All Blacks 2026
-
Speaking of All Blacks, Richie Mo'unga is preparing well for the ABs, his Toshiba Brave Lupus team went down by 46 points, unanswered.
-
@nostrildamus said in All Blacks 2026:
It does lead me to wonder if there will be pressure to allow non NZ AB coaches in the future
is there actually something in place for that (like the players eligibility) I just assumed it was that up until now, the best coaches were usually Kiwis, so coaches from other nationalities were never considered.
-
@nostrildamus said in All Blacks 2026:
Speaking of All Blacks, Richie Mo'unga is preparing well for the ABs, his Toshiba Brave Lupus team went down by 46 points, unanswered.
How many current Springboks are in that team?
-
@canefan said in All Blacks 2026:
he shouldn't have been considered for the HC job unless that's exactly what Robinson expected of him
They knew exactly what they were getting; and I wouldn't particularly point at Robinson, there were others involved.
(Not the Board; they leave the rugby decisions to the "experts;" their focus is commercial, of course.)Interesting to look at the opposition; SA hasn't gone the cultural/whisperer route; their HC is actually a bit of a DH; great results tho.
Not saying we have to go the DH HC direction; somewhere in between would be about right, and has been in the past.Looking forward, I'd say the pool of NZ coaches with OE is going to get smaller.
Being the rugby bench-mark meant the demand was high for everything NZ rugby; with less success, that demand will start to drop-off.
Which does bring up the spector of a non-enzeder in the role. -
I dont think being an international HC is an important requirement for being the AB HC.
But when the next AB HC is appointed; having experience with an overseas coaching system, should be an essential part of the resume. -
@DaGrubster said in All Blacks 2026:
The ridiculous love for Ardie is unreal.
Haha
The 21st century interweb "slurp up"!
Have to be careful tho; it can turn to a nasty "pile-on" real quick. -
@mohikamo said in All Blacks 2026:
I dont think being an international HC is an important requirement for being the AB HC.
But when the next AB HC is appointed; having experience with an overseas coaching system, should be an essential part of the resume.Rassie had NH club experience, not test nation HC experience didn't he? The other part of a structure like that is not picking a toxic guy like Hansen appears to be
-
@kiwiinmelb said in All Blacks 2026:
We have to accept the opposition has improved seems to be a common one now ,
The opposition have improved, but they have also "figured us out" as well.
It took them over decade to do that tho.
During that run I always maintained that it was the way we played that the other teams couldn't cope with.
Sure, we had good players, but it was the style of play that had them fucked.
Most of the time we probably had them beat before they were even on the field.
Not like that now; the way we are going at the mo; the serious teams will not be intimidated in the slightest.
Licking their lips!The inability of Hansen/Foster/Robertson to change the old formula and come up with a counter is the problem now.
-
@canefan said in All Blacks 2026:
@nostrildamus said in All Blacks 2026:
Speaking of All Blacks, Richie Mo'unga is preparing well for the ABs, his Toshiba Brave Lupus team went down by 46 points, unanswered.
How many current Springboks are in that team?
not enough! I only know of one South African in that team, Stephanus Du Toit and I don't think he is the famous one (he's a fullback), nor an international (?) but he may be related to the famous one.
But on the winning side, Saitama Wild Knights, one Lachlan Boshier scored a try. And they have Damian de Allende. -
@Bovidae said in All Blacks 2026:
@game_film said in All Blacks 2026:
Ardie sin-binned for dissent in his first match back in Japan. Make him captain right now and don’t think twice!!
The messiah's team lost 46-0 to Deans' Wild Knights.
No doubt he looked devastated on Insta
-
@antipodean said in All Blacks 2026:
@Bovidae said in All Blacks 2026:
@game_film said in All Blacks 2026:
Ardie sin-binned for dissent in his first match back in Japan. Make him captain right now and don’t think twice!!
The messiah's team lost 46-0 to Deans' Wild Knights.
No doubt he looked devastated on Insta
He's such an inspirational player and human being. He gives his all for the team week in, week out, never backs down, leaves it all on the field, puts in the hard yards, empties the tank, battles to the end and never gives up. He has the heart of a lion. There's no quit in him. You can tell how much he cares.
