Former All Blacks star Israel Dagg insists that Scott Robertson should not be looking overseas for his next coach following the departure of Jason Holland.
Since the start of the 51-year-old’s reign, New Zealand have lost two of the backroom team with Leon MacDonald and Holland exiting the set-up.
They did not replace MacDonald, and they have yet to make a call on the coaching situation following Holland’s decision to leave at the end of his contract.
Dagg believes that Robertson will bring a new person in, but he hopes they are not foreign and that the All Blacks will instead invest in home-grown coaches.
‘What kind of precedent does that set?’
Asked on the Scotty and Izzy show whether they should look overseas, he responded: “I can see where you’re coming from because the game is evolving. Particularly up in the north, they play a different style and they’ve got some different IP that we could potentially tap into.
“But for me, they’ve (New Zealand Rugby) never done it and I can’t see it happening. What kind of precedent does that set for coaches here in this country?
“I think the problem is we’ve maybe gone away from our identity as a country, the way that we have played the game, which has worked for over 100 years.
“We’ve always been that team that’s loved to use the ball, use our skills. The way that we play the game is open, a willingness to run it.
“We’ve always been solid at set-piece time and we’ve always been creative when it comes to just pulling something out of absolutely nothing.
“We’ve always produced some wonderful finishers, some great athletes. We’ve played a game in the past which has had a little bit of structure but was really unstructured.
“For us, we don’t really want to go pushing the button and searching for that answer offshore. We need to go back to what we have done in the past and what has got us into a position where we are renowned around the globe.”
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Robertson-O’Gara relationship
One thing Robertson did particularly well while at the Crusaders was to integrate the odd foreign coach, who would go on to make a big impact in the set-up.
Welshman Mark Jones spent two seasons in Christchurch in 2020 and 2021, and before that it was Ronan O’Gara who had some time with the ‘Saders in Super Rugby.
Dagg sees O’Gara as a potential option for the All Blacks, but he is the only one currently based abroad that he thinks should be considered.
“Does he (Holland) get replaced? I’m sure,” he said.
“If there’s someone out there, it’s potentially Ronan O’Gara. Razor’s got a great relationship with him, I’ve been coached by him, he’s an awesome coach – I absolutely loved my time with Ronan.
“If that is the case, he could potentially be an option but other than that I can’t really see anyone else out there overseas that can come in and do that role.
“For me personally, I would rather select from within and grow our own coaches.
“I would love to see Tony Brown come back, but I don’t see that happening. Rassie’s signed through to 2040, so that ain’t happening!”