Wayne Smith has tuned down the chance to coach Harlequins and has signed an all new 2 year contract to stay with the All Blacks.

Harlequins wanted him in place for director of rugby Conor O’Shea, who is all set to take charge as Italy head coach. The team was in talks with the man who helped New Zealand win successive World Cups campaigns. Attention would now hit on ex All Blacks lock Todd Blackadder, who is leaving his role in responsibility of Super Rugby team the Crusaders at the end of the present campaign in New Zealand.

Smith stated that for him to think about something like Quins, it had to be pretty special and something his family thought was special as well. Whilst he and his family enjoyed coming over for the Autumn Internationals in Europe (which you can buy tickets for on this website), it’s a big difference between coming for a few weeks and actually starting a whole new life here.

He also said that he still had a lot of work over several weeks for the All Blacks, and saw it is a long process and this would change all the time as priorities became clearer.

Meanwhile, Harlequins’ Karl Dickson stated that it was quite tough seeing his team’s slide in the Aviva Premiership Rugby table from the sidelines in recent weeks, but following an all-star demonstration on his comeback against Bath Rugby, the scrum-half is enjoying the scope to get back amongst it.

Conor O’Shea’s team secured their 2nd victory in 7 games earlier on Friday with a 35-28 win at the Stoop, but they were made to work for it in the 2nd half against Mike Ford’s team – who brilliantly fought back to have a losing bonus-point.