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It'll take a brave individual to coach these All Blacks
To borrow a line from Mr T, “I pity the fool’’ who’s going to try and coach the All Blacks.
The team was once run as a dictatorship. A benevolent dictatorship, preferably, but a dictatorship nonetheless.
It’s player-driven these days and has been since formal senior leadership groups were appointed and announced to the public. Player welfare dictated that the men being asked to perform the deeds had a significant say in every aspect of team life.
That’s fine. Even sensible, in a way.
But it leads you to players deciding Ian Foster shouldn’t get the sack in 2022, when New Zealand Rugby (NZR) sought to appoint Scott Robertson, and now the exit of Robertson himself.
The players are the ones on the billboards and the blokes who put bums on seats. They’re also the people who hold the whip hand at contract time, with the constant threat that they’ll disappear to a club overseas if they’re not kept happy.
Robertson appears to have done a poor job as All Blacks coach, just as Foster did before him. In fairness, the last couple of years of Steve Hansen’s reign weren’t that flash either.
Maybe the blame lies solely with them for the shortcomings we’ve become accustomed to from the team. I’d wager it’s just bloody hard to try to coach, discipline and drop players in this era.
I see Jamie Joseph being widely tipped to replace Robertson. Joseph has a well-earned reputation as a disciplinarian. A hands-on hard taskmaster who pushes players to their physical limits.
Now, that approach might gladden the heart of middle-aged men, such as myself, but do you honestly see that flying with these All Blacks?
Whether the players got Robertson sacked or not, we can safely assume their views on the 2025 season were taken into account. For NZR to so swiftly dispense with Robertson’s services, without having lined up someone to replace him, suggest the players indicated they couldn’t work with him anymore.
A few of them, if we think back to 2022, didn’t even want him in the first place.
No, if I were wanting to coach the All Blacks, I’d be hoping to do it after next year’s Rugby World Cup. By then, you’d assume most of the elder statesmen in the side will be topping up their retirement funds with foreign teams, giving a coach at least a fighting chance of controlling the environment.
It’s a hard job irrespective of the rugby. The All Blacks are a huge commercial and cultural beast, built around the individual brands of the players.
That’s not a job for everyone and nor is NZR necessarily the kind of outfit you’d want to work for.
They wanted to knife Foster a year out from a World Cup, and now they’ve gone and done it to Robertson. Anyone seeking to assume this position would be making sure their contract stipulated a hefty payout should their tenure be cut short.
There are so many strands to this situation, not least the fact that some of these players have failed Hansen, Foster and now Robertson. You really would be a brave man to take this lot on.
And what of Richie Mo’unga? I’m sure he’s been coaxed back to the fold for a variety of reasons, but it feels safe to assume that his relationship with Robertson was definitely one of them.
For fans, the attraction of Mo’unga’s imminent return was that Robertson was always the coach who got the most out of him. So much for that idea.
I wouldn’t mind Joseph being in charge, but that’s the thing. He’d have to actually be in charge and backed to the hilt by the governing body.
And again, if we look at the circumstances of Robertson’s demise, it appears as if NZR’s sympathies lay with the players rather than their head coach.
I’ve always rated Dave Rennie as both a coach and a man. If it were up to me, he’s the person I’d be chasing.
Except Rennie is exceptionally astute, and if a dullard like me can see that taking on this team is potentially a poisoned chalice, then I’ve no doubt he and other coaches of his ilk can too.
We can keep churning through head and assistant coaches on a regular basis, or we can reluctantly accept that might not be where the fault lies.
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