{"id":266665,"date":"2026-02-04T05:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T05:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/266665\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T05:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T05:29:10","slug":"he-gave-so-much-to-the-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/266665\/","title":{"rendered":"‘He gave so much to the team’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Codie Taylor feels \u201cgutted\u201d for Scott Robertson, who was sacked halfway through his tenure<\/a> as All Blacks head coach, but says there is now an opportunity for someone to reassert New Zealand\u2019s place at the top of the international game.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the launch of the new Super Rugby season \u2013 the competition\u2019s 30th \u2013 in Auckland this morning, Taylor, 34, was asked about the man known as Razor who lost seven games in two years while in charge of the All Blacks and was sensationally dismissed last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn a personal note, I\u2019m pretty gutted for \u2018Ray\u2019,\u201d Taylor told 1News. <\/p>\n

\u201cI consider him a great man and I have a lot of respect for him. He and his family \u2013 it will be hard. He wanted so much for the team and the All Blacks and gave a lot. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s done is done now. Looking forward, obviously as an All Blacks team we want to be successful and dominant. Whatever that looks like now I hope that\u2019s the case with whoever comes in\u2026 there is an opportunity.\u201d <\/p>\n

New Zealand Rugby have cast the net far and wide for Robertson\u2019s successor, a coach the organisation insists must be a New Zealander with international experience.<\/p>\n

The two most obvious candidates are Jamie Joseph<\/a>, the Highlanders head coach who was in charge of the All Blacks XV last year, and Dave Rennie, the former Chiefs and Wallabies coach currently in Japan.<\/p>\n

Crusaders and All Blacks hooker Taylor won seven consecutive Super Rugby titles under Robertson at the red and blacks and another last year with Rob Penney after a lean 2024, a season he started late due to a non-playing sabbatical.<\/p>\n

\"Codie<\/p>\n

Codie Taylor beats Alex Mitchell on the way to scoring a try in the All Blacks’ defeat to England at Twickenham last November. (Source: Photosport)<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can always draw on disappointment and that\u2019s probably where we were last year,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t get 2024 right \u2013 in 2025 we turned it around. We had a good look at ourselves internally and talked about what we wanted to achieve. Off that back of that we were successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Crusaders edged the Chiefs in last year\u2019s grand final<\/a> at their \u201ctemporary\u201d home in the suburb of Addington, a stadium supported by scaffolding which sprung up after the 2011 earthquakes in Christchurch.<\/p>\n

Very much open to the weather, the stadium, generally loathed by opposition players and supporters, suited the Crusaders on several levels. <\/p>\n

It is a symbol of the city\u2019s ingenuity and resilience after the lethal quakes 15 years ago and its exposure to the elements during the playoffs, which coincided with the traditionally cruel southern winter, played into the hands of the Crusaders\u2019 forward-dominant game plan.<\/p>\n

The Crusaders, who kick off their season with a derby match against the Highlanders in Dunedin on Friday, February 13, will play the first part of the 2026 edition at their old stadium before moving into the 30,000-seat Te Kaha<\/a>, the new arena in the central business district, in April. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a new home and something Christchurch has deserved for a long time after a pretty hard time with that tragedy,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cIt\u2019s a chance for our community to gather and really celebrate a new city.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it was put to Taylor, who admitted visiting teams would likely prefer the new stadium to the old one, that the indoor nature of Te Kaha could play against the traditional strengths of the Crusaders, he said: \u201cI know in the past playing down at [Dunedin\u2019s] Forsyth Barr the roof can be a case of \u2018fool\u2019s gold\u2019 \u2013 you try to play too much and it\u2019s a detriment to your game. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that could be the case with our new stadium. Yes, in Super Rugby you want to throw the ball around and play but when it comes to crunch time it\u2019s all about applying pressure and whichever team does that the best usually wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Crusaders will welcome back Leicester Fainga\u2019anuku this season but will be largely without former skipper and lock Scott Barrett, who is taking a non-playing sabbatical for the majority of it. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe will be missed with his physical presence but it gives others opportunities like Antonio Shalfoon, Jamie Hannah and Taylor Cahill,” Taylor said. “We have some good, exciting locks who can play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor, who had a similar break in 2024, said: \u201cI think with someone like Scooter who really wants to kick on next year and put his hand up for the World Cup, it will be great. It\u2019s a chance to step away from the game, connect with you family and get a little bit of longevity. It hasn\u2019t been done that often; when I did it I loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 106-Test All Black, sporting a black eye and eight stitches in a cut after a head clash with prop Tamaiti Williams while wrestling in training \u2013 \u201cI\u2019ve got a pretty big swede myself but I\u2019m not going to win that head battle\u201d \u2013 agreed that seeing the final details of the Rugby World Cup draw<\/a> had made next year\u2019s tournament all the more real.<\/p>\n

\u201c[But] for me still feels quite far away. There is still a lot to get through and achieve before then. It\u2019s exciting times; there has been a bit of chat about the draw. If I get the honour of playing in that tournament in would be awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Codie Taylor feels \u201cgutted\u201d for Scott Robertson, who was sacked halfway through his tenure as All Blacks head…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[789,33339,17909,56380,52362,49155,151877,111,139,69,1838,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-266665","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-all-blacks","9":"tag-blues","10":"tag-chiefs","11":"tag-crusaders","12":"tag-highlanders","13":"tag-hurricanes","14":"tag-moana-pasifika","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-rugby-world-cup","19":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266665","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=266665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}