Super Rugby: Mass vacancies and a showpiece clash

From left Scott Hansen, Jason Holland and Leon MacDonald who will join the All Blacks coaching set-up from next year.
Photo: Photosport www.photosport.nz

Opinion – The worst kept rugby secret in New Zealand was finally acknowledged this week. Leon MacDonald, Jason Holland and Scott Hansen will join Scott Robertson’s coaching set-up at the All Blacks next year, joining Jason Ryan who is already there.

The moves have been so telegraphed that the teams affected by the hirings – the Blues, Crusaders and Hurricanes – would have been hitting the market and probably calling the same people to hopefully take over their sides for Super Rugby Pacific 2024. Which is pretty stupid, when you think about it.

This is no slight on MacDonald, Hansen and Holland, they didn’t build this pathway that they’re on. But the fact remains that rugby union is the only professional sport in the world where being someone’s assistant is more preferable (and presumably more lucrative) than being a head coach in a top domestic competition.

Can you imagine Ivan Cleary, Pep Guardiola or Andy Reid happily trading in their sole charge empires to take instructions from someone else? Also, what does it say about Robertson, who for years has been touted as the answer to all the All Blacks’ problems, that he needs three of the next best coaches around him to implement that? It paints a pretty sorry picture about the state of coaching right now, what needs to happen in order to move your way up the ladder, as well as carelessly splashing all over Super Rugby’s credibility.

Because of this we now have three Super Rugby teams, and good ones at that, scrambling to find coaches to maintain not only their on-field performance but also to be the sort of figurehead that drives players to join their set-ups. Meanwhile, the Chiefs are sitting back laughing after re-signing Clayton McMillan for the foreseeable future as they drive for a perfect season.

And it’s those two top coaches that will be facing off against one another this weekend. The undoubted game of the round is on Saturday night in Hamilton, when the Crusaders roll into town and try to give the Chiefs a loss for the first time this season. Much like when the Chiefs played the Hurricanes a fortnight ago, or the Blues and Crusaders clash from round four, this is about as good as it gets for Super Rugby Pacific.

There’s a host of All Black match-ups across the park, with the two most talked about men in the game starting for the Chiefs. A few weeks ago, stating that Damian McKenzie should be starting first five for the All Blacks was a way to be a contrarian, now it’s looking like more and more of a probability if Ian Foster is true to his word about rewarding form. His head-to-head battle with Richie Mo’unga will be worth the watch on its own.

Meanwhile, Shaun Stevenson hasn’t put a foot wrong all year and seems a shoe-in to make the All Blacks regardless. There’s also an intriguing match up in the second row, with the two old heads Samuel Whitelock and Brodie Retallick, who both have young talent under their arms in Dom Gardiner and Tupou Vaa’i when they pack down. Leicester Fainga’anuku goes up against the exciting Emoni Narawa, another two men who are on Foster’s radar.

This may well be a preview of the final, with the Chiefs desperate to hang onto home ground advantage for when that rolls around. For the Crusaders, their motivation lies in giving Robertson one last breakdance before his long walk out the door is completed.

It says a lot about what’s good about Super Rugby that we get a match like this. It unfortunately also says a lot about what’s wrong with it since so many coaches want to walk away from it.