{"id":250747,"date":"2026-01-25T06:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T06:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/250747\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T06:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T06:45:11","slug":"ex-springbok-criticises-ardie-savea-after-scott-robertsons-abs-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/250747\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Springbok criticises Ardie Savea after Scott Robertson\u2019s ABs exit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s been over a week now since New Zealand<\/a> Rugby made the decision to part ways with All Blacks<\/a> head coach Scott Robertson<\/a>, who won 20 out of the 27 Tests in his two-year tenure.<\/p>\n

Robertson, who won seven Super Rugby Pacific<\/a> titles as Crusaders<\/a> coach, left his role as head coach of the All Blacks as they headed into the second half of the four-year World Cup cycle.<\/p>\n

All Blacks and Crusaders prop Tamaiti Williams<\/a> is one of the first current players to speak out, sending his love and prayers to Razor\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tough world we live in, right? But a lot of love and prayers go to Razor and his family. I know he\u2019s going to do well, whatever he does,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd for us as players, we\u2019ve just got to get together and figure it out, I guess. Looking forward to what\u2019s next, but also, love to Ray.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to reports by the New Zealand Herald, prior to Robertson\u2019s departure, the 2023 World Rugby Player of the Year, Ardie Savea<\/a>, was at the forefront of players\u2019 concerns about where the All Blacks team was heading.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Herald\u00a0also reported that Savea would rethink his future in the black jersey if changes to the coaching staff weren\u2019t made.<\/p>\n

Former Springboks prop Steven Kitshoff<\/a> has given his take on what went down inside All Blacks camp, saying that if the reports about Savea are true, he isn\u2019t a fan of how it all played out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Springboks environment, Rassie would go, \u2018if that guy is acting out, I won\u2019t select him anymore\u2019, even if he\u2019s the best player. We\u2019re not picking the best players, we\u2019re picking the right players,\u201d the prop said on the GameTime podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cArdie\u2019s move like that is not the right move. Are you saying you\u2019re the best and it\u2019s either me or him? I\u2019m ranting but it\u2019s just something I read and I was a bit sour about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI might have read it wrong or it may not have given the full picture but, with the article that came out, it\u2019s a bit tough for me. As a player you get selected to do a job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kitshoff suggests that Savea should have \u201cmanned up\u201d, and taken a different approach in addressing his concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where I\u2019m like if Ardie could have just manned up and said: \u2018I take full ownership to what happened to this team this year and I\u2019m going to do my bit to change the course of side\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have been like, \u2018Ardie, that is the way to do it\u2019\u2026 and that\u2019s what I didn\u2019t like.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s one player, but one player is public about it and goes, \u2018it\u2019s either him or me. If you don\u2019t get rid of him, I\u2019m going to play my rugby at Leinster<\/a> or in Japan\u2019. That is not caring about your country and putting your country first.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been over a week now since New Zealand Rugby made the decision to part ways with All…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-250747","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250747","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=250747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}