Former All Blacks star Jeff Wilson believes that New Zealand Rugby made it “virtually impossible” for Scott Robertson to meet expectations.
The governing body are looking for a new head coach after they decided to axe the 51-year-old following a mixed couple of years in charge.
Much fanfare greeted Robertson’s arrival, but that turned to frustration when results and particularly performances weren’t forthcoming.
There was little improvement in 2025 following a mediocre 2024, while there were reports of a player revolt.
However, Wilson reckons the Crusaders legend was dealt a bad hand by NZR, who were perhaps too quick to anoint him as the All Blacks’ “saviour” after Ian Foster’s tumultuous regime.
‘Painted as a revolution’
“I certainly don’t think there was another choice for New Zealand Rugby. When you lose the trust of the players and you lose the dressing room, and I’m not 100 per cent whether Razor over the last two years had control of that dressing room,” he said on The Breakdown.
“I think Razor in some ways was backed into a corner the moment he took the job. They painted this as a revolution; they were rebranding the All Blacks on and off the field.
“All of a sudden, there was this pressure to deliver not just results on it but deliver results off it, opening up the doors, opening up their own platform.
“Those are the things the previous regime, the previous board, and the CEO (Mark Robinson) decided it was the path to go down. They had a head of commercial, which they still haven’t replaced, so they’ve gone down that path.
“They’ve portrayed Razor as almost the saviour. How hard was it for him then to live up to those expectations? It’s virtually impossible.
“All of those pressures, it was always going to be a challenge and we’ve seen it.”
Robertson ‘changed’ due to the pressure
Wilson also believes that coaching the All Blacks has taken its toll on Robertson, who struggled to replicate the success he had with the Crusaders.
“We’ve seen how he’s changed over the last two years. How he was when he came in, how he spoke to us for the first time at Sky, you could just see the weight of coaching the All Blacks, it is very, very difficult,” he added.
“Over time, he has probably got further and further away from having all of the players on board. This is the world we live in now, this is the fact that players are powerful.
“But the players are the ones that are out there playing; they are the ones that have to go out there and deliver. As a coaching staff, you have to listen to the players, they have to be part of your planning, and early on I don’t know if they established that relationship with the senior guys.
“From the start, it just didn’t get the momentum it needed, and it’s put everyone under pressure.”
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