Two All Black greats have downplayed any talk of a New Zealand rugby crisis following the shock decision to dismiss All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson two years from the Rugby World Cup and months before the ‘Greatest Rivalry’ tour of South Africa.
Despite a 74% win record — having won 20 of his 27 Tests as All Blacks coach — New Zealand Rugby [NZR] chose to show Robertson the door after an extensive internal review and reports of a player revolt, after a year that when they suffered defeats by South Africa, Argentina, and England.
The decision came just two years after the board chose not to extend Ian Foster’s contract past Rugby World Cup 2023 and hire Robertson on a four-year deal instead.
As the search for Robertson’s replacement continues — Jamie Joseph and Dave Rennie are reportedly in a two-way race for the role — after current Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt ruled himself out of the running, questions have been raised of the predicament NZR find themselves with Justin Marshall labelling the situation as “vulnerable”.
“It’s a valid question,” Marshall told ESPN after he was asked if NZR was at its weakest in 30 years. “But I wouldn’t say weak, I would say vulnerable, which we’re not usually. We’re not usually vulnerable, and we’re not used to having this uncertainty.
“I don’t feel that there’s weakness. Weakness is a lack of talent, a lack of ability, capability, New Zealand rugby is certainly not in that zone. But what we have is this uncertainty of how we’re moving forward and that happens when a coach gets sacked, like what happened to Scott Robertson and now all of a sudden there’s this void of what’s next. We’re not used to that; we usually have a succession plan.
“I still feel that there is the talent, I still feel that there is the competitiveness and New Zealand rugby, it’s our game, so I don’t feel there’s any lack of desire, I just feel that we need to move forward real quick, but we need to make sure that we do our due diligence, that when we’re moving forward, we don’t have a situation like this developing in two more years’ time.
“We need to fill this hole for the next eight to 10 years. The sooner that we do that, the better we’ll have consistent performances because we’ve got the talent, and we will get back to where we need to be.”
Scott Barrett and Will Jordan of New Zealand look on in disappointment after a record loss to the Springboks Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images
Meanwhile, Sky Sport commentator and former All Blacks winger Jeff Wilson believes the “drastic” decision has presented a “massive opportunity” for New Zealand Rugby to set the platform for long-term stability and success.
“It’s a really interesting perspective,” Wilson told ESPN. “I could go on for a long time on an answer like this, but the short answer to me is it’s a massive opportunity.
“Clearly things weren’t quite right, and you don’t make this decision lightly. So as an organisation, when you do a review, when you take all the things into account, if you connect all the dots and you’re thinking to yourself, can you make a quick change? Is it going to eventually head in the right direction? Are there too many things here to be concerned about? How do you move forward?
“For me, I think this is a really strong move by New Zealand Rugby in regards to clearly they weren’t confident they could do that, so the only way they can make change is to make a big call and this is probably the first time I think the New Zealand board has done something, it might appear drastic, but ultimately they’re looking at it from the lens of the best interests of the All Blacks going forward and New Zealand rugby.
“It’s tough to Scott, I understand that. He loves the jersey, loved coaching the group. But when the people have got all the information right, they make the call, you have to trust those people.”
The manner in which the All Blacks succumbed to their losses against the Springboks and England also brought southern hemisphere tournament Super Rugby Pacific into the spotlight with the ‘toughness’ of the competition and its ability to prepare players for Test-match rugby coming into question. According to the 60-Test All Black, that’s a non-issue.
“Get as close as you can to a game in a local derby in New Zealand, sideline, and I think you can argue against that,” Wilson told ESPN.
“What is different is the conditions. Quite often, certainly earlier on in the year, you’re playing in hot, humid conditions, and fatigue becomes a different element, whereas Test-match rugby quite often is played in the middle of winter at night, so it’s a different collision and the athletes are bigger, stronger, faster.
“But if you did that all year round, these players wouldn’t survive. They wouldn’t. It would be untenable to play 25 to 30 games of Test-match level intensity.
“Super Rugby certainly has enough games and enough jeopardy and enough meaning, and particularly playoff games, they are Test match-like.
“And when the Waratahs play the Reds, when the Brumbies come to town, when the Blues and Chiefs go at it, when any two New Zealand teams go at it, it’s as intense as you can get. Does it include some of the biggest bodies around the global game? No, but for me it certainly does enough in terms of preparing these players for the next level.”
