‘There will be no excuses’: New coach Vern Cotter’s bold vision for Blues

Vern Cotter will begin his two-year tenure as Blues boss with a dossier stacked with information from coaching abroad since 2006.

It’s an impressive representation of what he’s achieved as a professional coach in France, Scotland and Fiji.

But what everyone in the Blues region wants to know is: Can Cotter guide the team to a title?

His response to this line of questioning on Monday was to the point. He spoke about ambition, attitude and wanting to be the best.

“We come together, we are competitors and we want to win titles,” Cotter said. “And this is what this group is about. It’s two years to win a title. There will be no excuses, we will be straight into it.”

Although the Blues claimed the Super Rugby trans-Tasman crown in 2021, they haven’t won a title in the full competition since 2003.

Cotter has timed his arrival nicely. Scott Robertson has left the Crusaders, the team he rebuilt into an unstoppable monster, to be All Blacks coach next year which means that franchise will undergo a period of change under replacement Rob Penney.

If Cotter can solve the riddle of how to mould the Blues into a successful team, the glory days could return to Eden Park.

The Blues have also retained more than 90% of their players for next year, and Cotter has brought in Jason O’Halloran, who worked under him with Scotland, to take care of the attack. Paul Tito, Craig McGrath and Daniel Halangahu will be retained as assistants, while Tom Coventry and Tana Umaga are still discussing their futures.

“It’s an ongoing discussion with them [Coventry and Umaga] about what their roles and responsibilities are, and we have got to allow Vern to do his thing, get settled in and have his discussions,” Blues chief executive Andrew Hore said. “And allow him to pick his team going forward.”

Since leaving the Crusaders in 2006, he was the assistant to Robbie Deans, Cotter has accepted roles where the buck stopped at his desk; it began with French club Clermont, followed by a stint with the Scotland national team between 2014 and 2017.

Then it was back to France, this time with Montpellier, and to the Fiji national team in 2020. It was expected Cotter would remain in charge of Fiji through to the World Cup in France, but he suddenly resigned earlier this year.

Now he’s replaced incoming All Blacks assistant coach Leon MacDonald at a Blues franchise that has a reputation for under-delivering. They are respected, if not feared.

Cotter says he can’t wait to get his hands on the forwards, indicating he wants them to show more mongrel.

Maybe the memory of their meek showing in the semifinal last month, when the Crusaders’ forwards smashed them in the contact area to pave the way for a 52-15 win in Christchurch, was still fresh in his mind.

“Yeah, I want to get the forwards. I want to get them a bit rougher, and tougher,” Cotter said. “I think rugby starts up front, we just need to work on that. Everyone does, but we really need to focus on it.

“We don’t really need X-factor up front. We have got plenty of it out the back. Obviously it will develop, but in simple terms that is what we will be looking at.”

Cotter, 61, will be the most experienced coach of the five New Zealand teams. Not suffering fools, combined with a hard-nosed attitude, brought him success when he coached Bay of Plenty in the early 2000s.

When the Bay won the Ranfurly Shield it propelled their coaching staff of Cotter and Joe Schdmit into the limelight, and when the former was snapped-up by Clermont, he invited Schmidt to join him in France. Their rugby adventures haven’t stopped, the latter now with the All Blacks.

“I think it’s just about getting the ambition right,” Cotter said. “Making sure we are not frightened about the competition, and we walk towards it. Roll your sleeves up, and do some simple things well.”