Wales come to New Zealand for a highly-anticipated Test series and I think Wales’ Kiwi coach Warren Gatland, with the job he’s done with the Dragons, has got all the credentials to be New Zealand coach one day.
He did really well at Wasps originally and over the course of the last two World Cups, Wales made the semi-finals in 2011 and should have arguably been in the final, while they played a really good brand of rugby in the 2015 competition despite their injuries.
They managed to make it through to the quarter-finals even though they were in the pool of death too. He has the pedigree and the history behind him, plus he has earned the respect within the rugby community, so yeah, I think he’d be an ideal candidate for the New Zealand job.
I think he would be my choice. I’m trying to think who else there is. Wayne Smith, who was the assistant coach to Steve Hansen in 2011 and 2015, I’m not sure if he has aspirations to be the head coach or he’s happy doing what he’s doing, but he’s another guy who’s been involved for a long time and is respected worldwide. He would be a guy that springs to mind. I think Gatland and Smith are the standout two for the role.
There are guys in the system who are good coaches, like Mike Cron, who’s been looking after the forwards. Whether he’d be in the same league as Gatland I’m not sure. With the job he’s done at Wales I think he’s shown enough to get a crack at being the All Blacks coach.
It was great for New Zealand to win back-to-back World Cups, which has not been done before. From my perspective to see them do it after all the years of not being able to win a World Cup was really satisfying.
They got the monkey off their back of not winning a World Cup outside of New Zealand, so it’s really interesting to see where the team does go now because the World Cup pressure has gone.
They could take on a whole new dimension in terms of style of play and how they develop. They’ve obviously lost a core of important guys in Richie McCaw, Dan Carter, Ma’a Nonu, Ben Smith and Tony Woodcock but you can see the talent coming through from watching Super Rugby. There’s guys knocking on the door and the All Blacks ship keeps sailing, it’s just a case of who’s on it. Over time you’ll see how these young guys will fit in and adapt really quickly into the new environment.
There’s confidence in the youth. The thing about New Zealand’s system is that they have the guys coming through. They might not be big names but they’re good players.
Already, when those guys get through to the professional level, they’re well educated about what they need to do, how to play the game, their skill levels, so there shouldn’t be too much concern. Obviously experience is something you can’t get at that age, they’ll lack that and being able to deal with big pressure situations, but there’s four years until the next World Cup.
The kids back home know everything about what’s associated with pulling that black jersey on. It’s passed down through the generations. I know our generation had a lot of stuff passed down from Zinny (Zinzan Brooke) and Sean Fitzpatrick. And it was probably passed down to them by the Alan Whettons, Buck Shelfords and that era before.
That’s the great thing about All Blacks rugby, the traditions, expectations to perform and what it means to represent New Zealand. I think it goes way back to our days of colony starting out, playing rugby against the commonwealth. It was always a thing that we had a point to prove and I think that’s still prominent today in the New Zealand psyche, especially in rugby.