{"id":470703,"date":"2026-06-10T19:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T19:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/470703\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T19:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T19:14:11","slug":"nz-rugby-chief-tony-browns-verdict-on-all-blacks-head-coach-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/470703\/","title":{"rendered":"NZ Rugby chief: Tony Brown’s verdict on All Blacks head coach job"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

New Zealand Rugby CEO Steve Lancaster says that Tony Brown has been \u2018really clear\u2019 on the position he wants to fulfil in the All Blacks coaching team.<\/p>\n

The former fly-half will leave Rassie Erasmus\u2019 Springboks set-up after the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia to return to New Zealand after signing a two-year deal to be an All Blacks assistant coach.<\/p>\n

Brown<\/a> is highly regarded as an attack coach after his work with Otago, the Highlanders, the Sunwolves and, perhaps most notably, Japan and South Africa. His coaching CV and pedigree have piqued the interest of NZ Rugby and former All Blacks coaches over the years, but they have repeatedly been rebuffed until now.<\/p>\n

Any All Blacks head coach will be happy to have Tony Brown<\/p>\n

With his contract expiring next year, NZ Rugby launched another bid to convince the former fly-half to realise his dream of coaching the All Blacks<\/a> and they were finally successful. Speaking to the media after the announcement, Lancaster said that the board did not succumb to the public\u2019s pressure to lure him back to Aotearoa.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur job is to be immune to that pressure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo no, that wasn\u2019t a factor. Again, it was just a case of someone who\u2019s signalled for a long time that at the right time they want to be here coaching, us being really clear that we want that too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are really confident that any All Blacks head coach in 2028 will want Tony and their group. So, the stars have aligned nicely.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Brown\u2019s future is secured, Dave Rennie\u2019s is not, with the new All Blacks boss only signed up until the conclusion of the Rugby World Cup. NZ Rugby confirmed that the new boss was involved in the decision to nab the attack guru away from the Springboks, but he may not bear the fruit from the high-profile acquisition.<\/p>\n

All Blacks: New Zealand Rugby set \u2018no later than\u2019 deadline on Dave Rennie decision<\/a><\/p>\n

Next Springboks attack guru: How Rassie Erasmus could fill Tony Brown\u2019s void and why it could be another ex-All Black<\/a><\/p>\n

Could Tony Brown be the next All Blacks head coach?<\/p>\n

NZ Rugby has set a \u2018not later than\u2019 deadline for when talks will commence to decide the future of the All Blacks\u2019 head coaching role. However, Brown has made his stance on his role in the Test team\u2019s set-up clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, we\u2019ve contracted him as an assistant coach; he has been really clear that that\u2019s the role he wants to come into as well,\u201d Lancaster revealed when asked whether Brown could take over the head coach job if Rennie doesn\u2019t retain the job beyond the World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, if things change, we\u2019ll cross that bridge when we come to it, but for now, we\u2019re really clear on where he fits in, and so is he.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

Lancaster was also asked whether NZ Rugby moved to secure Brown\u2019s services so as not to miss out on him again or whether it was a more proactive move, he replied: \u201cI would like to think that it\u2019s the latter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe certainly don\u2019t want to have FOMO, but we also want to be strategic in our decision-making, be proactive and decisive, and I think that this announcement is evidence that we are doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0All Blacks to rediscover \u2018something they lost\u2019 under Tony Brown, legend predicts<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand Rugby CEO Steve Lancaster says that Tony Brown has been \u2018really clear\u2019 on the position he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1463,1464,111,43,139,69,35256],"class_list":["post-470703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tony-brown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470703","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=470703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}