Current assistant coach Steve Hansen is favourite to take the All Blacks' top job after the World Cup
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Steve Hansen has drawn the inside lane in the race to be next All Blacks coach, a position that will be filled "before Christmas", according to the New Zealand Herald's Dylan Cleaver.
"Hansen is understood to have been assembling a team that he will put in front of the New Zealand Rugby Union board at the conclusion of the World Cup review, win or lose.
That team is understood to involve Ian Foster as his right-hand man and current kicking and skills coach Mick Byrne in a broader role.
Foster, who ended his eight-year reign at the Chiefs last month, has put opportunities in the United Kingdom on hold as he waits to see how the World Cup pans out. His fate, essentially, is tied to Hansen and the All Blacks.
Byrne has been working as forwards coach under John Kirwan with the Japanese national team to bolster his portfolio.
At least one senior player was told during the spate of recent contract negotiations that Hansen and Foster, who are respected among the players even if they have never been fully embraced by the public, were well-placed to take the All Blacks into 2012 and beyond."
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