Scott Robertson nails third Super Rugby title as a coach and sixth overall - but what's the secret to this year's success?
Before the Crusaders got on with the serious business of celebrating Super Rugby title number three in three years, they lifted the lid, or perhaps popped the cork, on how they dealt with the potential emotional drain of so many players leaving after this season.
Or, more to the point, how history-making head coach Scott Robertson did it. One of the many strategies thought up by the man known as Razor, the first coach to win three titles in a row, was to refer to the impending departures of Kieran Read, Ryan Crotty, Owen Franks, Matt Todd, Jordan Taufua and Sam Whitelock (for one season), throughout the year rather than leaving it until the playoffs to address and potentially distract.
It was possibly only a small piece of the puzzle, but it was an important one, and it’s more evidence of the 44-year-old’s attention to detail and ability to inspire.
Robertson also won three consecutive titles as a player. His is a record that will not be broken for a long time, and there will already be talk of another title in Christchurch. Possibly the only barriers to him achieving a lot more success at this level are the departures of such world-class players and the fact he is firmly in the frame as Steve Hansen’s successor at the All Blacks.
Crotty was unable to play the Jaguares in the final, won 19-3 by the Crusaders, due to a broken thumb, but he presented the jerseys to his teammates beforehand and they responded with utter commitment; especially Todd, who put in an incredible performance in the No7 jersey, but also Read and Whitelock.
“It’s all here,” skipper Whitelock said of the talent available to Robertson, “but he’s challenged people to get better and to grow. Everyone’s done that whether you’ve been here for a couple of months or 150-plus games. He has the ability to grow players but also grow the coaching and management staff too. We’ve got an amazing set-up.”
Whitelock revealed that such was Robertson’s lateral thinking as he attempted to mentally stimulate his players that he often had no idea what to expect when he turned up to training. Some ideas were left alone, others wholeheartedly embraced.
Asked how this title compared with the others, Robertson said: “The first one I was excited, ecstatic, ‘how good is this?’, the second one was relief and that one was ‘thank God for that’. Honestly, there are so many people leaving. There was a lot of emotion. Thank God we can send them off on the right note.
“I did it [three in a row] as a player too so to do it as a player and a coach is special. I get a bit emotional talking about it. I’ve got a championship winning team here, I’m not going to say I haven’t. I’ve got a lot of All Blacks, a lot of guys who are world class and my role is to get the best out of them and the best out of the group.”
The Jaguares came to knock a few bodies around in their first ever grand final, and they certainly did that. How there were no serious injuries suffered by either team almost beggars belief, and All Blacks coach Hansen will be thrilled there were no obvious issues suffered by his 11 All Blacks in the Crusaders a couple of weeks out from the Rugby Championship.
In the end they didn’t have the attacking quality to seriously challenge the Crusaders at the end of one of the home side’s most difficult seasons.
“I must admit it’s been a different week,” said Whitelock, who will take a sabbatical before returning to the Crusaders in 2021. “It’s been up and down. Obviously Ryan Crotty, who I’ve known since I was 16 or 17 – I’ve played a lot of rugby with him, seeing the emotions he’s gone through… it’s been difficult for me but the cool thing is the guys who are staying have learned a lot from those guys.
Of Todd, he said: “For him to play his last game here as a Crusader, and the way he played, just shows his class. I thought it was really good from all the guys who are leaving; they all put their best performances out there.”
For All Blacks skipper Read, the key to winning another title before he heads to japan after the World Cup was obvious. “To get a lead in a game like that is really important, and to be able to play without the ball is too. It’s talked about a lot but championships are won by defence.”
This article first appeared on nzherald.co.nz and is republished with permission.
How did the Crusaders cope with injuries in the lead up to their Super Rugby final?
Comments on RugbyPass
Why did they kill 14 people at a gaelic football match? What had happened earlier that day?
1 Go to commentsI haven't really experienced the Irish as arrogant but I guess the players maybe got ahead of themselves after a big win. Just thought it being Ireland and their love afair with WC QF exits and it being the ABs maybe they would have taken it a bit more seriously. Maybe they did and just lost anyways, who knows.
3 Go to commentsNot surprising, they tend to get very carried away with themselves very quickly. I’ve never seen a team so devastated at the final whistle than those irish players in that QF, you’d think they had lost the final.
3 Go to commentsJust a roundabout way of claiming to great fun. Self -praise is no praise, frenchie.
1 Go to commentsIreland have played the ABs since the first game 1905 a total of 37 times. The ABs have won 32 and Ireland 5 times. If we look since the first WC, then they have played each other 28 times. All Ireland’s 5 wins have come since 2016. So the ABs won 23 games. Since Ireland won their first game in 2016, they have won 5 and the ABs 4 times. Fairly even. Whatever anyone says, beating ABs consistently is bloody difficult, and when you manage to win a few, show respect to them. Period.
