Instead, after his third season guiding the Blues this year, Cotter will move to Brisbane for the next two years.<\/p>\n
Blues coach Vern Cotter: “I was a bit blindsided by the Razor thing.” Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
Cotter joins Joe Schmidt, who remains committed to Rugby Australia<\/a> until the 2027 World Cup, as high-profile candidates now unavailable for the All Blacks. <\/p>\n Highly regarded attack coach Tony Brown also intends to fulfil his contract with the Springboks<\/a> until the World Cup, and Wayne Smith is departing New Zealand rugby<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was a surprise. We were well down conversations with the Reds,\u201d Cotter said of the All Blacks coaching change. <\/p>\n \u201cI was a bit blindsided by the Razor thing<\/a>. No one thought that was coming. There was a review after two years and two years before the World Cup but we were too far down the track. It would\u2019ve been hard to say \u2018I\u2019m going to make myself available for the All Blacks\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone would love to coach the All Blacks, but it\u2019s timing and it didn\u2019t work out.\u201d<\/p>\n Cotter contested the All Blacks head coaching position 15 years ago when Steve Hansen assumed charge. While he left the door ajar to joining the national team in future, the 63-year-old is realistic that may not eventuate. <\/p>\n \u201cI would love to coach the All Blacks. I applied in 2011. That\u2019s a long time ago now. I had given my word [to the Reds] and I don\u2019t like letting people down. <\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019d be silly to rule that out, but, at the moment, there\u2019s two years and that will take us to the World Cup<\/a>. We\u2019ll see what happens but, hopefully, the All Blacks will be successful and they won\u2019t need another coach for a few more years. <\/p>\n \u201cAnd there\u2019s some really good coaches who will be available for the All Blacks and coaches with international experience. We\u2019ve got them here \u2013 Paul Tito has had experience; Greg Feek, Dan Halangahu with Tonga. There\u2019s some really good coaches around the country. They [NZR] know what they want and I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll run a process that will get the right person for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Cotter \u2013 dubbed \u201cStern Vern\u201d for his forwards-dominated, hardened approach \u2013 arrived at the Blues after coaching extensively in New Zealand, France, Scotland and Fiji. He guided the Blues to a breakthrough Super Rugby title<\/a> \u2013 their first in 21 years \u2013 in his first season at the helm in 2024 after they conceded 52 points in their humbling 2023 semi-final exit.<\/p>\n Last year, Cotter\u2019s Blues lost 21-14 to the Crusaders<\/a>, last year\u2019s champions, in their semi-final in Christchurch. <\/p>\n \u201cI had a remit. There was a job here to be done around the way we went about our business and the rock-solid foundations. <\/p>\n \u201cAs you get longer in the tooth, three years is a long time \u2013 it\u2019s probably worth six years 20 years ago. I\u2019ve loved the Blues<\/a> and will always be backing them, but this is another chance for myself and my family to try to create success in another environment in six months\u2019 time.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to go to the end again this year. We\u2019re driven. We had a good pre-season. The whole emphasis has been on learning from last season and getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n Cotter and new Blues chief executive Karl Budge held transparent discussions in recent months to leave the franchise well placed as it continues the search for a replacement head coach next year.<\/p>\n \u201cVern\u2019s a cracking coach and he\u2019s done a great job for us and we want to build another step ahead,\u201d Budge said. \u201cThere\u2019s no set timeline at the moment. We want to cast the net pretty wide and make sure we\u2019ve done all our homework. That process will take care of itself over the coming weeks and months. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got our targets in sight that we want to have conversations with but the phone is very much on.\u201d<\/p>\n From next year when Cotter jumps ship, the Blues and Reds rivalry will garner heightened interest. <\/p>\n \u201cThere will be a bit of an edge to them now,\u201d Budge said. \u201cVern likes his red wine and so do I, so maybe we\u2019ll have to have something riding on those games.\u201d<\/p>\n Liam Napier<\/a> is a senior sports journalist and rugby correspondent for the New Zealand Herald. He is a co-host of the Rugby Direct podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Instead, after his third season guiding the Blues this year, Cotter will move to Brisbane for the next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5263,8136,49722,147029,103528,147030,147028,6259,111,139,69,90,6046,46028,57343,213,87277,147027],"class_list":["post-254037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-all","tag-blacks","tag-coaching","tag-conspired","tag-contention","tag-cotter","tag-cotters","tag-door","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-potential","tag-rule","tag-shuts","tag-sports","tag-timing","tag-vern"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Blues coach Vern Cotter: “Everyone would love to coach the All Blacks.” Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n