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Scott Robertson's biggest mistake as All Blacks coach
By Ben Smith
Scott Robertson’s era as All Blacks head coach will go down as a fascinating period in New Zealand Rugby, the most successful Super Rugby coach in history falling on his sword and stepping away with mutual agreement.
It is a bizarre outcome that few would have seen coming when he took over from Ian Foster following the 2023 Rugby World Cup. The first game under Robertson was in July 2024, just 18 months ago. In just a year and a half after officially starting matches it has unravelled.
In the beginning, there was a surprising approach to start Robertson’s tenure: the players selected. He picked Foster’s players. He picked old veterans like TJ Perenara, who in the end, betrayed him.
Instead of starting a new era of All Black rugby with an eye to 2027, Robertson was not bold enough. He had five rookies, but no Ruben Love, no Peter Lakai, those rookies all came into the squad in the dark of the night as shadow players. The first Test against England had no debutants.
It said a lot. That he had a deep desire to maintain the All Blacks winning ways and he was willing to back Foster’s players to do so. It came from a good place but was ultimately a bad deal to make. It was a weak decision.
Many of the same players he trusted endured a hellish 2022 with Robertson on the outside appearing to be publicly happy about their situation. These are also the same group of players that have suffered at the hands of the Crusaders for seven straight years with their respective New Zealand teams.
These two situations are a melting pot for resentment and bitterness that if cracked open, would fracture a team.
The All Blacks are not the Crusaders. Bringing the Crusader way into an environment with already lingering resentment for the Crusaders and perhaps Robertson, is a recipe for disaster.
It doesn’t seem like a situation that Robertson read too well or necessarily understood. If he wanted to do that, he needed to be strong and clean out the veterans and build from square one, or pick a majority-Crusaders squad. He did neither. He was even crazy enough to bring ex-captain and Foster’s number one man Sam Cane back in for a swansong tour.
Ex-Crusaders forward coach Jason Ryan was already there and retained his position as an assistant. Robertson brought in his same backroom from the Crusaders, Scott Hansen, Tamati Ellison, plus Leon MacDonald from the Blues and Jason Holland from the Hurricanes for extra help.
Robertson and MacDonald have already split ways before. After the 2017 Super Rugby championship, MacDonald left the Crusaders for ‘family reasons’ to return to Tasman. One year later he’s the head coach of the Blues. One plus one isn’t two here. Is it any surprise that MacDonald was the first assistant to leave, a second time around.
The entire coaching staff underneath Robertson had no prior success in their own right as head coaches and only Hansen brought any international experience, having been an assistant with Japan.
If there was anything to be learnt from Ian Foster’s era it is that the assistants matter, greatly. There were two distinct All Black teams under Ian Foster, the shambles of 2020 until mid-2022, and the slick juggernaut that emerged with Joe Schmidt and Jason Ryan on board from 2022-23. The 2023 All Blacks might be one of the greatest of all-time. If Jordie Barrett’s penalty goal was two metres to the right they would undisputedly be.
The Blues won the Super Rugby title after MacDonald left and underachieved with him at the helm. Holland similarly was still cutting his teeth as a first time head coach at the Hurricanes. Hansen has been an assistant coach in many places around the traps, with the most success under Robertson in the final years of that Crusader rein.
For international rugby, this was a very, very green coaching staff. The most experienced was Jason Ryan, who had played a big part in getting the All Blacks into the 2023 Rugby World Cup final. And to be frank, without Robertson’s name at the top of the tree, the group would not have inspired much fanfare.
Robertson failed to make his mark early in his tenure by laying down a clear marker towards 2027, deferring to Foster’s players and enabling more player power in an era with the most player power.
He picked Scott Barrett as his captain, who clearly doesn’t enjoy the role. At Super Rugby level where you don’t have to do media, you can just be the team leader behind closed doors. For the All Blacks, you are the face and voice to the nation. Answerable to the nation. You owe the nation.
If you turn up the press conference and give nothing and act like you don’t want to be there, you’ll do nothing to inspire the nation. And for that reason almost entirely, Scott Barrett is unsuitable to be All Blacks captain. The disdain for his duties is clear for anyone around him.
Sam Cane didn’t necessarily like the media, but when he spoke, he wanted to address the country, the supporters, and there was certainly feeling behind what he had to say. He wanted to explain how the team was, how they were feeling, what they were playing for. Scott wanted the clock to run out so he didn’t have to answer another question and gave nothing in between.
Is Scott really going to embrace the captaincy role when things like TJ hijacking the Haka with political statements occur?
When your captain doesn’t really want to be captain, as it seemed, that’s an issue if fractures start to come with the group. Will he be able to bring them back together?
The other man the public wanted to be captain is Ardie Savea, one of the few great All Blacks of this time, who was also a big supporter of Ian Foster and publicly backed him during the duress of 2022.
Robertson was damned if did or damned if didn’t pick Savea as captain.
Again, in this era there is no loose forward that can challenge Savea’s position. So he’s undroppable. But he also holds massive influence and therefore natural power within the group as a personality.
Hearing Savea speak on his move to Moana Pasifika indicates perhaps he is less drawn to the All Blacks and more driven towards playing for his people. That seems to be his bigger purpose.
So not only is he undroppable and powerful, his purpose isn’t necessarily aligned with what the All Blacks are.
A man who is untouchable, with power, not fully aligned, will tend to use it to get what he wants. Bending to the needs of Savea or any other player starts to erode the hierarchy, and then they will outright challenge and undermine Robertson.
Particularly when Robertson’s coaching unit are less experienced than the top All Blacks, there is going to be problems growing. What is Scott Hansen going to tell Beauden Barrett about unlocking international calibre defences?
Robertson needed to start with a clean slate, rid house of these veterans but another issue is NZR also is doing everything they can to retain them, bending to their needs and handing them massive contracts with sabbaticals to stay. More player power to navigate, further compounding the problems.
The desire to win now and do the easy thing and defer to Foster’s players in the beginning ultimately sunk Robertson’s ship.
A fresh start for the All Blacks was only half-arsed, a new coaching group but with Foster’s players. The full regime change needed authority, new direction, and boldness that Razor didn’t bring.
Now the next coach will have to pick up the pieces and quickly and find more resolve than Robertson had.
