{"id":259771,"date":"2026-01-30T19:07:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T19:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/259771\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T19:07:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T19:07:26","slug":"rassie-erasmus-issues-sombre-warning-over-razor-axing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/259771\/","title":{"rendered":"Rassie Erasmus issues sombre warning over Razor axing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New Zealand<\/a> Rugby may have drawn a veil of silence over the Scott Robertson<\/a> axing and the subsequent recruitment process, but the questions and opinions are a dime a dozen.<\/p>\n

It was mid-January when NZ Rugby revealed that Robertson has departed his role as All Black coach, following the completion of the 2025 end-of-season review.<\/p>\n

The process to recruit a new coach is already underway.<\/p>\n

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus<\/a>, in what was meant to be South African team debrief, was confronted with numerous reports of the supposed role of \u2018player power\u2019 in the axing of the Kiwi coach, known affectionately as Razor.<\/p>\n

The Bok coach, Erasmus, made it clear he is not in the habit of commenting on the cultures of other countries and teams.<\/p>\n

Erasmus admitted the weight of expectations on an All Black team will make the coaching job that much more challenging.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was surprised,\u201d he said of the big announcement in mid-January, adding: \u201cIf we get to know the real reasons, we may not be so surprised.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the reports of \u2018player power\u2019 being at the heart of the outcome of the review process, the Bok coach admitted he was once part of a team with big personalities and powerful opinions in his playing days.<\/p>\n

However, he did an impressive tap dance by saying in his playing days they sometimes gave their opinions at inopportune times.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayers can definitely not tell you what they want and how they want to win if they don\u2019t know how much work the coaching staff are putting in,\u201d he said about dealing with players\u2019 perceptions and sentiments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some cases player power is a dangerous thing, especially if people doesn\u2019t fully understand and a player aires his opinion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the process is 100 percent right and in place, players can have opinions,\u201d Erasmus said at Springbok headquarters in the Plattekloof suburb of Cape Town.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying there was an issue [in the All Black camp], but player power can be a problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou also can\u2019t make decisions without the players\u2019 input and they can assist you to create the right environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erasmus added that he is not about to change his habit of not commenting on issues in opposing camps, especially not their arch rivals New Zealand, whom they will meet four times this year in the Greatest Rivalry series.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a unique situation and doesn\u2019t happen often in New Zealand,\u201d he said of the axing of Robertson.<\/p>\n

He pointed to the Springbok drama when he took over in 2018, after South Africa<\/a> dropped to No.6 in the world rankings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings can change dramatically in a year and back in 2018 we just wanted to beat the All Blacks<\/a> in New Zealand,\u201d he said of a Bok team that went on to win the 2019 World Cup in Japan.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like this you can get it back again and I am pretty sure the All Blacks will be back.\u201d<\/p>\n

NZ Rugby, in a statement, said the new All Black coach must be a \u2018New Zealand coach with international head coaching experience\u2019.<\/p>\n

The All Blacks are set to play the first Test match of 2026 against France<\/a> on July 4 in Christchurch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand Rugby may have drawn a veil of silence over the Scott Robertson axing and the subsequent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-259771","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\/259771","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=259771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}