Eddie Jones has slammed New Zealand Rugby for how they handled Scott Robertson\u2019s dismissal, with the power of the All Blacks\u2019 players reportedly having a major role.<\/p>\n
NZ Rugby<\/a> chair David Kirk stated that around 20 players were interviewed during the review of the 2025 international season, with reports suggesting that Ardie Savea led a revolt of sorts<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kirk refuted those claims, while several players have come out to bat for the star loose forward too.<\/p>\n Jones believes that the players did play a role in Robertson\u2019s<\/a> dismissal but has hit out at the union for not allowing the head coach to steady the ship and taking the criticism at face value.<\/p>\n All Blacks\u2019 player power<\/p>\n The Japan boss has experience with the negative impact player power can have on a squad and detailed how it manifests itself in at the highest level.<\/p>\n \u201cIt manifests itself through lack of effort,\u201d Jones<\/a> explained on the DSPN podcast with Martin Devlin<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you see a lack of effort on the field. The emotional part of rugby, and it\u2019s always been there, we used to talk about does the team spirit feel right? Now it\u2019s is the team connected? It\u2019s the same meaning but when your team\u2019s not quite right when you haven\u2019t got the right mix of leaders, when you haven\u2019t got the right mix of workers, and then you got young guys coming through and there\u2019s maybe some misalignment in the coaching staff, that\u2019s when you see a team that\u2019s a little bit up and down in effort.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can see that on the field and that can be sometimes clear and sometimes it just takes a little bit of time to eat away and it takes a bad loss for it to come out.\u201d<\/p>\n Jones experienced it first hand when he took charge of England following their disappointing 2015 Rugby World Cup campaign, when the hosts failed to progress past the pool stages of the tournament.<\/p>\n Eddie Jones: The game\u2019s gone away from All Blacks\u2019 strength as \u2018guerrilla warfare\u2019 suits England and Springboks<\/a><\/p>\n Eddie Jones \u2018disappointed\u2019 by how NZ Rugby \u2018handled\u2019 Scott Robertson\u2019s sacking and \u2018leaking\u2019 details<\/a><\/p>\n Weak as water<\/p>\n He says that the squad was fractured when he assumed control and wonders if he ever really got it right.<\/p>\n \u201cI can remember being with England and they went through that terrible World Cup in 2015. There was fractions and there was problems everywhere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were six or seven players every afternoon to go and have a cup of tea and talk about the problems, whinge about everyone else and there was all those things going on.<\/p>\n