Crusaders head coach Scott Robertson is reportedly close to signing a new deal with New Zealand Rugby and the 12-time Super Rugby champions.
Speculation has linked the Kiwi with potentially becoming Eddie Jones' successor at England, after guiding Crusaders to a second-straight Super Rugby Aotearoa title in the weeks which followed the RFU leading a review into a poor Six Nations campaign.
Robertson, nicknamed ‘Razor', is out of contract at the Christchurch franchise and NZRU at the out of the season and made no secret of his desire to coach the All Blacks.
Overlooked by the NZRU for Ian Foster, Robertson has since been linked with a move to Europe just has his former assistants Ronan O'Gara and Mark Jones have done.
However, New Zealand media have reported that Robertson has now received an offer to extend his stay in the country and it is up to him to make a decision on his future.
Crusaders chief executive Colin Mansbridge was confident that the 46-year-old will put pen to paper on a new deal with the team.
‘It's not far away,' Mansbridge said on Wednesday morning while fronting media with Robertson's right-hand man and forwards coach Jason Ryan, who had extended his contract until 2024.
In an interview with The Rugby Paper last September, former Crusaders assistant Jones, now with Worcester, tipped Robertson to become a member of Warren Gatland's Lions coaching staff.
He's a great guy first and foremost – a really great personality and a people's person,” said Jones, former defence coach at the Crusaders.
“The biggest compliment I could pay him is he lets you be yourself and has a real positive mindset around the way the game should be played.
“You can see that by the way the Crusaders play and the way he approaches individuals by helping them improve, whether it's myself and my coaching or a player's ability on the field to bounce back from making a mistake or being rewarded for doing something positive.
“He's just got a really good way with people, always looks for the positives and through that you gain a lot of respect because he treats people the way you like to be treated.
“For me coming into a new environment and to be able to slot in and feel as comfortable as I have, he sets the benchmark and everyone around him feeds off that. I've learnt a lot from him already.”
