Mike Blair is eager to get stuck into his new gig as the All Blacks attack coach with plenty of talent to work with.
The former Scotland scrum-half began his coaching career at the Glasgow Warriors, working with new All Blacks boss Dave Rennie, before he was appointed as Edinburgh’s boss.
The 44-year-old made the brave decision to step down from that position in 2023, citing the fact that he was more comfortable operating as an assistant coach and has since detailed a lack of support as a reason, too.
Blair currently works at the Kobe Steelers with Rennie, and at the end of the Japan Rugby League One season, the duo will shift their focus to the All Blacks on a full-time basis.
Having worked in Scotland and Japan, the former number nine has learned to adapt to the skillset of the players at his disposal and says that New Zealand are in the fortunate position where they can formulate a game plan and select players to fit that system, while the opposite is required for other teams and nations.
Gregor Townsend’s success
It’s for that reason that he believes that Gregor Townsend is doing a great job as Scotland’s head coach after guiding the team to a third-place finish in the Six Nations.
“Yeah, I think there’s an element of that,” Blair told the Aotearoa Rugby Podcast when asked if Scotland’s lack of depth forces coaches to constantly innovate.
“You have to give credit to Gregor Townsend; he is outstanding; he’s so committed to Scottish rugby. He’s so positive about how he goes about his work. He doesn’t talk about what players can’t do; he talks about what players can do. He’s created a really positive environment in Scotland.”
Blair is well-versed in the ins and outs of the Scottish Rugby landscape after captaining his country, serving as Edinburgh’s head coach and having stints as an assistant under Townsend.
“Scotland traditionally haven’t had great age group teams, but if you look at it, you only need one or two guys from each age group team to make it through.
“Glasgow have done brilliantly the last seven or eight years from Rens time there when we were in the final, they won it in 2015 and won it two years ago, so they’ve done a great job of bringing through young Scottish players in a winning environment as well and Edinburgh haven’t been as successful but are still bringing through young Scottish players players as well.
“So that ability to get the best out of the players that you’ve got is really important and the great thing is, because Scotland’s trajectory, winning-wise, has been on the up; players are coming in whilst winning games as opposed to coming in during my era, potentially you didn’t get used to losing but there wasn’t an expectation around winning which there is with Scotland now. Over time, Scotland are dealing with that pressure a little bit better; it’s incremental, but I believe Scotland just had their best Six Nations so far and Gregor is doing a great job to get the most out of that squad.”
Why the All Blacks are fortunate
This led him to compare Scotland’s situation to New Zealand’s, admitting that the All Blacks are in a fortunate position with the pool of talent in the country despite the plethora of stars who are plying their trade abroad.
“We are fortunate in New Zealand. The player depth is better. Rens showed me that around 110 New Zealanders are playing overseas in top leagues across Japan, the UK and France,” he added.
“So, this is a New Zealand mix that doesn’t even have those players as part of it. The strength and depth in New Zealand rugby is great, and it’s just about getting the cohesion, right plan and then the performance on the pitch as well.”
Blair is busy playing catch-up as he hadn’t been expecting to land a job with the All Blacks, and as a result hasn’t been following the action in Super Rugby Pacific. But that has now changed as he takes stock of the players that could be at his disposal while formulating a plan that will best suit the team going forward.
He adds that he is also being mindful of the traditional strengths and styles of the All Blacks teams.
“I’ve been watching old All Blacks games and Super Rugby, trying to find some form players, looking at how the individual teams are playing, and what might suit our personnel,” he continued.
“The great thing about the quality and depth of players in New Zealand is that you can select a team to play in a particular way. What we need to find out is exactly how we’re going to try to play the game, have that cohesion amongst the coaching team and then choose a team that’s capable of playing that way and then execute the plan to the best of our abilities.
“I’m conscious that a lot of the New Zealand attack has been about ball movement. I remember 2005, I think it was my first game against New Zealand, and it was pissing with rain for a couple of days for the game at Murrayfield, and we’d kind of been previewing the way that they move the ball from the kick-off, and we thought, they’re not going to do that.
“They’re just going to tuck it up the jumper and then kick to touch, and I swear, like the crispness of this wide attack, we went from being in their 22 to in our 22 within about 14 seconds. That ability to move the ball is something that is traditionally big amongst the New Zealand attack because there are so many good individuals. So if you’re moving the ball, you’re more likely to get one-on-ones, and that’s what we want with our big, powerful players in the outside channel.”
Holistic approach
After his stint as a head coach, Blair can’t help but take a more holistic view of the game and not get tunnel vision about just the attack.
“I’m also conscious of that as well in terms of game strategy, how do you use your kicking game to turn a team to get them to kick back to you to break the game up against so that you get these one-on-ones in the wide channels? If you stagnate your attack and you keep playing, you’re going to lose the ball eventually,” he explained.
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“So that balance as well between the ball movement, the ability to get one-v-ones, but also using the kicking game to break the game up to get these destructured or unstructured offences is really critical.”
Still, there is no secret sauce for a successful attack, according to the Scotsman, but there is one crucial factor.
“I don’t think that the secret is in the style that you’re playing or set-up or shape, it’s finding something that everyone’s comfortable with and then can commit to it,” he said.
“Ultimately, you produce an attack that’s got multi-threat, which is one of the most important things for me.”