All Blacks 2025
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For what it's worth Razor was my 2nd pick to Schmidt, and only because of Schmidt's experience. One of my most heavily upvoted posts on this forum is about how Razor was a far superior candidate to Fozzie, so I wasn't against his appointment.
I'm just frustrated with him now because 1) he has refused to select the best players in the country, 2) the selections of those he has picked in the squad have been consistently poor in key positions and doesn't look like changing, and 3) the gameplan we are implementing doesn't look well suited to the modern version of test footy. So we are less than the sum of our parts right now.
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The tragedy is that I think Scott Robertson could be a fine international coach. But rather than surrounding himself with wise, experienced heads, he went for sycophants and yes men as his assistants. Rather than picking the best players from across New Zealand, he went with those he was comfortable coaching. He drunk his own Kool aid before he's achieved anything at international level.
Ultimately the culpability is with NZR for allowing this to happen.
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I think the dynamic between Robertson and Jason Ryan changed as a result of Ryan coaching the All Blacks for two years with Foster and Schmidt and leading them to the RWC final.
At the Crusader's Robertson the undisputed king but coming into the All Blacks with no previous test experience while Ryan was already a experienced international forward coach has lead Robertson to allowing Ryan too much influence over him and the team. Players Ryan liked and had a relationship with where instantly Robertson's men (Sam Cane and TJ Perenara stand out as the most obvious) and players Ryan disliked were written off without even being given a chance by Robertson.
It appears to me that the last two years Jason Ryan has actually been the All Blacks Head Coach with Scott Robertson in the role of clown media relations man. Robertson needs to put Ryan back in his place as a forwards coach who coaches the best talent NZ rugby can produce or replace him. But this isn't going to happen on this EOYT given the team selected,
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I think the dynamic between Robertson and Jason Ryan changed as a result of Ryan coaching the All Blacks for two years with Foster and Schmidt and leading them to the RWC final.
At the Crusader's Robertson the undisputed king but coming into the All Blacks with no previous test experience while Ryan was already a experienced international forward coach has lead Robertson to allowing Ryan too much influence over him and the team. Players Ryan liked and had a relationship with where instantly Robertson's men (Sam Cane and TJ Perenara stand out as the most obvious) and players Ryan disliked were written off without even being given a chance by Robertson.
It appears to me that the last two years Jason Ryan has actually been the All Blacks Head Coach with Scott Robertson in the role of clown media relations man. Robertson needs to put Ryan back in his place as a forwards coach who coaches the best talent NZ rugby can produce or replace him. But this isn't going to happen on this EOYT given the team selected,
@tubbyj said in All Blacks 2025:
I think the dynamic between Robertson and Jason Ryan changed as a result of Ryan coaching the All Blacks for two years with Foster and Schmidt and leading them to the RWC final.
At the Crusader's Robertson the undisputed king but coming into the All Blacks with no previous test experience while Ryan was already a experienced international forward coach has lead Robertson to allowing Ryan too much influence over him and the team. Players Ryan liked and had a relationship with where instantly Robertson's men (Sam Cane and TJ Perenara stand out as the most obvious) and players Ryan disliked were written off without even being given a chance by Robertson.
It appears to me that the last two years Jason Ryan has actually been the All Blacks Head Coach with Scott Robertson in the role of clown media relations man. Robertson needs to put Ryan back in his place as a forwards coach who coaches the best talent NZ rugby can produce or replace him. But this isn't going to happen on this EOYT given the team selected,
And how do you know all this?
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Does Hansen speak to the players and other coaches the same way he does when interviewed? That would rub a lot of people the wrong way.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks 2025:
Fair point, Based my comment on Robertson's U20 side coming 5th in the 2016 Championship. IIRC that's the worst-ever performance by a NZ team.
I agree Robertson's non-Test coaching record needed to be taken seriously, but it's abundantly clear he was NZR's man no matter what - his face fitted and important stuff like Test experience clearly didn't matter.
That's not Robertson's problem though and as I said, NZR need to support hom.
Well, it was in terms of overall finishing (it has since been passed by the 2019 and 2023 NZ U20 teams, who both finished 7th). But the U20 World Championship is a very quick tournament, with a lot of contingent factors deciding your success in the group phase. In my own opinion, the 2016 U20 side was better than their 2012, 2014 and 2018 counterparts, all of whom made the semi-finals due to a combination of luck and opposition.
And yes, with hindsight there was, once again, too little attention given to international experience. I’m guessing it will return as a deciding factor in the next coaching selection post-2027, which is good news for guys like Jamie Joseph and Vern Cotter (and perhaps even Schmidt and Rennie, should they be interested).
@Mauss said in All Blacks 2025:
And yes, with hindsight there was, once again, too little attention given to international experience. I’m guessing it will return as a deciding factor in the next coaching selection post-2027, which is good news for guys like Jamie Joseph and Vern Cotter (and perhaps even Schmidt and Rennie, should they be interested).
Well, for a little bit of Devil's advocacy....