180 Go to comments‘Mom'.
1 Go to commentsA specialist in hitting smaller guys hard and late. Serial cheap shot merchant who deserves more than the usual token sanction for such actions.
1 Go to commentsI like to see the Crusaders lose as much as the next non-Crusaders fan, but the fact that most of their best players have not been available this year is being hand waved away like it shouldn’t effect them. It’s no coincidence that their first dominant performance came when they had more of their best players back. This is not rocket science. If they can stay fit their team at the business end of the season will include Tamaiti Williams, Codie Taylor, Fletcher Newell, Scott Barrett, Quentin Strange, Ethan Blackadder and Cullen Grace in the forwards - most of whom have barely, or not played this year. That is an outstanding pack that have not played together this season. McLeod, Havili, Aumua, Reece, and Halfpenny will be a very different prospect behind their first choice pack as well. Having said all that Penney’s record is scratchy at best, but given the players that have left and their injury list I’m reserving judgement. Penney’s appointment, a bit like Foz, has a similar stench of the incumbent having too much say in his replacement. They are lacking a truly high quality and experienced 10 which will make it hard for them to go the whole way IMO, but the list of teams who would want to play them in the finals will be very short.
17 Go to commentsWhere’s this people's champion come from? Irish people yes….other people? Their arrogance has become breathtaking. Not tested? Oh dear.
180 Go to commentsIf a coach having Crusaders heritage is so sacrosanct, why did the Crusaders not pursue Vern Cotter as Scott Robertson’s replacement?
17 Go to commentsFinau is definitely operating on razor thin margins. He hasn’t done anything wrong… yet. But a player going into contact 6 inches lower than he is expecting, without him even knowing, will end in disaster. You can imagine a situation where the pass dies on Edmed and he has to bend down a little lower to catch it at the last second. Finau’s hit would have been catastrophic. The margins are just too fine. He needs to study how PSDT, at 6’7”, manages to drop his tackle height and exert just as much force with close zero danger of taking someone’s head off. Given how poorly NZ has adapted to lower their tackle height, and that this issue which has plagued the ABs for years and played a big part in them not winning the World Cup, I thought NZR and all SR coaches would be prioritising sorting this issue out. If I was Razor I would be on the phone to Clayton MacMillan and Samipeni Finau saying exactly that. Finau is a monster and shaping up to be the closest thing to Kaino since Kaino, but I wouldn’t risk selecting him for the ABs at the moment.
18 Go to commentsThe surprising stat I saw in the Blues game when showing Sotutu equaling the Blues forwards record was that Akira has not scored a try since 2019. Now my memory is pretty bad when it comes to those sorts of the things, I can remember his AB try though, but anyway I can’t see I can remember his last blues touchdown or any in recent years. Surely that still has to be a bogus stat. Maybe excludes SRA games?
3 Go to commentsDude to me looks pretty fast for a big man, nearly 2m and 130kg, in his workout vid he was signed off. Possibly a bit slow on his reads movement wise though, but I’ve not got anything to compare him to. Hope the dude nails it and finds his sport, could have been a devastating lock in rugby if he wasn’t a footballer growing up.
4 Go to commentsWell, does that make it every year Moana has lost it’s best player the following year? Normally it’s more immediate I guess, at least there best player had a follow up year this time.
1 Go to commentsFinally, an answer to Dan Carter.
1 Go to commentsNever read such tripe. He was hit just as he passed the ball which was reviewed and deemed legal by yes the Australian TMO and referee
18 Go to commentsTerrible idea…will be too hot, no one will travel, fan zones will be promised nice cold guinness and last minute will get water. Also how do you squeeze this into the already busy battle rhythm, Prem, summer series, 6 nations & world cup….if, and its a big IF you’re going to do this, do it in a rugby nation.
2 Go to commentsWell let’s hope world rugby doesn't read some of this nonsense, because next on the agenda will be…“players will only tackle other players deemed to be in their weight class, and only with moderate velocity”.
18 Go to commentsI was never allowed to adjust boots, or ever replaced, while I was playing and staying on the field. If I had issues, I had to go to the sideline and fix them myself. Then I would ask the ref to get back in. That would really make you deal with it FAST!
6 Go to commentsGreat point. It would be terrible to have a card for poor tackling cost the all blacks a world cup. Oh hi all blacks captain Sam Cane, how you going?
18 Go to comments