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Scott Robertson's biggest mistake as All Blacks coach
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'Hard one to fathom': Eddie Jones weighs in on Razor's ABs exit
By Henry Lee
Current Japan head coach and former Wallabies and England boss Eddie Jones has provided his take on New Zealand Rugby’s coaching situation, after Scott Robertson left his role as All Blacks coach on January 15.
Robertson, who had just finished his second year as coach of the All Blacks, had a 74 percent win percentage after winning 20 out of his 27 Tests during the 2024 and 2025 international campaigns.
NZR Chair David Kirk led an end-of-year review alongside Don Tricker and former All Black Keven Mealamu, with the findings proving costly for Robertson’s case.
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Although Robertson will no longer be involved with the All Blacks, his assistants, Jason Ryan, Tamati Ellison, and Scott Hansen, are all still contracted with New Zealand Rugby and could continue under the new head coach.
Jones said that Robertson’s All Blacks departure came as a huge surprise to him.
“To get sacked with a record that he’s got came as a huge surprise. As you know, we don’t know all the details, but it’s a hard one to fathom,” Jones told Jason Pine on Weekend Sport on Newstalk ZB.
When asked whether the issue lies further than the on-field results, Jones is quick to point out that some, if not most, of the details haven’t been shared with the public yet, meaning that there may be deeper issues that the public is unaware of.
“It has to be, the thing that I don’t like about this mate, they’ve been pretty happy to share certain things, but they’re not happy to share the real reason he’s been sacked.
“I think if they want to leak reports to Ireland and do all that sort of business behind the scenes, they shouldn’t have been up-front with the reasons why they sacked him.”
The 65-year-old Japan head coach explains how he believes there’s been a “general decline” in New Zealand Rugby over the past five or six years, and a struggle to get it right at the top level, consistently.
“I think New Zealand’s been coming off for a while. Right now, I think there’s still a really good team, but I think since probably 2019 I think there’s been a general decline in in the New Zealand Rugby.
“I think part of it is the talent coming through, and I think it’s also the adjustment for the way the game’s being played now.
“New Zealand’s always been a team that’s like continuity in their game. I think it’s been a bit of a struggle for them to get it right.”
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