Could Wayne Bennett coach New Zealand next after the World Cup? The England boss is open to a Kiwi return.
Bennett served as an assistant to Stephen Kearney when New Zealand won the 2008 World Cup, upsetting Australia in the final. With David Kidwell seemingly a dead man walking, after presiding over the Kiwis’ worst World Cup campaign in history, the men in black will soon be looking for a new coach. Regardless of how England performs in the next week and half, Bennett is more than likely to be leaving his post with England at the end of the tournament.
The veteran Australian is not ruling out helping New Zealand again: “Yeah, who knows? Right now I'm working with England and I'm happy to be there. But I enjoyed my time with the Kiwis, we had a great result in that tournament and its what brought me back this time, to want be apart of it again, another country of course. It was a great experience. They will recover from this. The last thing they need is a review though."
New Zealand were dumped out of the World Cup after stunning losses to Fiji and Tonga. Last year they drew with Scotland. Kidwell has had an awful reign in the past 12 months and has won a mere three games from 10 matches in charge. The Kiwis scraped a win over England in the Four Nations and have suffered four losses in a row to the Kangaroos. Under Kearney New Zealand beat Australia in three consecutive games as they won the 2014 Four Nations.
Bennett said Tonga’s progression as a nation is good for international rugby league, but predicts the Kiwis to bounce back from their shock exit.
“Of course it,” he said. “It's the demise of New Zealand but we can handle that. New Zealand will come back from that. "I think we all thought they'd be in the semi-final. Fiji, to their credit, and Tonga played well and got their rewards. I haven't followed them (NZ) closely enough."
Bennett is expecting a difficult match when England meets Tonga in the semi-finals at Mt Smart Stadium on Saturday.
“They've been good, it should be a good game on Saturday night,” he said.
“They've got some quality players right from their full-back to their front row, all their guys can play football. The atmosphere will be parochial [in supporting Tonga], that's fine, that's what it's about.”
New Zealand captain Adam Blair and halfback Shaun Johnson blamed the media and fans for their disastrous World Cup. Both have come in for heavy criticism for their comments. Bennett, who has coached Blair at Brisbane, defended the pair.
“It's when we're at our most vulnerable. I saw the Australian rugby coach (Michael Cheika) the other day was caught at a very vulnerable moment. What we say at those times is maybe not what we really feel. You are just trying to get your emotions together.
“He had just played his heart out for his country because that's what Adam does. I see Johnson getting criticism as well and I think it's terribly unfair. It's terribly unfair the amount of pressure they have to come under so quickly. Your country has just been beaten.”
