Mike Blair opens up on lack of 'support' at Edinburgh that drove motivation for All Blacks role

The 44-year old was recently named attack coach for the New Zealand men’s national team, reuniting with Dave Rennie who he worked under at Glasgow Warriors as both a player and coach. A stint in Gregor Townsend's Scotland set up followed before the 85-times capped scrum half was given the top job at Edinburgh in 2021.

He spent two seasons at the Hive before turning down a new contract, saying at the time that he preferred a more hands on role. He made a swift move to link up with Rennie as his assistant at Japanese side Kobe Steelers after that and now joins the Australian at the All Blacks.

‘It was a pretty big decision’ - Blair opens up on turning down new Edinburgh contract

Blair recently spoke to the Aotearoa Rugby Pod where he went into detail on, among other things, his time as Edinburgh head coach. The former British & Irish Lion explained how his time in the role made it clear to him that future jobs as a head coach were not something he was likely to pursue.

He said: “The attack stuff is what I'm passionate about. I love getting players better. I love the detail around how to beat a particular defence, the different ways of doing that.

“I found that the role with Edinburgh, 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. As a result, that took away from my ability to coach the attack.

“I did coach the attack, but I felt I wasn't able to fully focus on the full bits of detail. I was churning out ideas but there wasn't the right kind of detail behind it.

“It was a pretty big decision to turn down another contract as a head coach because of what comes with that, there are only two jobs in Scotland as head coach. So I think it was a brave call, but for me, it was the right call.

“I enjoyed elements of the game, but the ability to just focus on attack and one area was something that I was really keen to do.”

‘Gregor Towsend is outstanding’ - Blair highlights change in Scottish rugby culture from his playing career

Despite those takeaways from his role with Edinburgh, Blair also spoke positively about the rest of his time in Scottish rugby working under Rennie and then with the national team. He described Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend as ‘outstanding’ and highlighted how important he is to Scottish rugby.

“When I look at Scottish rugby and you see that there isn't a huge amount of depth there,” said Blair. “I get the feeling that there is a need for innovation that happens in Scotland in order to be competitive.

“You have to point out that Gregor Townsend is outstanding. He's so committed to Scottish rugby. He's so positive about how he goes about his work. He doesn't talk about what players can't do, he talks about what players can do. He's created a really positive environment.

“Scotland traditionally haven't had great age group teams but if you look at the age group teams, you only need one or two guys from each age group to make it through. Glasgow have done brilliantly bringing through young Scottish players in a winning environment as well.

“Edinburgh haven't been as successful but are still bringing through young Scottish players. That ability to get the best out of the players that you've got is really important.

“The great thing is because Scotland's trajectory winning wise has been on the up, players are coming in whilst winning games. as opposed to coming In my era there wasn't an expectation around winning which there is with Scotland now.”

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