For all of the "Woe is us" and "All would be well if only we'd got Joe", the scoreline reads Razor 4 - Schmidt 0. Which is better than Sir Graham managed vs Robbie in his first four tests. And while it can be argued that it's "only Australia", it's an Australia that took a test off the Lions and beat SA in SA.
Record vs Rassie isn't great 1-3, but Rassie's coaching a generational SA team and has had umpteen years to get them where they are - and didn't have the same post-2023 exodus that we did.
3-0 vs Borthwick.
3-1 vs Galthie (you can only beat what's in front of you - but, could've been 4-0).
2-2 vs Contepomi, which is the most annoying.
And we've won the rest vs Fiji, Japan, Ireland and Italy.
Looking at a couple of other coaching options - well you couldn't get more international experience than Gatland, but he came back to Super rugby and totally shat the bed. How could this happen?
This time last year, there were strong calls for Cotter to join the squad - but then he took the reigning Champion Blues to a 7-9 record this year. You've got to ask why his significant international experience didn't help him arrest this debacle?
The ultra-internationally experienced Jamie Joseph led his Highlanders to the bottom of the table.
How did these things happen with all this international experience?
And, the maligned Hansen actually has quite a bit of international experience. As has Ryan - he nearly won a RWC.
And now Razor has too. He's coached 23 tests - and only lost 6 compared to all of the guys above.
The genius Rassie is 36/49 = 73.5%
Razor is 17/23 = 73.9%It's not a fucking disaster!
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Mark Watson calling for Razor to be sacked and also all of his remaining assistants on radio today.
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Mark Watson calling for Razor to be sacked and also all of his remaining assistants on radio today.
@MacDazzler I was calling for Mark Watson to be sacked 20 years ago on Radio Sport!
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@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
Sounds like Hansen is the cancer that needs excising
Or maybe he's the one who has the clearest vision of what the AB culture should be?
“A very intense fella, very passionate, has a lot of care but is hard on people and wants to get the very best out of people – he’s demanding
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@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
Sounds like Hansen is the cancer that needs excising
Or maybe he's the one who has the clearest vision of what the AB culture should be?
“A very intense fella, very passionate, has a lot of care but is hard on people and wants to get the very best out of people – he’s demanding
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks 2025:
@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
Sounds like Hansen is the cancer that needs excising
Or maybe he's the one who has the clearest vision of what the AB culture should be?
“A very intense fella, very passionate, has a lot of care but is hard on people and wants to get the very best out of people – he’s demanding
Maybe. But something is amiss
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@MacDazzler I was calling for Mark Watson to be sacked 20 years ago on Radio Sport!
@Chris-B I've never heard of him until recently and that bloke is never happy, even when we win.
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@Chris-B I've never heard of him until recently and that bloke is never happy, even when we win.
@MacDazzler said in All Blacks 2025:
@Chris-B I've never heard of him until recently and that bloke is never happy, even when we win.
I hadn't heard of him for years - where's he working now?
In the hey-day of Radio Sport - him, Deaker, Golightly and Lose competed to be the biggest shock-jock.
It was quite entertaining, but if any of them knew much about rugby, they were suppressing it for radio clicks!
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@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks 2025:
@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
Sounds like Hansen is the cancer that needs excising
Or maybe he's the one who has the clearest vision of what the AB culture should be?
“A very intense fella, very passionate, has a lot of care but is hard on people and wants to get the very best out of people – he’s demanding
Maybe. But something is amiss
@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks 2025:
@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
Sounds like Hansen is the cancer that needs excising
Or maybe he's the one who has the clearest vision of what the AB culture should be?
“A very intense fella, very passionate, has a lot of care but is hard on people and wants to get the very best out of people – he’s demanding
Maybe. But something is amiss
Something's been clearly amiss in managing the coaching set-up since 2010-20
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@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks 2025:
@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
Sounds like Hansen is the cancer that needs excising
Or maybe he's the one who has the clearest vision of what the AB culture should be?
“A very intense fella, very passionate, has a lot of care but is hard on people and wants to get the very best out of people – he’s demanding
Maybe. But something is amiss
Something's been clearly amiss in managing the coaching set-up since 2010-20
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks 2025:
@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks 2025:
@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
Sounds like Hansen is the cancer that needs excising
Or maybe he's the one who has the clearest vision of what the AB culture should be?
“A very intense fella, very passionate, has a lot of care but is hard on people and wants to get the very best out of people – he’s demanding
Maybe. But something is amiss
Something's been clearly amiss in managing the coaching set-up since 2010-20
Starting from the top down
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Mark Watson calling for Razor to be sacked and also all of his remaining assistants on radio today.
@MacDazzler
Is he still on radio? -
@MacDazzler I was calling for Mark Watson to be sacked 20 years ago on Radio Sport!
@Chris-B said in All Blacks 2025:
@MacDazzler I was calling for Mark Watson to be sacked 20 years ago on Radio Sport!
Yeah me too he is a fuckwit he always has been.
