As a keen surfer Scott Robertson is well aware how abruptly situations can change. One minute you are riding the perfect wave, the next you’re being dumped from a great height and having your world tipped upside down. Which is essentially how “Razor” will now be feeling after being ousted as All Blacks head coach barely two years into his tenure.
On the surface he was everything New Zealand rugby could have wished for. The serial domestic winner who had guided the Crusaders to seven successive Super Rugby titles, the empathetic everyman with the break-dancing skills to match. If anyone could connect with younger generations and encourage everyone to fall in love with the ABs again, surely he was da man?
Instead he has been swallowed up and spat out after only 27 Tests. An internal review into the All Blacks’ problematic year uncorked a torrent of salty feedback that proved impossible to ignore. New Zealand Rugby’s chair, David Kirk, sought to dampen reports that the All Blacks’ best player, Ardie Savea, had threatened to jump ship if Robertson remained but the swiftness of the union’s response, despite currently having no permanent chief executive in place, suggested player unrest was indeed a factor.
It invites several questions, none of them comfortable. As Manchester United can testify, sacking the top man does not guarantee instant smooth sailing. Robertson’s record was not disastrous – he oversaw 20 victories, a 74% ratio that was statistically an improvement on his predecessor Ian Foster’s 69.6% winning return – but, as anyone who watched the All Blacks face England in November can attest, there was clearly something not quite right.
As much as England’s 33-19 win was a striking result, New Zealand were transparently not their usual forbidding selves. Whatever Razor was muttering into the ears of his backs, in particular, was definitely not working; when an All Black backline looks so visibly short of cohesion and rhythm there is trouble at mill.
Add to that the humbling 43-10 defeat at home by a rampant South Africa, the heaviest in the All Blacks’ 120-year history, plus a first-ever loss in Argentina and the review was never likely to be cosy. “I think trajectory is a good word to apply, we just weren’t seeing the trajectory,” said Kirk. “We were falling a bit short of the excellence that we’re looking for, it never really got addressed over the year.”
The former World Cup-winning captain also acknowledged the All Blacks “are not on track the way they need to be on track” for the 2027 tournament, which is as close as a senior New Zealand rugby official will ever come to admitting the wheels of the national team have fallen off. It is one thing to lose a Test match or two, quite another when the All Blacks’ once globally famous “culture” is perceived as not fit for purpose.
Particularly when Razor was supposedly the feelgood antidote to the more buttoned up regime of Foster whose side, remember, lost the 2023 World Cup final by only a point. “My job is to connect them and make them believe,” Robertson told some of us in a small room in Dunedin in the summer of 2024. “What does it look like? How does it feel? How are people going to own it?”
So much for such worthy intentions. If ever there was a stark illustration that coaching domestically and at Test level require a different skillset, Razor’s short-lived tenure in charge of the All Blacks is probably it.
There is still time – of course there is – to resurrect the drooping silver fern. Jamie Joseph, the early favourite for the job, and Dave Rennie have significant experience of the international game, while the rugby IQ potentially at NZR’s disposal remains extensive. Joe Schmidt, Vern Cotter, Chris Boyd, Warren Gatland, Wayne Smith, Pat Lam – there are plenty of seasoned coaches out there who know exactly how to reassemble an underperforming rugby team and make it tick. Even the Boks have a Kiwi guru – Joseph’s old colleague Tony Brown – now shaping their attacking strategy.
The right mix is crucial. The game is changing rapidly; what worked last week can be instantly picked apart by every analyst in the world. What was once New Zealand’s secret weapon – the aura that made opponents nervous about facing them even before they took the field – has also faded. Rebuilding any international team is hard, let alone an All Black squad in which key men such as Beauden and Scott Barrett, Codie Taylor and Savea are all aged between 32 and 34.
On the flip side, for all their huffing and puffing, New Zealand are still ranked second in the world, ahead of England and Ireland. It is way too early, accordingly, to write them off as 2027 World Cup contenders in Australia. As South Africa have proved in the past, a mid-cycle jolt can sometimes concentrate minds and prove highly beneficial.
Maybe someone such as Joseph – the former All Black flanker who coached Japan and is now back with the Highlanders – will rediscover the “edge” that, ironically, Razor could not supply. What does seem certain is that the latter will attract interest from club suitors, including one or two in the UK. Harlequins, among others, are in the market for a heavy hitter capable of providing fresh impetus. Notwithstanding the lack of surfing on the Thames, you suspect Robertson would need little persuading to hop on the first available flight north.
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