{"id":313629,"date":"2025-11-28T04:46:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T04:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/313629\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T04:46:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T04:46:08","slug":"the-scott-robertson-admission-causing-a-stir-in-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/313629\/","title":{"rendered":"The Scott Robertson admission causing a stir in New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kiwi pundits have been left \u201cflabbergasted\u201d by an admission from All Blacks<\/a> coach Scott Robertson<\/a> in Wales<\/a> last week that revealed how the Kiwi coaching group operates.<\/p>\n

While it was Robertson who had all the hype and winning momentum behind him in his campaign to succeed Ian Foster as All Blacks coach following the 2023 Rugby World Cup, his Crusaders<\/a> running mates flew largely under the radar. However, when the long-awaited call from New Zealand<\/a> Rugby came, and it was time to select his coaching staff, Robertson\u2019s choices raised plenty of eyebrows.<\/p>\n

Limited Test-level experience could be found amongst the group, which consisted of former Crusaders and Canterbury<\/a> assistants, as Robertson stuck to trusted former colleagues when selecting his sidekicks.<\/p>\n

However, the traditional understanding of who is playing Robin to Robertson\u2019s Batman was upended last week, with RugbyPass contributor Gregor Paul penning a piece for the New Zealand Herald that discussed in depth the structures within New Zealand Rugby and the All Blacks that were put forward as potentially problematic.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Robertson confirmed to the Herald this week in Cardiff, it is his assistant, Scott Hansen, who effectively operates in the role most would recognise as the head coach,\u201d Paul wrote.<\/p>\n

That snippet of text swiftly spread across the internet, sparking a strong reaction from the All Blacks faithful.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m flabbergasted by this,\u201d long-time radio host Martin Devlin reacted on DSPN<\/a>. \u201cNone of us wanted Scott Hansen to be the coach of the All Blacks. No disrespect to Scott Hansen, but you weren\u2019t given the job. Razor is the coach; if you can\u2019t be the coach, then we need another coach. And it\u2019s not Scott Hansen.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou haven\u2019t earned the right to be the All Blacks coach, yet. You haven\u2019t. That\u2019s the thing. You haven\u2019t even coached the Crusaders. There\u2019s another guy called Scott Robertson who was meant to be doing that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an amazing quote, and just to reveal that says an awful lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast week, remember, at the press conference, he said that the assistants were learning on the job, and this week he says that \u2018that guy there is actually the coach\u2019. Did he mean that? Because if he means that, then we\u2019ve got serious problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause also, New Zealand Rugby didn\u2019t hire Scott Hansen to be the coach. They hired Scott Robertson. So there\u2019s a devolution of power and roles. I want Scott Robertson to coach the All Blacks. I don\u2019t want anyone else to coach the All Blacks; otherwise, get another coach in.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Paul\u2019s original article, it is specified that Robertson pitched himself as a \u201ccultural coach\u201d during the All Blacks\u2019 appointment process, suggesting there was some level of understanding between him and New Zealand Rugby about how he would delegate coaching roles and responsibilities within his selected cohort of assistants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kiwi pundits have been left \u201cflabbergasted\u201d by an admission from All Blacks coach Scott Robertson in Wales last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-313629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}