{"id":164421,"date":"2025-12-02T14:26:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T14:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/164421\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T14:26:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T14:26:07","slug":"coaching-guru-weighs-in-on-razors-delegation-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/164421\/","title":{"rendered":"Coaching guru weighs in on Razor’s delegation strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After a specific sentence from a Scott Robertson<\/a> media session in Cardiff was circulating on social media, a coaching guru with experience in end-of-year reviews and helping organisations through change has discussed whether the All Blacks<\/a>\u2018 coaching strategy is out of the ordinary in professional sport.<\/p>\n

In just two years as All Blacks head coach, Robertson has had two assistants leave the coaching staff to pursue other opportunities, leaving only his three former Crusaders<\/a> coaches with him heading into 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Former Blues<\/a> head coach Leon MacDonald<\/a> left his role as All Blacks assistant and attack coach during the first year of Robertson\u2019s tenure, while former Hurricanes<\/a> coach Jason Holland announced he wouldn\u2019t be re-applying for his job as assistant and dedicated \u201cstrike coach\u201d, meaning it\u2019s only Scott Hansen, Tamati Ellison, and Jason Ryan left in the main coaching roles.<\/p>\n

Many people around the world have reacted to the Robertson statement last week in Cardiff, in which he confirmed that his right-hand man, Hansen, does much of the on-field coaching for this All Blacks side.<\/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 RugbyPass contributor Gregor Paul wrote in the New Zealand<\/a> Herald last week.<\/p>\n

Someone who has been in a number of reviews in different sporting organisations is coaching guru Wayne Goldsmith, who explains to Millsy & Guy on Sport Nation that although he doesn\u2019t know Razor personally, his supposed delegation coaching strategy isn\u2019t that uncommon nowadays in professional sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know Razor at all, apart from what I read in the papers, but coaching at that level is very different to what most people think. It certainly has changed for a long time. Sports Science, Sports Medicine, media, sponsorship, leadership, all those things get in your way,\u201d Goldsmith said on Sport Nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, having said that, most people\u2019s impression when I say coach, they imagine a rugby coach out in the middle of the field on a Tuesday night, down in Rotorua going, come on guys, six more of those, work harder, go into the ruck. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what most people\u2019s perception are the coaches, the coach that they had when they were a kid, or what they see their kids at school being coached by or in clubs when you\u2019re working with elite level guys, it\u2019s really common.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019ve seen the best coaches, they coach to get the best out of the individuals, while the assistant coaches run the technical elements. That\u2019s not uncommon. I don\u2019t know the way the Razor has set it up, but it\u2019s not uncommon to do it the way that it sounds like is at least trying to do.<\/p>\n

Goldsmith does admit that some of New Zealand may not want a coach who doesn\u2019t actually run the hands-on drills, but he believes that it is a viable strategy if done correctly.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I know that sounds like a shock, because the model that most people think of, or maybe want to see it, is at the court of public opinion. Maybe majority of New Zealand Rugby fans want to see him out the front, running backwards and forwards, being in the D line, yelling out of players, maybe that\u2019s what they want to see. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut if he\u2019s trying to develop a one to one, inspire every individual to be the best that they can be, what he\u2019s doing is not that uncommon around the world at elite level.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a specific sentence from a Scott Robertson media session in Cardiff was circulating on social media, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-164421","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}