Rugby: Get used to it: JK could stay

Even coach John Kirwan has found it hard to watch the Blues this season. Photo / Getty Images

Blues board’s delays favour coach’s return in 2016 but he may need some help.

Only six matches remain in their team's season but the Blues board has yet to decide who will coach the team next year, according to CEO Michael Redman.

The 15-29 defeat of John Kirwan's team by the Crusaders in Christchurch on Saturday night took their record to nine losses and one win this season.

Kirwan is in the final year of a three-year contract after taking the Blues to two 10th-place finishes, and Redman said that, while a mid-season review had been completed, an investigation of Kirwan's coaching performance by the Blues board and New Zealand Rugby was still ongoing.

"That should be completed in a few weeks," Redman said. "No decision [will be made] on coaching until then."

The longer the process takes, the more likely it is that Kirwan will be at the helm, to some degree, next year, as the board simply isn't giving itself enough time to find a quality alternative, especially one currently based overseas.

Asked yesterday whether he had received any communication about his future, Kirwan said: "I think that will be sorted out in the next month or so. I'm just concentrating on what I need to do and that's the next job, getting my players ready for next week."

There is a growing train of thought that Kirwan could stay in some role at the Blues - either as a director of rugby or in his current position but with some quality help. Long-time coaching partner Grant Doorey has already indicated he won't be around next year and another coach, Isa Nacewa, has signed a contract with Leinster.

One who believes Kirwan has a future at the franchise is former All Blacks and Auckland coach John Hart.

"Everyone would say that the record is unacceptable but I do think you have to look in behind what's happening before you come to any conclusion to change the coach," Hart told Radio Sport yesterday.

"He [Kirwan] has excellent qualities. He has some issues with his playing squad ... and he has made mistakes, every coach does, but he is wholeheartedly committed, he has ability, and he has the backing of his squad."

Hart said he considered himself a good friend of Kirwan's, but that didn't mean he wasn't objective.

"I don't think it's going to be a quick turnaround, because I think they fundamentally lack leadership and skills in the backline, in particular. They've been crying out for a No9 and a No10.

"They haven't got them, they haven't grown them and I think the greatest criticism that you could make of where the Blues are today is their whole development and recruitment programme from within Auckland Rugby, particularly, and the Blues on a wider front, for the last seven or eight years. That's where we've failed."

Hart said the franchise had credibility with Kirwan in charge, despite its recent run of results, but the former All Black wing needed help.

"Maybe John Kirwan needs some support and that may be what the review shows. He would be the first to accept that and I think if the Blues board are realistic ... they should look at the structure around him and bring in some talent to help him."