{"id":244193,"date":"2026-01-21T10:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T10:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/244193\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T10:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T10:35:07","slug":"eddie-jones-new-zealand-rugby-warning-who-are-smelling-like-manchester-united","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/244193\/","title":{"rendered":"Eddie Jones’ New Zealand Rugby warning who are ‘smelling like Manchester United’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eddie Jones has warned that it could get far worse before it gets better if New Zealand Rugby and the All Blacks are not careful.<\/p>\n

Scott Robertson was axed as the national team head coach last week despite presiding over a 74% win rate, which was better than his predecessor, Ian Foster.<\/p>\n

Foster\u2019s departure following the conclusion of the 2023 Rugby World Cup marked the end of 20 years of succession planning, with Robertson<\/a> the first \u2018outsider\u2019 to be named All Blacks<\/a> boss since Graham Henry in 2004.<\/p>\n

Henry passed on the baton to Steve Hansen, who was part of his coaching group, before Foster \u2013 an All Blacks assistant under Hansen \u2013 took the reins in 2019.<\/p>\n

With Robertson\u2019s arrival marking the end of that coaching dynasty, Jones<\/a> felt it had similarities with Manchester United\u2019s situation when legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson retired.<\/p>\n

Left a \u2018power gap\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, on the outside, it\u2019s smelling a little bit like Manchester United. A long period of success, dominant coaching group \u2013 Manchester United had Alex Ferguson \u2013 and over that period where New Zealand were unbelievable and winning at 85 per cent, it was the Henry, Hansen group,\u201d he said on the Rugby Unity podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt then went to Foster and now all of that has fallen away, so when that group leaves there\u2019s a power gap, and people then fight for that gap because they all want a part of it. It ended up going to Robertson, and it seemed like a difficult situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eddie Jones\u2019 big questions for New Zealand Rugby and All Blacks stars over Scott Robertson exit as \u2018key things\u2019 not revealed<\/a><\/p>\n

Eddie Jones offers three \u2018standout\u2019 theories on Scott Robertson\u2019s sacking as he \u2018pays the price\u2019 for New Zealand Rugby\u2019s failings<\/a><\/p>\n

New Zealand Rugby took the unprecedented step of sacking the head coach by ending Robertson\u2019s tenure midway through his four-year deal.<\/p>\n

That fate almost befell Ian Foster in 2022, but he was saved by the players, who backed him when the board were about to let him go.<\/p>\n

That was the opposite for the Crusaders legend, with the All Blacks stars having issues with the culture during the 2024 and 2025 Test campaigns.<\/p>\n

Jones recounts Ian Foster drama<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout telling too much, I can remember being in South Africa for that second Test when Foster was playing against South Africa, and he had basically been told he had been sacked before that game,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe player power there saved his job. They beat South Africa at Ellis Park, turned the tables, they were looking at their fourth loss in a row, and the players stood on the platform and said: \u2018No, you\u2019re not going to sack him\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe CEO (Mark Robinson) was over there, and it was like it was going to happen. We\u2019ve seen in two situations; in one, they saved an All Blacks coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cIan was two or three years into his tenure there, and now we\u2019ve seen two years into Scott Robertson\u2019s tenure the opposite happening. This is not smelling really good at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe [David] Kirk\u2019s going to come in, try to clean the stage a little bit and try to get the ship back on track because I don\u2019t think this is just a Scott Robertson thing \u2013 I think this is generally a bigger issue for New Zealand Rugby.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Loose Pass: Unpacking Scott Robertson\u2019s \u2018sudden\u2019 All Blacks exit and why the next move is \u2018all or nothing\u2019 for New Zealand Rugby<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eddie Jones has warned that it could get far worse before it gets better if New Zealand Rugby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[28149,1463,1464,111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-244193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-eddie-jones","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244193","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=244193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}