'Secret squirrel': All Blacks coaching saga nears end

The All Blacks have been without a head coach for 47 days.

That could come to an end as early this week.

Jamie Joseph and Dave Rennie are in a head-to-head battle to replace Scott Robertson who was sensationally axed from the role on January 15th.

New Zealand Rugby have tasked a five-man appointment panel consisting of chair David Kirk, interim CEO Steve Lancaster, ex-high performance boss Don Tricker, and former All Blacks hookers Keven Mealamu and Dane Coles to decide who the preferred candidate should be, which will then be presented to the board.

Rennie is currently coaching the Kobe Steelers in Japan while Joseph is in charge of the Highlanders in Super Rugby.

Both men have been visited by members of the appointment panel who’ve observed them in their working environments.

Sky Sport commentator Tony Johnson’s defending the amount of time the appointment is taking.

“They have to be seen to be doing their due diligence, following the correct processes” Johnson told the DSPN Podcast.

“So no one can turn around and say it was just a sham, because those are the sorts of things that have always been said around coaching appointments.”

Johnson says the plan from NZR was to appoint someone this week, but is now hearing it might be next week.

“Just makes you wonder whether there's some sticking points,” Johnson says.

“Whether it will only be a two-year contract, whether that's enough to satisfy someone to give up their job.”

The fact that no one knows who the successful candidate might be is being applauded by Johnson, who’s seen plenty of information leaked out of NZR over the years.

“It's been very secret squirrel." Johnson says.

"The urgency is because we all want to know, and it does need to be sorted out within the next couple of weeks, you'd think, just for the sake of the coach so that he knows what his way forward is."