All Blacks attack coach Mike Blair outlines plans for new game style

Mike Blair has revealed what type of attacking style he plans to bring to the All Blacks.

Blair was appointed as attack coach by Dave Rennie, while Tana Umaga and Neil Barnes were also added to the staff.

Jason Ryan was the only coach to survive after Scott Robertson left his role, and will take charge of the forwards.

Blair told the Aotearoa Rugby Pod coaching the attack is what he is passionate about.

“I love getting players better,” Blair said.

“I love the detail around how to beat a particular defence, the different ways of doing that and I found with the role with Edinburgh, it was a head coach role, there wasn’t a huge support from a director of rugby or CEO or anything like that.

“So a lot of the recruitment, the man management, everything fell on my plate and as a result, that took away from my ability to coach the attack.”

Former Scotland player Mike Blair has joined the All Blacks coaching staff. Photo / Photosport

His move to Japan was an “eye-opener”, he told the podcast, and took him out of his comfort zone despite defences being stronger in Europe because of their unpredictability.

He said he wanted to look at the game as a head coach and would be willing to sacrifice aspects of the attack if it meant the team would win.

“Sometimes there might be things here in Japan that might be at detriment to our attack, because I believe it’s potentially a better way for the team to win.

“So, I’m also conscious of that, as well in terms of game strategy, how do you use your kicking game to turn a team, to get them to kick back to you to break the game up again so that you get these one on ones in wide channels.

“Because if you stagnate your attack and you keep playing, you’re going to lose the ball eventually.”

Focus on defence was a key part of how Blair wanted to approach the attack.

All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie had worked with Mike Blair at Glasgow and Kobe. Photo / Dean Purcell

“A big part of our game is how we can de-structure the defence, so we talk about turnover ball, we talk about creating counter-attack ball and to do that obviously you need good tacklers or a defence that’s able to force errors.

“But equally you’ve got to kick to the opposition to get them to kick back to you so that you find the unstructured defences as well.”

Blair would not reveal the exact style of play he hoped to implement, but mentioned how cohesion and ball movement were key parts of what had made All Blacks rugby successful.

“That ability to move the ball is something that is traditionally big amongst the New Zealand attack because there’re so many good individuals.”