Mike Blair on becoming new All Blacks assistant coach

Blair will work alongside Dave Rennie, with whom he has assisted at the current side Kobe Steelers in Japan. Before this, he was head coach at Edinburgh Rugby, though he resigned in 2023 to fully focus on his career as an attacking coach.

Speaking on the New Zealand podcast Aotearoa Rugby Pod, Blair discussed the task awaiting him at the All Blacks. "It’s pretty cool when you hear it (the job role) out loud.

"It’s been a funny journey over the last three or four years, being head coach of Edinburgh, then coming to Kobe to try something different.

"This landing on my plate with working with Rens (Dave Rennie) side-by-side to do the job after he got it is a special moment for me.

"However, I am also aware that I have got a job to do."

Blair humorously recounted the way he found out about the job becoming available, sensing something was up when Rennie reached out to him. "He said to me, do you want to catch up? Usually with him, there’s a reason why you catch up, so my mind was worrying about what this could be," he said.

"I met him, and we got the small talk out of the way. He said, ‘I’m considering applying for the job. I’m not 100 per cent going to go for it at this stage, but I’m looking at what it would look like. How would you feel about being the attack coach?'.

"It was one of the things that I thought that he would be asking about, but I hadn’t been planning on answering it at all, so I smiled and said, ‘Let me think about it.’ - you want to play it cool!"

On using this new job as an opportunity, Blair continued, "I’ve also got in the back of my mind that this is a nice job role to have, but my work starts once we get in. I had big regrets when I was chosen for the British and Irish Lions.

"I was pleased that I had been selected for it, but I didn’t make the most of my opportunity. I regret my time there, so I see this as almost an opportunity to fix that and to have another go at this."

'There wasn't huge support'

He also addressed his time as Edinburgh head coach, which started promisingly before Blair announced during his second season that he would depart, preferring to focus on his on-pitch coaching than shoulder the responsibilities of a head coach.

"It was a pretty big decision to turn down another contract," he said.

"There are only two jobs in Scotland as a head coach so I think it was a brave call but for me it was the right call. I enjoyed elements but the ability to just focus on attack was something I was really keen to do.

"I found with the role with Edinburgh, there wasn't huge support from a director of rugby or a CEO, so a lot of the recruitment and man-management fell on my plate. That took away from my ability to coach the attack."