Scott Robertson’s former team-mate, Justin Marshall, was left stunned by his sacking as All Blacks head coach on Thursday.
Following a mixed couple of years in charge, New Zealand Rugby decided to make the decision to remove the 51-year-old from his position midway through his four-year contract.
While results have not necessarily been disastrous, it appears as though the players had a significant say on the future of Robertson.
There were reports of dissatisfaction within the playing group following an internal review, and the governing body duly made the bold call.
‘It is shocking news’
“To be honest, it floored me. It is shocking news. I knew that there was a review process that the All Blacks go through at the end of every season, and it hasn’t been a smooth ride for Scott Robertson over the past two years,” Marshall, who played alongside Robertson for the All Blacks and Crusaders, said on The Breakdown.
“However, you do know that there’ll be some fallout from that, but that fallout then gives the opportunity for the head coach to rectify it, to take on board the comments, the criticism, the positivity, and then work towards rectifying it.
“To make an unprecedented call to terminate his contract, out of what they’re saying is mutual understanding, is something that I just was not expecting, when there was a clear objective to keep him through to 2026.
“So whatever happened in that review in terms of everything that was fed back to Scott Robertson and how he’s coaching this team and his coaching staff has culminated in this happening, and it really knocked me for six to be perfectly honest. I couldn’t believe it.”
Jeff Wilson joined Marshall on the show and felt that new chair, David Kirk, had a significant role in the decision.
New Zealand Rugby are in the midst of an overhaul with Mark Robinson, a key player in Robertson’s appointment, leaving the governing body as its chief executive.
Kirk was hired at the end of 2024 and took the lead with the internal review, and he was joined by All Blacks’ double Rugby World Cup winner Keven Mealamu.
Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for world-class coverage you can trust.
Change was needed
“For a country that has been talking about leadership in sport and whether or not this is possible, when you look at all of the dots that have been connected over the last four or five months, clearly there were some issues inside the camp,” Wilson said.
“When you start talking about the likes of a David Kirk and Keven Mealamu, all of a sudden, some different questions have been asked.
“Once you connect those dots, it was probably a situation where they had to make a big call or they would have to make some sort of change, and they’ve gone down the path of making the big call.
“Is it a massive decision? Yes it is, because now time is short getting into a Rugby World Cup, into a tour of South Africa – all of those things we know – but right now it’s about the steps going forward.”
In contrast to Marshall, Wilson was not necessarily surprised by Robertson’s removal given the murmurings of discontent within the All Blacks playing group.
“This is a huge call from the board of New Zealand Rugby… but for me, I started to see this as a possibility over the last month or so,” he added. “This didn’t go away, this didn’t disappear.
“When you start hearing about players’ unrest, and you’ve got one of New Zealand’s best and most influential in Ardie Savea clearly not happy with what is happening inside the camp, you can’t ignore the fact that it didn’t appear to be a team that was well connected on the field.
“There was also pressure off the field and, to me, they didn’t look like a happy camp. Whispers do go a long way and for me that was part of the issue.
“This boat has been leaky for a while and you have to say over the last two years it’s like it never settled. It never hit calm waters, something was always rocking along the way.”
READ MORE: Scott Robertson sacked! 15 coaches the All Blacks could turn to to right the ship