{"id":385555,"date":"2026-01-23T05:45:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T05:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/385555\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T05:45:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T05:45:14","slug":"i-talked-to-razor-a-couple-of-months-ago-about-joining-the-all-blacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/385555\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I talked to Razor a couple of months ago about joining the All Blacks’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tony Brown has shared some candid insights into his All Blacks<\/a> ambitions and how the All Blacks\u2019 2023 head coach appointment process played out, even revealing that he was approached by Scott Robertson<\/a> a matter of months ago to join the All Blacks coaching ticket.<\/p>\n

Brown and Robertson\u2019s friendship dates back to the New Zealand<\/a> age-grade teams of the \u201990s, where they were both regular selections, before becoming teammates in the All Blacks by the decade\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

While the pair have never coached together, their Super Rugby rivalry \u2013 Brown with the Highlanders<\/a> and Robertson with the Crusaders \u2013 was elevated to the Test arena in 2023 when Robertson landed the All Blacks\u2019 top job, and Brown moved to South Africa<\/a> to head Rassie Erasmus\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n

Brown was understood to be a name involved in Jamie Joseph\u2019s bid to become the All Blacks head coach in the 2023 race, but appears to have been left feeling a touch sour about how things played out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was definitely the Scott Robertson team versus the Jamie Joseph<\/a> team, that was the process that New Zealand Rugby set up,\u201d Brown reflected, speaking with Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think with me being with Jamie, then Scott potentially didn\u2019t want to take me as well. He had quality coaches in Jason Holland and Leon MacDonald<\/a>, Scott Hansen and Jason Ryan, so they had a strong coaching team. Jamie put his team together and I was part of that, and New Zealand Rugby went with Scott. 100 per cent, he probably deserved the job with his success.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it was just the way it was, and then I was stuck, either looking at going back to Japan, there was a little opportunity with Argentina, and then Rassie gave me a call about South Africa. I played under Rassie for the Stormers<\/a> and knew him as a coach and knew that he\u2019d obviously done some amazing things with South Africa over the last two World Cups, and I just thought, oh well, what an opportunity to go and learn off him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown signed a four-year deal with the Springboks and intends to see that period through, despite the All Blacks\u2019 recent advances.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve even talked to Razor a couple of months ago about potentially joining the All Blacks, but it\u2019s like I said to him, my commitment to South Africa was four years, and I\u2019ve always wanted to honour that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said I\u2019m just so frustrated that no one talked to me two years ago. But that\u2019s rugby, and that\u2019s coaching. He had his coaches, and I just had to go and find another job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Were that not the case, Brown says he \u201c100 per cent would have\u201d put his name in the hat for the now vacant All Blacks job.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo years ago as well, and in the future. It\u2019s definitely something I want to do. The timing just hasn\u2019t worked.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tony Brown has shared some candid insights into his All Blacks ambitions and how the All Blacks\u2019 2023…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-385555","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\/385555","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=385555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}