Newly appointed All Blacks assistant coach Jason Holland is confident familiarity will breed success, when he joins forces with Scott Robertson later this year.
On Wednesday, NZ Rugby confirmed widespread speculation that current Hurricanes head coach Holland will join Leon MacDonald and Scott Hansen as Robertson's assistants after the upcoming World Cup.
Alongside Hansen, Holland was an assistant coach to Robertson with the Canterbury National Provincial Championship side as well as the New Zealand U20s.
He also knows MacDonald well from their time growing up playing representative cricket together.
Well versed in Robertson's approach to the game, Holland asserts the new national head coach will foster an open environment where accountability is key.
"There's some great rugby heads in there and there's an attitude among those boys - having worked with most of them - that you want to be challenged and you're happy to go into somebody else's area and challenge them in their area in the game.
"We all have our own ideas around what we want to do and our philosophies are all pretty similar. We'll be in a space where we all challenge each other."
Holland said he'd found out "for sure" that he had secured the job about 10 days ago, after a series of ongoing discussions.
He hopes his prior relationship with Robertson and their shared vision of how they want to play rugby will help limit any teething issues, while encouraging the kind of open and honest dialogue he says is critical to an effective coaching unit.
"Relationships in the coaching box are pretty important," Holland notes. "You need to know - firstly - that guys want to play the same style of footy you do philosophically.
"Secondly, you want to really be able to challenge and have a voice in all parts of the game
"I suppose having those relationships with those guys and being assured that they're the right sort of person and they are going to do all sorts of those things helps.
"It gives you confidence and you know you can get in and coach what you want to coach, so that's part of excitement.
"I know we're all pretty aligned in how we see winning rugby going."
After serving with 'Razor' at Canterbury, Holland moved on to become an assistant with the Hurricanes in 2015.
He was promoted to the top job in 2020, when John Plumtree was called into All Blacks coach Ian Foster's crew.
Holland dismisses any suggestion that the lack of international coaching experience between he and his counterparts will be a factor in their effectiveness at test level, citing his knowledge of the European game fostered by his decade in Ireland as a player.
The Manawatu and Taranaki midfielder joined Munster in 1999, going on to play 102 games for the Irish heavyweights before turning his attention to coaching.
"I haven't had international experience in the coaching space but I'vve spent a lot of time in Ireland playing a lot of footy and seeing how things tick," Holland added.
"The other part of it is that we're all rugby geeks, and if there's any footy going on we'll be studying it and looking for trends and finding out what works."
As for his successor, Holland - after regularly spending time with the region's NPC teams during the Hurricanes' off season - has no doubt they have the depth of talent across the region to fill his boots next season and beyond.
"I know that in my situation here, the four coaches that I've been working with have contributed massively to this group and will continue to do so," he said.
"I'm sure that any one of those is capable of continuing on what we've got here at the Canes and I'm pretty sure it will be the same right throughout all the other franchises.
"There are guys out there dying for an opportunity to show what they can do."
