Former Moari All Blacks lock Joe Wheeler believes that New Zealand Rugby have conceded that the country doesn’t have all the best coaches in the world anymore.
This, after former Scotland scrum-half Mike Blair was unveiled as one of Dave Rennie’s new All Blacks’ assistant coaches on Tuesday.
Blair has a glittering CV from his playing days and has quickly made a name for himself as a coach following his retirement in 2016. He was part of the Glasgow Warriors coaching team when Rennie arrived in Scotland and stayed in the role until 2019, whilst also lending a hand to Gregor Townsend with the national team.
In 2021, he became Edinburgh’s head coach, a role he held until 2023 before linking up with Rennie again in 2023 at Kobe in Japan. He now follows the head coach to New Zealand, becoming one of the rare examples of a foreign coach joining the All Blacks‘ coaching staff despite never holding a role with a team in the country.
New Zealand Rugby’s massive concession
Blair was unveiled along with All Blacks legend Tana Umaga and highly-regarded and experienced forwards coach Neil Barnes as the new additions to the coaching ticket, whilst Jason Ryan has been retained by Rennie and will now work under a third head coach with the national team.
Appearing on a special edition of Sky Sport NZ’s The Breakdown show, reacting to the new assistant coaches, Wheeler said that Blair’s appointment is a compromise from NZR and an admission that there are better coaches than the ones in New Zealand.
“That’s a massive concession from New Zealand Rugby first and foremost that they are willing to select coaches from outside of New Zealand,” the former Highlanders second rower said.
“Because we’ve always prided ourselves on the fact that we do have the best coaches in the world. So for them to make a concession that shows that they’re giving all the faith to Dave Rennie that he’s got his man. Dave obviously rates this guy super highly.”
All Blacks: Dave Rennie names assistant coaches as Tana Umaga headlines four-man group
The challenge for Mike Blair
Wheeler admits to not really knowing much about the former scrum-half but adds that he has heard good things about his work, and highlighted the challenges that await the Scotsman.
“I’ve heard a lot of good things, but I don’t know too much about him. But I’ve heard some good things, especially around how he breaks down northern hemisphere defensive systems in terms of the attacking system of the All Blacks,” he continued.
“But I think the hard thing for him and the challenge he’s going to face is how he’s going to implant some of his ideology in such a short amount of time, and getting the players on the same page as what he is around, how he wants this All Black team to play in attack.”
Joining Wheeler on the show was former All Blacks fly-half Lima Sopoaga, who believes that Blair is up for the challenge and that he and Rennie would be working late nights in Kobe to get their plans in place.
“You’re right, but Dave Rennie is no slouch. He doesn’t bring someone all the way to New Zealand if he doesn’t believe or if they haven’t already had chats about how they want to play and what they want to do,” the former playmaker remarked.
“These guys will be planning now for Kobe and then in the after-hours, I know Rennie and Blair will be heavily involved in where they see the game going, how the All Blacks have failed or where they see that they can grow massive parts of the game, especially in attack. It’s exciting, but it’s also a new start to an All Blacks campaign and I’m looking forward to it.”
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