By Andrew Gourdie
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen revealed his coaching staff at Christchurch's Rugby Park this morning, just a few hours before this afternoon's big quakes.
Foxy, Fossie and Aussie - they are the three who'll be Hansen's inner circle, with All Black great Grant Fox the last to be approached.
“I rang him two weeks ago and he just about fell off the phone actually,” says Hansen.
“Steve wants me to be independent,” says Fox. “I'm on the outside looking in, and as he described to me sometimes you can get lost in the forest a bit.
”Ian Foster revealed he's been in discussions over the past year about becoming Hansen's assistant. He takes on his biggest rugby challenge after being in charge of perennial Super rugby underacheivers the Chiefs.
“I'm pretty proud of what I achieved with the Chiefs,” he says.
“It was eight years, we did some good things and the Junior All Blacks as well. It's a step up and I've got things to prove.”
“I'm confident of all the people we went through,” says Hansen, “he's got the experience, the man management, the strategic planning and the rugby knowledge to do the job.”In 2001 Hansen and Aussie McLean guided a Canterbury team that included Richie McCaw to the NPC championship.McLean now replaces Wayne Smith as the All Blacks' defence coach.
The pair go back to their playing days at Marist in the 1980s.
“It's not about friendship,” says Hansen. “It's about the right people for the job. You have to trust people, but there are a lot of people I could have trusted.”
“I don't think I can re-invent the wheel but as times goes on I'l make my mark,” says McLean. “Nothing's perfect.”One more specialist coach is yet to be announced.
“He'll have jurisdiction of the lineout at this point and I'll probably do the scrum at this stage,” says Hansen.
That's expected to be Mick Byrne, the kicking coach under the Graham Henry regime.
So what does the All Blacks' captain think of the changes?“I'm sure there'll be new ideas,”says McCaw.
“Steve will have a different way of doing it - sometimes that's what you need to keep moving up the graph.”
The challenge to build on World Cup glory is sizeable, to say the least.
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