New coaching pair face 90-day trial

ROSS GIBLIN/The Dominion Post

APPLYING: Stand-in Lions coach Andre Bell is in the running for the job next year.

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Wellington's new head coach Andre Bell and his assistant Richard Watt will effectively be on a three-month trial period.

The duo will officially take the reins sometime near the end of next month after Jamie Joseph was finally confirmed as the Highlanders new Super 15 coach yesterday.

Joseph has signed with the southern franchise for two years and is hopeful former All Blacks team-mate Simon Culhane will be his assistant.

A compromise between Joseph and the New Zealand Rugby Union will allow him to stay with the Lions until the end of August, though it remains unclear which match will be his last.

His departure will put the heat on Bell, with the Wellington Rugby Union to advertise the Lions coaching positions at the end of the NPC, regardless of results.

Wellington chief executive Greg Peters said Bell and Watt had the full backing of the union, but confirmed yesterday there was no guarantee beyond 2010.

"Yes, we'll be advertising the roles at the end of the season, but obviously if these guys do well through the ITM Cup they will be pretty well placed for that advertising process.

"We are committed from a transparency perspective that all appointments are done in a transparent way."

The union began preparations for Bell to take over when Joseph was first approached by the NZRU about heading to Dunedin about a month ago, Peters said. "It's not something we've been blindsided by. We've had plenty of time to prepare our plan B.

"It wasn't certain for a long time whether Jamie would actually take the role or not."

Wellington's preference had been for Joseph to see out the entire season, but it was simply not possible in practice.

Nor was the option of advertising for a replacement. "Even if we'd done it when Jamie first expressed an interest a month ago, it still would have been too tight a timeframe, practically speaking.

"We have very capable people within. Andre's been fully involved with the campaign from way back in February ... through pre-season and with a lot of the planning work when Jamie was away with the New Zealand Maori and also in Japan for a while."

Watt had "black and gold blood" and was the province's coach of the year last year after being unbeaten with Wellington B, while there was a strong core of leadership among the senior players, Peters said.

Joseph, who played 68 games for Otago as a lock and then a loose forward from 1989 to 1995, was "excited" by the prospect of coaching at Super 14 level.

From a rugby perspective he had always intended to take the job, but ensuring his wife, Mandy, and their four kids were happy was a priority he was unwilling to compromise.

He was "a bit sad" to leave Wellington after taking them to consecutive NPC finals. He believed the side was on the brink of fulfilling its potential.

He confirmed that Culhane was his preferred Highlanders assistant, but Culhane had not yet put pen to paper as he pondered the same issues Joseph grappled with.

"He's a coach who's been successful down there, a local boy, I've played with him and against him and he knows the ins and outs of Southland rugby."

Bell, who was Bay of Plenty's head coach in 2006, said he would take a stronger role in all facets of coaching in coming weeks, but expected it would be "business as usual" until Joseph left.

- © Fairfax NZ News