@reprobate said in All Blacks 2026:
@KiwiMurph said in All Blacks 2026:
@SouthernMann said in All Blacks 2026:
The major difference Razor would have had between the Crusaders and the ABs is Team Razor was ingrained into his Crusaders boys. If they weren't in, it would have been identified at a reasonably young age. Instead of with the ABs having guys who didn't align with his systems/processes. Who you simply couldn't say piss off to.
If you compare when Razor came into the Crusaders as coach to when he came into the ABs it's two very different scenarios
When Razor came into the Crusaders as coach they had come off a relatively lean period of success (by Crusaders standards), some of the old players had left (McCaw, Carter) and he himself was part of the foundational Crusaders successful era as a player (late 90s/early 00s). The Crusaders hadn't won a title for 8 or so seasons whereas he was part of multiple title winning teams, including a 3 peat. He could harken back to the Crusaders culture that he was part of. This is on addition to his exploits as Canterbury NPC coach.
Whereas he comes into the ABs. He has no test experience. He has a number of players with a lot of test experience. Whilst Razor was an AB he played during frankly an awful era of modern AB rugby ("hey guys I was in the ABs during the era we lost the Bledisloe then couldn't get it back"). He is also following a head coach who was seemingly very well loved by his players (in Fozzie) and quite an awkward way Razor got the job (start of the world cup year, he basically had a weak NZR over a barrell). Throw in that i'm sure there was some resentment from non Crusader ABs over his success and cult like status (breakdancing etc).
In hindsight if I was Razor I would have spent the 6 months post RWC 2023 doing everything I could to try and break down barriers and misconceptions about being the Crusaders coach as opposed to being coach of the whole country
However, I think even attempts to do this would have been very challenging as frankly he comes across as an awkward communicator (at best). I struggle to think of a long time successful coach who came across worse in press conferences than Razor. I understand press conferences aren't the be all and end all and are different to coaching but he REALLY struggled to articulate himself. I found him an absolute punishing listen to be honest and it was painful to watch after a while. I am usually really interested to hear from the horses mouth what AB coaches but not Razor. Listening to him made me lose confidence if i'm honest .
Of course the above is an over simplification but based on all of the above it's not surprising if the team developed factions and struggled to "buy-in" to the Razor regime.
Left field thought after reading this post: if we wanted someone in the camp who has been exceptional in recent memory, a heap of mana, high standards to set an example for others, no nonsense to keep people in line... I wonder how much coaching Ma'a has been getting done between his playing appearances?
I think he achieved more than enough as a player to bother with coaching.
I'm happy with his legacy as the best ever AB 12 with extraordinary longevity.
