It’s nice to hear Justin Marshall say the quiet part out loud

Sorry, my mistake: should be “..he was an All Black and knows the players AREN’T perfect.”

“The All Blacks won’t improve while we insist on holding just one man responsible for any disappointing results.” No, in the view of the hangman, he was held responsible for a patten of inadequate results, plus strong indicators that it would continue.

On the lack of whinging and whining by Robertson, he hasn’t had to. Justin Marshall and some rugby writers are doing that job.

On Marshall’s question, “Where does the buck stop?” he asks that because he was an All Black and knows the players are perfect. But the answer is, it stops with the boss. That’s why Harry Truman, as President, had that sign on his desk.

“Players let the side down at times.” At times, yes, single players. 1 in 15, or in 20, or in 30. But the head coach is a single entity, in charge of the whole, and if that whole shows a pattern of weak results, it implicates the coach.

Players: “We don’t blame them or demand more from them.” That’s not my experience. Still, their errors are singular events in a game with a multitude of events, which determines the outcome of the match, illustrating, in aggregate, the success or failure of the coach, e.g. Henry and Hansen, Gordon Tietjens, Gatland vs. the John Mitchells, regrettably Ian Fosters, and perhaps Scott Robertsons. If their errors form a pattern, then indeed they are gone.   

“Sure, we lavish coaches with praise when they do their job.” No, the “lavish” comes when they do their job exceptionally well. As we do with players. “We assume it’s the coach who got it wrong when” the losing becomes a pattern.

One fundamental question, as a thread of your article, is, “Why the coach and not the players?” Because, in overall team management, the coach is the biggest single piece in the pattern of play and the win-loss results. The captain and first-five are always important but, over a pattern of matches, the head coach has the most responsibility.

To digress somewhat, one aspect that is often overlooked, especially in rugby union because of its unique (and often complex) 15-man dynamics, is chemistry, perhaps its biggest single factor overall. Henry + Hansen in the coaching box. Nonu+Snake. McCaw + Kieran + Kaino . A. Smith + Carter. The Barrett Bros. Retallick + Whitelock. I. Jones + R. Brooke. G. Edwards + B. Johns. Farr-Jones + Lynagh. Gregan + Larkham. Fitzie + McDowell. Robertson must have had chemistry with the Crusaders, but he didn’t have it with the All Blacks.

In that regard, Robertson’s not to blame. We don’t choose our chemistry: hard work, brains, and experience affect chemistry, but don’t change it. In part, Graham Henry’s evolved with his schoolboy coaching, Hansen with his police work, and Schmidt, Cotter, and Gatland from their Kiwi backgrounds and devotion to the game.

Love the ‘sanitized’ angle!

Not sure if Penney is in the hot seat (that just sounds like the author going against his words and trying to induce scandal) but I love his openness and conversations he has with us. Might make a great AB manager one day.

Razor was given the job to refresh the team and rebuild after the Foster era - what he did was essentially choose the same team but with less strategy. The coaches are the ones who select the players so there has to be accountability there

Maybe there has been too much finger pointing going on in general. Is rugby going woke ?

When you cross the whitewash, you as the player take responsibilty.

Ccoaches dont fail because they aren't good technical coaches, they fail because they're poor selectors and man managers.

Robertson was down the rabbit hole of copying English tactics. Reason enough for an AB coach to be sacked I would have thought. This 6N should give great hope to NZ. The escort law change has forced teams to go all out attack in transition and England have been passed out. Looking at what France, Ireland and Scotland are doing the ABs can see that the team that attacks best off transition will score a lot of tries. Nothing to fear and plenty to look forward to for NZ.

Recall V England, Roigard breaking through after gathering a Ford Garryowen. After the ruck and with the NZ backline out left versus a few English big and uglies, Barrett chooses a pre-decided up and under.

Playing the NZ way with a view modifications gets them back to the top (or damn close to it).

Borthwick was doing the up and unders when it was a point of difference. Other 6N teams have caught up and surpassed them. Their system was completely exposed against Ireland. Some English pundits are still saying they would have beaten Scotland and Ireland with a few less mistakes.

BTW you Kiwis have to but the next Scot or Irish you meet a pint for supplying the comedy gold of the last two weeks!

Coaches have a huge influence. Look at the ABs once Schmidt and Ryan came in as assistants. Cotter when he came in for MacDonald. McMillan when he came in to the chiefs. Laidlaw when he came in for Holland. The same way some players are just better, coaches are the same. At the end of the day they pick them team and tell them what to do. If the buck doesn’t stop there, where does it stop?

It’s complete nonsense that he found out the same time as everyone else via a media leak. He had already accepted a settlement, signed a non-compete, and signed an NDA. That takes some time to do - lawyers review, negotiate etc… There is no way the official media release was done then they started the settlement process. Marshall is both a useless and unknowledgeable pundit, as well as a liar.

Should Steve Borthwick be shown the door because England has lost a couple of Six Nations games?

Well he is yet to win any big games away from home in the 6N….

“We don’t appreciate the size of players and the ferocity with which they collide into one another.”

“Even from the grandstands, there’s an element of the game looking slightly pedestrian and the contact gentle.”

Please speak for yourself and not some vague “we”. Never have I thought a game of rugby (from the grandstands or on TV) as being “pedestrian” or “contact gentle”. And I’m confident in saying most people would agree with me.

My experience of introducing people also tells me that the “size of players” and “the ferocity” of the game is also one of the main reasons people are drawn to and enjoy the sport.

Razor’s AB team was not performing. As head coach change was within his gift. Players, systems, assistants all were his to shape. But he bottled it instead. He was not brave, he did not introduce a new generation of players most debuts were injury forced. There was no revolution of playing style or how they went about the game. If there were genuine green shoots of all this showing and hope that the next two years would continue that process then he would still be there and deservedly so. But that wasn't there and I think we all know it. Kirk’s word “trajectory” at the press conference said half of it, his face and body language said the rest. Unfortunately Razor got his dream job and was found wanting.

Bob-each-way Bidwell. More platitudes than Polonius.

Must be a slow news day.

Agree with this post. The hero to zero, zero to hero stuff hapenning in the 6N shows just how big the NZRU overreaction was. Perhaps Kirk was supping too much at the English / social media Kool Aid while he over there. Perhaps some of the players were too. The reality is a team can be magic one minute and crap the next and the other way round - as the English, Scottish and Irish performances have showed. Decisions should be made on hard facts not emotive reaction or subjective feelings about what the team looks like - and certainly not based solely on what players think about their coach one or two weeks after a loss in which they were a key part.

Nice work!!!!

Razor sent his own coaches packing maybe to spare his own blushes.

NZRU hastily sack Razor to spare their own blushes. He was their boy. They broke protocol by announcing him right in front of Fozzie a year out while he was prepping for a RWC.

Fair point that the buck stops at governance level. They really do need to get the next appointment right.

No rugby fan wants that soccer guff and fans chanting “you're getting sacked in the morning”

Pretensions aside, our sport is several levels better than that