Scott Robertson has left his role as New Zealand head coach after 2 years. He leaves the role with a decent win ratio of 20 wins in 27 games in charge. People will look where the defeats happened of course.
South Africa and England contributed to his downfall by being among those 7 teams to inflict the worst possible outcome on New Zealand which of course is a loss, well that is certainly the case if you’re a New Zealand fan.
The amount of internal wrangling that goes on when New Zealand loses is a sight to behold, one defeat and its hell for leather looking for the coaches head on a plate. In any other line of work 20 wins in 27 would be celebrated but not south of the equator.
Scott Robertson was called for after his time Crusaders coach where he won a number of Super Rugby titles and although some of those came in Covid time you still can’t sniff at those achievements.
He of course had Ronan O Gara as part of his coaching team for a few seasons and they worked well together. ROG has credited “Razor” with improving his own coaching. Ronan has gone on to coach La Rochelle to two Champions Cup titles and although domestic success has eluded him so far, they are still in the shake up for a play-off spot this year.
Robertson had signed a 4 year deal through to Australia in 2027 and New Zealand will now need to go into the market to find a replacement. Men like Jamie Joseph and Tony Brown will be linked with the role straight away. One feels New Zealand will take time over this replacement and will not rush into a decision.
Ronan O Gara may also be a name on the long list of candidates even though New Zealand don’t hand the reins to anyone outside of their own country, maybe it just might be time for that aspect of things to change. The smart money will be on an appointment from their own system, but Ronan could easily make the long list. That is of course if that international job was of interest to him.
The New Zealand job will be of interest to many people, Warren Gatland is another man who could be an outside bet for the job, he has had success with Wasps and then Wales. Yes his time at the Chiefs wasn’t the best but he could very well have the ability to straighten out a few things within the set up that seem to have contributed to Robertson’s exit.
The end of year review didn’t work in Robertson’s favour and he stepped down in its aftermath. Player power has also been spoken of with a story breaking yesterday that Ardie Savea may be looking at opportunities away from New Zealand and less than a day later Scott Robertson has left his role.
There had also been questions about the environment cultivated but Roberston and Scott Hansen who was one of his assistants that saw first Leon Mc Donald and latterly Jason Holland step down from roles as assistants to Scott Roberston over the past 2 years. You can’t keep losing men in your system and expect things to try and continue to run smoothly.
This disruption surely had an impact that maybe the NZRU feel they had to act now to try and do the best for New Zealand rugby in the long term. It will be a good job for whoever the NZRU go with and they have a talented group of players to pick from and would be well served to look at those outside of New Zealand at the moment playing in Japan as well as Europe when selecting there first squad.
Some big choices ahead for those in charge in New Zealand and with the World Cup now only 18 months away, they will need to make their choice and allow that person free rein to go about their business and with no Rugby Championship this year that will be tricky but they will tour South Africa and you have the Nations Championship in July and August as well, it’s over to those in the NZRU who hold the power to make their choice and move from here…