{"id":422194,"date":"2026-01-19T00:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T00:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/422194\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T00:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T00:12:13","slug":"former-chiefs-boss-responds-to-question-about-all-blacks-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/422194\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Chiefs boss responds to question about All Blacks job"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Former Chiefs<\/a> head coach and current Munster<\/a> boss Clayton McMillan has spoken out about a potential shift back to New Zealand<\/a> to coach the All Blacks<\/a>, less than a year after making the move to Ireland.<\/p>\n

McMillan\u2019s Munster bowed out of the Champions Cup over the weekend after a 31-29 defeat against Castres<\/a> at Thomond Park in Limerick.<\/p>\n

With Scott Robertson\u2019s All Blacks tenure ending at the two-year mark, rumours have started to swirl in the rugby world about who may take over in the middle of the four-year Rugby World Cup<\/a> cycle.<\/p>\n

The 51-year-old Munster head coach has been thrown around as one of the possible options, with the likes of Jamie Joseph<\/a>, Dave Rennie, and Joe Schmidt leading the discussions, while Vern Cotter, Pat Lam<\/a>, Warren Gatland, and McMillan have been mentioned as outside chances.<\/p>\n

The former police officer coached the Chiefs to three straight Super Rugby Pacific<\/a> finals, but fell short to the Blues<\/a> in 2024 and the Crusaders<\/a> in 2023 and 2025.<\/p>\n

McMillan coached the All Blacks XV<\/a> and the Maori All Blacks<\/a> before departing New Zealand shores with one year left on his contract to take up the Munster role.<\/p>\n

After Munster\u2019s disappointing defeat against Castres, McMillan was asked about the All Blacks job and whether he would be keen on the role.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be perfectly honest, with all respect, I haven\u2019t even given any thought to the question that you\u2019ve just asked,\u201d McMillan said to Irish media post-match in Limerick.<\/p>\n

McMillan\u2019s initial reaction was more about the personal effect something like this has on a coach, and he was quick to feel sorry for Robertson.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not normally the New Zealand way to make such a big decision, but it\u2019s one that\u2019s been made, and my initial thoughts are actually just with Scott and his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody likes to see players or coaches have to go through that. So my thoughts are with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

To many, Robertson\u2019s departure from the All Blacks came as a surprise. McMillan was one person in that camp, admitting that Thursday\u2019s news was \u201ca bit of a surprise\u201d to him.<\/p>\n

NZR Chair David Kirk<\/a> addressed media in Auckland<\/a> on Thursday and explained that the board has planned to \u201ccast the net wide\u201d in order to find the new All Blacks coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re completely open,\u201d Kirk said, after admitting there was no initial frontrunner just yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to cast the net wide. We\u2019re going to get as many people as we can. We think coaching the All Blacks<\/a>\u00a0is\u00a0the greatest rugby coaching role in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Chiefs head coach and current Munster boss Clayton McMillan has spoken out about a potential shift back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-422194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}