{"id":437987,"date":"2026-01-26T05:57:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T05:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/437987\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T05:57:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T05:57:10","slug":"next-all-blacks-coach-new-zealand-rugby-defends-narrow-criteria-to-replace-scott-robertson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/437987\/","title":{"rendered":"Next All Blacks coach: New Zealand Rugby defends narrow criteria to replace Scott Robertson"},"content":{"rendered":"

However, those two criteria in conjunction with each other does leave just a handful of coaches who could fill the role<\/a>, a list made even shorter by Joe Schmidt reportedly ruling himself out<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But for Lancaster, the search for the next All Blacks coach will come down to quality more than quantity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very confident that there\u2019s a very high-calibre group of eligible candidates out there, and that there will be significant interest in the role,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at the criteria for the role, you come to a pretty short list very quickly. Once we understand who, in fact, is putting their hand up for the role, we\u2019ll determine what an appropriate shortlist is.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe role and the opportunity speaks for itself. We\u2019re confident that we\u2019re not going to have to go out and sell this role.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be people that see the opportunity for what it is. There will be a good group of candidates in the mix.\u201d<\/p>\n

No deadline has been placed on the search, but Lancaster says it will be undertaken with \u201cthe urgency and care it deserves\u201d.<\/p>\n

Highlanders and former Japan coach Jamie Joseph looms<\/a> as one of the front-runners, but could face stiff competition from ex-Australia and Chiefs boss Dave Rennie, currently with Kobe Steelers.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, current Blues coach Vern Cotter could also loom as a candidate due to his experience coaching both Scotland and Fiji.<\/p>\n

Even further afield, Warren Gatland and Wayne Pivac, both ex-Wales, and former Wallabies and Crusaders coach Robbie Deans meet the criteria.<\/p>\n

Lancaster explained the test experience prerequisite comes down to the 2027 World Cup being less than two years away, and whoever succeeds Robertson<\/a> will need to \u201chit the ground running\u201d.<\/p>\n

As was also said by NZR chair Kirk, any decisions over the All Blacks assistants will be decided by the next coach.<\/p>\n

NZR\u2019s long-standing policy of the All Blacks being coached by a Kiwi, though, will remain in place \u2013 for this cycle at least.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the All Blacks. As a matter of principle, ideally we want a New Zealander coaching that team,\u201d Lancaster said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re also really fortunate in New Zealand, we have an incredible amount of amazing coaches, coaching here in New Zealand and around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t believe, at this point in time, we need to go outside New Zealand candidates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a point in time. One of the things I will say, is that when you\u2019re in high performance in elite sport, is that what\u2019s valid at one point in time doesn\u2019t necessarily stay valid indefinitely.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always loath to make predictions about the future, but at this point in time, we believe we\u2019ve got the right criteria for the role.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Powell<\/a> is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"However, those two criteria in conjunction with each other does leave just a handful of coaches who could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[3265,64,63,9658,2685,3181,35006,64979,92456,21695,59799,29253,13480,32185,228237,3127,1919,228238,9669,760,4215,9660,85,8097,319,3205],"class_list":["post-437987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-all","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-blacks","tag-chief","tag-coach","tag-confident","tag-criteria","tag-defends","tag-executive","tag-finding","tag-head","tag-interim","tag-lancaster","tag-narrow","tag-new","tag-next","tag-replace","tag-robertson","tag-rugby","tag-says","tag-scott","tag-sports","tag-steve","tag-to","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437987","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=437987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}