By Jeff McTainsh
Just two days after Tony Brown ruled himself out of contention for the Highlanders head coaching job for next season, fellow assistant Scott McLeod's followed suit.
"I'm in negotiations with the Highlanders at the moment around a role here, but at the moment I'm just happy with my assistant coaching role," McLeod said.
While Brown and McLeod were seen as logical options to succeed Jamie Joseph at the helm, Highlanders chief executive Roger Clark is backing their decisions to remain as assistants at the franchise.
"He'll [Scott] be the same as Tony. As long as we conclude that [negotiation], then he'll stay in the role that he's in," Clark said.
The Highlanders officially put the head coaching role out for tender earlier today and Clark is confident they can attract a high quality candidate for 2017 season, when Joseph heads north to begin his tenure with the Japan national side.
"We've been talking to people already, but at the end of the day we're now going out there and publicly looking for interest. We would like to think that we could shortlist that list of candidates by the end of May for a June appointment."
Whoever the successful candidate is, Clark dismissed a suggestion they could bring in their own team of assistants.
"We've worked really, really hard to build a high performing coaching and management at the Highlanders, we're there now."
"We're losing Jamie at the end of the season so it's important that the coach that we get is excited by working with that high performing team and has the ability to take it to the next level."
Clark also confirmed that former Crusaders and Wallabies coach Robbie Deans was not interested in the role.
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