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Blues CEO stands down after six years in charge

Blues coaches Leon MacDonald and Tana Umaga alongside CEO Michael Redman. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

Blues CEO Michael Redman has resigned from his post after six years in charge of New Zealand’s most disappointing Super Rugby team.

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Redman announced his resignation today and the search for his successor has commenced immediately.

The Blues, who have access to the largest player base of the New Zealand franchises, have failed to make any headway under Redman’s reign. Since Redman took over, the former champions have finished bottom of the New Zealand conference every season,  coming in 10th overall in 2014, 14th in ’15, 11th in ’16, 9th in ’17, 14th in ’18 and 13th in ’19.

“From the outset I initially envisaged five seasons but it was vitally important to provide stable leadership for our staff and sponsors during this last 12 months of unprecedented shareholder, governance and coaching changes,” Redman said in a press release.

“But I believe it is now important the Blues get the opportunity to appoint someone to lead the club for the next five-plus years – and that is not me.”

The recent signing of Beauden Barrett has been considered a major coup for the Blues and is arguably the squad’s greatest achievement since Redman came on board. Given that Barrett may only appear for two and a half seasons over his four year contract, the magnitude of this achievement can be debated.

Redman has also overseen the transition of the Blues to a new, state-of-the-art training facility.

“Now we have just signed one of the best players in the world. We have fantastic staff and I know success is just around the corner,” Redman said of the Blues’ future.

It’s not the first time that a Blues revolution has been “just around the corner” – however we’re yet to seen any that this time it will be any different.

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Flankly 2 hours ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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