{"id":849902,"date":"2026-08-10T05:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T05:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/849902\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T05:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T05:22:12","slug":"report-scott-robertson-offered-shock-nrl-head-coaching-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/849902\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Scott Robertson offered shock NRL head coaching role"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>  Published: 5 hours ago | 9 August 2026 19:52 EDT  <br \/> Updated: 2 hours ago | 9 August 2026 22:58 EDT  <\/p>\n<p>mens<\/p>\n<p>international<\/p>\n<p>    WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND &#8211; SEPTEMBER 13: Coach Scott Robertson of New Zealand looks on ahead of The Rugby Championship match between New Zealand All Blacks and South Africa Springboks at Sky Stadium on September 13, 2025 in Wellington, New Zealand. (Photo by Joe Allison\/Getty Images) <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"expand\" src=\"https:\/\/eu-cdn.rugbypass.com\/images\/common-svg\/select-arrow.svg\" height=\"6\" width=\"11\"\/>      <a href=\"https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rugbypass.com%2F\" onclick=\"GATracking.sendDataLayerEvent(&#039;preferredsourcegoogle&#039;);\" aria-label=\"Google Prefered Source\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/google_preferred_source_badge_light.png\" alt=\"Google Prefered Source\" width=\"141\" height=\"44\" class=\"google-source\"\/> <\/a>     <\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/new-zealand\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New Zealand<\/a> Herald has reported that former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/new-zealand\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">All Blacks<\/a> head coach Scott Robertson has been offered an NRL head coaching role with the Southern Orcas.<\/p>\n<p>The proposed Christchurch-based NRL franchise, according to club president Sir Graham Lowe, has tabled a four-year deal to Robertson to become the head coach.<\/p>\n<p>The 51-year-old has been without a role since departing the All Blacks frame in January 2026, apart from a short stint with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/barbarians\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Barbarians<\/a> alongside Felipe Contepomi.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re well aware that he\u2019s not coached rugby league before, but he\u2019s certainly got a good handle on rugby league and has been looking at it closely and studying it closely for a long time; that\u2019s quite obvious,\u201d Lowe told the Herald.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll have experienced assistants around him. We think it\u2019ll be a great coup for us.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it shows the open-mindedness that we have of the club, you know, the vision and the passion and also the ambition that we\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe won\u2019t compromise his principles to fit in with mediocrity, and that fits right in with the philosophy that we have going forward and the ambitions we have,\u201d Lowe said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe just oozes leadership; he oozes inspiration, and that\u2019s what you need at this level. One of the key ingredients is being able to get the best out of people, inspire others around you, and Scott can certainly do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lowe explained that the Orcas, if accepted as the NRL\u2019s 20th team, wouldn\u2019t be short of talent, as players could easily transition to the 13-man code.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a heck of a lot of talent in New Zealand, and they\u2019re not all playing rugby league,\u201d Lowe said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a heck of a lot of young talent currently involved in rugby union that would easily make the transition to rugby league, and I think you see that on a regular basis in the NRL now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ball\u2019s in Razor\u2019s court at the moment, but I don\u2019t want to push him or pressure him in any way.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a big call for us to make, and if we had even 1% doubt about it, we wouldn\u2019t have made it, because we want to get everything right from the start. We\u2019re just super confident and hopeful that this offer will be accepted by Scott.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published: 5 hours ago | 9 August 2026 19:52 EDT Updated: 2 hours ago | 9 August 2026&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":849903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-849902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849902","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=849902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}