Steve Hansen: 'One of the great learnings I got was with Razor'

Before he was challenging players as a coach, Scott Robertson was challenging coaches as a player. Perhaps unwittingly, a young Razor once sparked a moment that Sir Steve Hansen now labels one of his “great learnings”.

A coach with both Canterbury and the Crusaders from 1996 until 2001, Hansen’s coaching debut in red and black aligned with Robertson’s rookie season. Hansen, along with Sir Wayne Smith and later Robbie Deans, introduced the young back-rower to the world of professional rugby.

As it would turn out, Robertson would also introduce the soon-to-be All Blacks assistant to a new approach to communicating with players.

“One of the great learnings I got was with Razor actually,” Hansen told the Canterbury Rugby Coaches Corner podcast.

“Razor, as a player – great player – but he would get out there and it was like a little kid when they get up in the morning, they’re charging and they’re banging into everything and because of that, making mistakes.

“Razor would do that when he was playing so I would say to him ‘Look Razor, just 95 miles an hour when you first get out there and let’s ease our way into the game.’

“One day he said to me ‘I wish you’d stop saying that, because I find it negative.’ And I go ‘oh, sh*t.’

“He said ‘I knew I shouldn’t have told you. I knew shouldn’t have.’

“I said ‘No, I’m not angry because you told me, I’m angry because you’ve waited six games to tell me. I’m trying to get you to be better, I’m not trying to put things in your head that are going to make you feel worse.’

“So, from that, I learnt the phrase when you say something and it might be a little edgy, it might be a little negative, or it might even be positive, follow it up with something like ‘What did you hear me say?’

“They might say ‘Well I heard you say I played bad’. ‘No, that’s not what I was saying. What I’m saying is today probably wasn’t one of your best games that I’ve seen you play, you still played pretty good, but here’s a couple of things that I think were missing today. Now what did you hear me say?’

“You force each other to have a conversation that’s a bit deeper than just superficial.”

Beyond Hansen’s reflection on the interaction, the conversation may well have helped shape Robertson’s understanding of communication between players and coaches, as Razor has often noted he aims to coach how he would have liked to be coached during his playing days.

While Hansen backed up Ian Foster’s adverse reaction to Robertson’s early appointment ahead of the Rugby World Cup in France, he has since joined the chorus of endorsements for the serial Super Rugby champion.

Also expressing his anticipation for the next era of All Blacks rugby is Wallabies icon Stirling Mortlock, who this week called Robertson’s appointment “scary”.

“Yeah that’s… that’s not very nice,” a grinning Mortlock told 1News.

“Razor, I played against him, he was a legend of a player and a great guy and you can just see any team he coaches he gets it. All his people love him.

“You can tell he’s a great man manager. I think it’s pretty scary that he’s going to be the coach now, because there’s a lot to like about how he goes about his business and what outcomes and outputs he gets.”

“I’ll be an interested bystander but I’m assuming its going be great outcomes for the All Blacks for the next period of time.”