{"id":439928,"date":"2026-01-27T04:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T04:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/439928\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T04:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T04:14:10","slug":"auckland-blues-coach-to-replace-next-wallabies-coach-les-kiss-in-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/439928\/","title":{"rendered":"Auckland Blues coach to replace next Wallabies coach Les Kiss in 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vern Cotter said he was never in the mix to take the All Blacks coaching reins, having already been deep in discussions to help guide Australian rugby towards a brighter future.<\/p>\n

The New Zealander, now at the helm of Super Rugby powerhouse the Auckland Blues, will succeed Les Kiss at the Queensland Reds from 2027 once the latter takes over the top job at the Wallabies.<\/p>\n

Cotter brings with him two premierships \u2013 with the Blues in 2024 and Clermont Auvergne in the French Top 14 \u2013 while he also enjoyed a strong international stint with Scotland.<\/p>\n

\"Vern<\/p>\n

Vern Cotter said he had \u201cverbally given my acceptance to the Reds before the All Black thing came up\u201d.Credit: Mike Hewitt<\/p>\n

He was being discussed as a potential option for the vacant All Blacks job, but the 64-year-old said he had already been enticed to Queensland well before Kiwi coach Scott Robertson\u2019s shock axing.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

\u201cThe All Black job was a surprise to everybody.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody expected \u2018Razer\u2019 to be stepped down from his position, and I was already well down the track with the Reds and the management had been discussing the possible coaching opportunity with them for three months,\u201d Cotter said, while endorsing Jamie Joseph and Dave Rennie for the New Zealand job.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d basically verbally given my acceptance to the Reds before the All Black thing came up, so it was never really a viable option. Of course, as Kiwis, we would\u2019ve loved to have coached the All Blacks, but that\u2019s not it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really excited about what the Reds are looking at doing and improving, I think that\u2019s the challenge for me, and I\u2019m not satisfied with where I\u2019m at as a coach. I think change is growth, and this will be a great opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vern Cotter said he was never in the mix to take the All Blacks coaching reins, having already…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-439928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439928","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=439928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}