{"id":385150,"date":"2026-01-23T00:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T00:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/385150\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T00:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T00:30:10","slug":"i-feel-gutted-for-him-he-is-a-good-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/385150\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I feel gutted for him. He is a good friend’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bristol<\/a> Bears boss Pat Lam<\/a> admits he was gutted when his close friend Scott Robertson<\/a> was sacked by the All Blacks<\/a>, but says he will bounce back and be successful in his next job.<\/p>\n

Former New Zealand<\/a> sevens international Lam, who played once for the All Blacks in a non-Test match against Sydney in 1992, believes Robertson was burdened by history. He points out that no other All Blacks coach lost as many players as Robertson did after the 2023 World Cup, and that he had begun to steer them in the right direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really surprised, I feel gutted for him. He is a good friend. I thought it was way, way against what New Zealand Rugby normally do. It was a shock for that to happen, but he will bounce back. We all do.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery coach has been sacked, but he is that good that he will end up somewhere and will be successful. We have to remember he inherited a team post-World Cup that had more senior players leave than at any other time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look back, the real difficulty is going to be the history of the All Blacks winning and breaking records. Losing a huge chunk of experience, it\u2019s happened previously, but not as much as happened to Scotty.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat he has done is bring in a lot of new players. I believe he got the group to the right place. I\u2019m shocked because he is an outstanding coach. You don\u2019t win seven Super Rugby titles unless you are an outstanding coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t forget, they were Super Rugby titles when the South African teams were in it, travelling home and away. People were waxing lyrical about us beating the Bulls<\/a> in Pretoria.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought we had the record of 61 points, but the Crusaders<\/a> set the record at 62 points when Scott coached them. But he has achieved so much. I was massively surprised,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The only other All Blacks coach to leave his job between World Cup tournaments was Wayne Smith in 2001, and Lam is surprised that he wasn\u2019t part of the panel that decided Robertson\u2019s fate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWayne Smith is the icon of coaching, the most revered coach in New Zealand. You saw what he did with the Black Ferns when England<\/a> have all the resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what he did with New Zealand to win the World Cup at home was massive, and you saw the difference when he wasn\u2019t involved. But for him not to be involved in the review, I was really surprised when I heard that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWayne was also disappointed and shocked by this happening, but it\u2019s done now, and accountability lies with the board. They made the call, and they believe they will choose someone to be more successful, and we hope that\u2019s the case,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bristol Bears boss Pat Lam admits he was gutted when his close friend Scott Robertson was sacked by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-385150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}