Dithering on Highlanders role needs to stop

OPINION: Wellington rugby's coaching situation has dragged on too long, a needlessly messy sideshow on the eve of the NPC.

Jamie Joseph's contract negotiations with the New Zealand Rugby Union over the Highlanders' Super 15 job will linger past the Lions' season opener, against Tasman on Sunday.

Clearly there has been a sticking point in negotiations since Joseph was offered the Highlanders job last week.

Fair enough if he is ensuring the details are right before deciding whether to uproot his young family and head south.

The real question is why has the process taken so long? It would not have taken rocket science to finger Joseph as the most obvious candidate to replace Glenn Moore when his departure was confirmed.

That was well over a month ago and applications for the Highlanders job closed on July 7.

Here we are 21 days later, in the week of Wellington's first match of the season, and still no decision. It smacks of administrative dithering on all fronts.

Super 15 planning meetings have bubbled away with no representation from the Highlanders coaching staff.

God knows what will happen if Joseph turns the Highlanders down? Does another NPC team get put on hold while months of negotiations play out?

Wellington's rugby community has become a cacophony of rumour and speculation about who will coach the Lions. Any opportunity to advertise the job, should it be vacated at such a late stage, has passed with the delays.

The anticipated promotion of Andre Bell from assistant to head coach and his alliance with long-time Poneke and Wellington B coach Richard Watt has become the capital's worst-kept secret.

Bell's fronting the media, Watt's attending trainings, but neither has any definitive answers. The players are doing their best to ignore the off-field situation, but by all accounts, like the public, have not been briefed.

We are all operating on veiled secrecy and vague statements about due process and proper procedure.

While all this is going on, Wellington chief executive Greg Peters is on leave in Fiji, back on Friday, perhaps in time to end the uncertainty.

Encouragingly, the Lions put Canterbury to the sword on the pitch last weekend.

Here's hoping the players, and whoever is the coach, can maintain such assertive form as Wellington chase an elusive NPC title.

- © Fairfax NZ News