-
-
@reprobate said in All Blacks 2026:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks 2026:
@reprobate said in All Blacks 2026:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks 2026:
@reprobate said in All Blacks 2026:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks 2026:
@reprobate said in All Blacks 2026:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks 2026:
@mohikamo said in All Blacks 2026:
The thing is, I think the people that hired him knew exactly what they were getting.
A marketing man's dream?
The problem I have with this argument is that he's absolutely not. He's barely coherent in an interview.
Does bloody great PowerPoint presentations though, apparently.
It's pretty obvious why he'd be picked: absolutely excellent Super rugby coaching results. I don't think it is valid to say that marketing had become more important than results to NZR and that's why he got the job - he had the bloody results, that was literally the strongest argument in his favour.
It's the powerpoint presentations which should have countered that - and that's on the people doing the hiring. Every time he opens his mouth seems like a red flag to me.
Nah. The people who hired him wanted someone who looked like a winner at international level - plus he was fresh and "different". They knew he was untested at international level but that was an inconvenience to be ignored.
There simply are not going to be candidates who are tested and a proven success at tier one international level on any sort of regular basis.
Tony Brown, Jamie Joseph, Joe Schmidt and Dave Rennie say "Hi"
Correct me if I'm wrong but at the time of Robertson's appointment:
Brown had not been an international head coach (and still hasn't).
Joseph had coached tier 2 Japan.
Joe Schmidt had not been an international head coach.
Dave Rennie had just been sacked from the Wallabies - after he had been passed over for Foster, who had also not been an international head coach.I think you're missing my point. Robertson was clearly seen by many in NZR as their poster-boy from the time he applied for the job in '19. They should have taken a cold, hard look at other candidates to replace Foster.
There were plenty of people available with Test experience had NZR taken the time to manage that talent pool. Instead, they seem to have pissed them off.
-
@Bovidae said in All Blacks 2026:
Obviously it wasn't clear but I was referring to Mo'unga.
Savea's team also lost a close game. Akira Ieremia got a red card for the winners.
Had a customary missed touch from a penalty too.
These games are so far away from top level, it is almost hard to watch. -
@reprobate said in All Blacks 2026:
Point remains, we can't expect to have a It's just not realistic.
No-one is expecting NZR to have range of first rate internationally tier 1 experienced head coach candidates available when we want them.
But the point remains that NZR chose a bloke with no experience of Test rugby whatsoever. rather than court other candidates.
-
This might not be the right thread, as many of the points may be more related to Super rugby and alignment in the domestic game, but interesting interview with Pat Lam on Devlin. He talked about how much time he gets with their players (like 30 games) and how they know that unless a player is with their international side, they have them there with them - he contrasted that with NZ and the piecemeal approach that you get as a Super rugby coach. Quite damning when you look at our organization in comparison to what they are doing up North.
-
Also it's not just the top job (culture coach), I'm astounded that NZR got into a situation where the 3 selectors are all from the same franchise. In previous appointments there was an effort to have a variety of backgrounds. It's unthinkable that Henry could've had two Blues selectors with him etc
One of the reasons that the cartel succeeded was because they challenged each other and Henry didn't win every argument
-
@Duluth said in All Blacks 2026:
Also it's not just the top job (culture coach), I'm astounded that NZR got into a situation where the 3 selectors are all from the same franchise. In previous appointments there would be an effort to have a variety of backgrounds. It's unthinkable that Henry could've had two Blues selectors with him etc
One of the reasons that cartel succeeded was that they challenged each other and Henry didn't win every argument
Good point. And it's interesting that the 2 Assistants who have left were non-Cantabs, I'd still have Ryan there though, done a pretty good job/
-
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks 2026:
@Duluth said in All Blacks 2026:
Also it's not just the top job (culture coach), I'm astounded that NZR got into a situation where the 3 selectors are all from the same franchise. In previous appointments there would be an effort to have a variety of backgrounds. It's unthinkable that Henry could've had two Blues selectors with him etc
One of the reasons that cartel succeeded was that they challenged each other and Henry didn't win every argument
Good point. And it's interesting that the 2 Assistants who have left were non-Cantabs, I'd still have Ryan there though, done a pretty good job/
But arguably is the worst for provincial bias, going by the rumors about his thoughts on Sotutu and (unconfirmed) Akira.
Edit: Seems confirmed, thanks @African-Monkey
