1
Why Scott Robertson must be brought in immediately if the All Blacks cut Ian Foster
A former Crusaders star has given his old boss Scott Robertson a vote of confidence as the All Blacks head coach role comes under scrutiny in the wake of New Zealand’s loss to Ireland.
ADVERTISEMENT
Speculation continues to swirl about the future of incumbent All Blacks boss Ian Foster after he led the national side to a historic series defeat at the hands of Ireland last weekend.
The series loss, which saw the Irish claim their first two victories in New Zealand, was the first time the All Blacks had suffered a series defeat on home shores since they were whitewashed by France across two tests in 1994.
Having now lost four of his last five tests at the helm of the All Blacks, resulting in their worst-ever World Rugby ranking of fourth, Foster faces enormous public pressure to leave his post.
That pressure was accentuated on Sunday when New Zealand Rugby [NZR] chief executive Mark Robinson issued a statement saying recent results were “not acceptable” and that the national governing body is undertaking a review into the Ireland series.
The outcome of that review is expected to be released on Wednesday, less than three weeks before the All Blacks open their Rugby Championship campaign with two tests against the Springboks in South Africa.
While many have called for Foster and his management team to go once that review has concluded, some see the time between then and the first test between the All Blacks and Springboks on August 6 as too short to make wholesale changes to New Zealand’s backroom staff.
ADVERTISEMENT
That was the view held by Sky Sport presenter Ross Karl, who suggested that incoming All Blacks selector Joe Schmidt could take over from Foster as a supervising coach for the Rugby Championship.
Speaking on the Aotearoa Rugby Pod, Karl said that would give Robertson – the highly-successful Crusaders boss – more preparation time to assume the head coach role ahead of the end-of-year tour.
However, former Crusaders halfback Bryn Hall said he has “no question in my mind” that Robertson would make an immediate impact on the All Blacks if he replaced Foster ahead of the Springboks tests.
“He’s proven that he can do that,” Hall, who won six straight Super Rugby titles under Robertson during his time at the Crusaders between 2017 and 2022, told the Aotearoa Rugby Pod.
ADVERTISEMENT
“If you look at [ex-Crusaders head coach Todd] Blackadder, my first time when I came down, we had the talent in the five or six years that Todd was coaching, and we weren’t able to get the job done.
“A year later, Razor [Robertson] comes in with selection and being able to bring those guys together, it’s an experienced group we had at the time, and we were able to win a championship because he instilled things that were able to change the mindset to get the best out of his players.
“If you’re going to do that decision [replace Foster with Robertson], give him as much time… if he gets given that opportunity, I’ve got no question in my mind that he’ll be able to get the best out of his players because he’s done it.
“He’s done it at Crusaders level, he’s done it at U20s level, and at Mitre 10 Cup level.
“If there’s one guy that you can do with a less amount of preparation time, I think Razor will be one guy that I feel pretty confident that he’ll be able to get the job done.”
Despite missing out to Foster in the race to replace Sir Steve Hansen as All Blacks head coach after the 2019 World Cup, Robertson has enjoyed a large swell of public support after his constant success with various teams.
In addition to his six Super Rugby titles, Robertson led New Zealand a World U20 Championship in 2015, and won eight NPC titles – either as a head or assistant coach – during his nine seasons with Canterbury between 2008 and 2016.
During that time, Robertson has worked alongside numerous different coaches, which Hall – who has left the Crusaders to join the Shizuoka Blue Revs in Japan – highlighted as a major strength of his former boss.
“One thing that he does really well, and he’s proven, he’s done it with different coaching groups within his ranks,” Hall told the Aotearoa Rugby Pod.
“He’s done it with Leon MacDonald, he’s done it with Brad Mooar, he had Mark Jones from Wales, he’s had Ronan O’Gara, Scott Hansen’s there now, Andrew Goodman, so he’s pretty good around the people that he brings into the environment.
“He can coach with them, and what he does really well, he understands his weaknesses, what he’s not great at, and the coaches that he has there are then being able to then fill in what he’s not great at.
“When you’ve got that kind of coaching group that collectively – I can only speak from my experience at the Crusaders – collectively the coaching group, they’re all on the same page.
“When you’re on the same page, giving the same messages and going in the same direction, it leads into results like we had in the last six years with the Crusaders.”
In saying that, Hall said it will be vital that whoever is backed by NZR to carry out the role of All Blacks head coach – whether that be Foster, Robertson or someone else – between now and next year’s World Cup receives as much support as possible.
“I think it’s important for Fozzie [Foster] and the coaching group, if that’s the direction they’re going to go, then let’s support the hell out of them and give them everything that they need to go out and win a World Cup,” he said.
“If it’s not, if they feel they need to go in a different direction that’s Razor and his coaching group to be able to come in and try change things, I think it’s important that decision has to be made pretty quickly.
“We can’t afford to do the Rugby Championship and the come to the backend of that, going into the end-of-year tour, still having these questions around having doubt.
“It’s no good for Fozzie and his coaching group, and it’s no good for the players to have that doubt hanging over them.
“Whether that will be the case, I’m not too sure. We’ll probably find out pretty soon, but whatever direction they do go, they need to be able to support that coaching system and players.”
Comments on RugbyPass
After their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
2 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
29 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
3 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to comments