Blues Need To Put Pressure On Umaga

Wynne Gray Is A Former Senior Rugby Writer At The New Zealand Herald.

CONJECTURE TANA UMAGA will continue as Blues head coach next season does not make sense.

It has everything to do with continuity and bypassing the need to look at other possibilities rather than an in-depth look into what he has brought to and developed at the Super Rugby franchise.

Umaga has overseen a group which finished 11th in his debut season and ninth last year and has consistent struggles against the other New Zealand franchises, yet on the evidence of those results and his work in the group, we are told his contract will be renewed for 2019.

That hints at a cop-out from the Blues, a holding pattern to get them through a disjointed World Cup season before a wider range of coaching contenders come into the market.

Maybe there are coaches in overseas roles who would consider returning for what is supposed to be a plum position for ambitious professional leaders but are tied to contracts through until next year. Some may be involved with the World Cup and wouldn’t be available until the end of next year.

That’s way too late because contracting and selecting players for the 2020 programme will have been done and asking a new coach to develop and guide a squad picked without any of his input, is an awkward task on many levels.

Waiting with some hope that a coach of the calibre of Joe Schmidt, Warren Gatland or Vern Cotter wants to immerse themselves in a Super Rugby job after next year’s World Cup is an impractical and flawed concept.

Even if by chance they wanted to do the job, when could they commit and how would that play out?