top job, but their predecessors, Sir Graham Henry and Sir Steve Hansen, did, and Jones believes that was crucial to them being successful.
In fact, he believes that it is strong leadership from the NZ Rugby board to insist that it is a requirement for whoever takes charge of the team.
“I think it’s a really good, strong point,” Jones said on the Rugby Unity podcast.
“All Blacks rugby has been the best in the world; they want to have a New Zealand coach for their national team.
“I think it’s really good. I think it’s fantastic, and it shows good leadership.”
He continued, “If you look at historically in New Zealand, two of their most successful coaches have been Graham Henry and Steve Hansen, and what do they both have in common? They both had successful Super Rugby careers, but then both of them went to Wales.
“Graham Henry was the King of Wales for a while there, but ended up being run out of town at the end, and Steve Hansen had a difficult time there, I think he lost 10 Tests in a row, but ended up having a good World Cup with them, and both took that experience back to New Zealand to become great All Black coaches.”
Jones believes that it’s even more important nowadays that the All Blacks head coach has experience coaching at the highest level, with New Zealand and Australia being more isolated following South Africa and Argentina’s exit from Super Rugby.
He adds that NZ Rugby has picked up on this and acted accordingly.
“Particularly now, how world rugby is that Australia and New Zealand are relatively isolated from the rest of the rugby world,” he explained.
“I think not having that experience coaching internationally before you get the All Black coach is something they’ve probably picked up on, and therefore I think that’s, you know, again, a good bit of leadership by New Zealand Rugby Union.”
Who will be the next head coach?
Jamie Joseph is widely regarded as the frontrunner to fill Robertson’s void, as he fulfils the necessary job specs, ticking the international head coach box with his eight-year stint with Japan, where he guided the Brave Blossoms to the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals in 2019.
Jones has since taken over at the helm of Japanese Rugby and predicts that his predecessor will be appointed as the new All Blacks boss, with New Zealand Rugby providing a hint last year.
“When they made Jamie Joseph the New Zealand XV coach last year, I think the writing was on the wall; they really rate him,” he said.
“He’s done a good job of resurrecting the Highlanders. Again, experienced a couple of tough seasons there; he had international experience with Japan for eight years.”
While former Wallabies boss Dave Rennie is also seen as a frontrunner, Jones tabled the idea of the two coaches working together.
“I think maybe they’ll do a team between him and Dave Rennie, who again had experience coaching Australia. So that’ll give you a fairly strong two coaches at the top of the tree,” he added.
The 65-year-old has his fair share of international coaching experience, having worked with Australia (twice), South Africa, England and Japan (twice).
He has explained why it is so important for a coach to gain experience at the highest level.
“Two main things, firstly, just from a knowledge point of view, like, coming out of Australia, our whole thing was to run with the ball,” he explained.
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“We played an attacking style of game, but we know Test match rugby’s a combination of kicking and running; having had the experience with South Africa and England, you learn about how valuable the kicking game can be.
“The second thing is that you learn to adapt. You go into a different environment socially; it’s different, the context is different, and you learn to adapt.
“Those two skills, as an international coach and having great knowledge of the game and being able to adapt to certain situations, are really important going forward.”
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