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.
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.
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.
“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
An on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
10 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
10 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
10 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to comments