All Blacks 2026
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@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks 2026:
@Chris said in All Blacks 2026:
@xman said in All Blacks 2026:
If Robertson is sacked, the pressure on the next coach will be enormous to get better results. If the next coach loses the South Africa tour, loses the Bledisloe, loses the Eden Park streak, then what does NZR do? Don’t just assume Jamie Joseph will be the saviour of the All Blacks. Coaching Japan where you’re not expected to win, versus coaching the All Blacks where you’re expected to win every game is different level of pressure.
It will bring massive pressure in a very tough year ahead for a new coach.
Then again, if he's takes over a complete shit-show and we start to see signs of improvement, we'll all be happier.
Yep we would me included, just hard on the poor bugger who takes over if there is none.
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A bad culture, players thinking they are bigger than the team… only one person for the job.
IT’S HAMMER TIME!
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@Canes4life said in All Blacks 2026:
A bad culture, players thinking they are bigger than the team… only one person for the job.
IT’S HAMMER TIME!
Ditching Roigard and Taylor would make for some tough times for fans.
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@george33 said in All Blacks 2026:
Leon McDonald's name has been mentioned along with Tony Brown
Please not Leon!
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If all 3 Barrett brothers, Taylor, Jordan, McKenzie backs Robertson but Savea wants him sacked, what does NZR do? Savea would be the odd man out of that senior group. I doubt if less experienced players are dissatisfied that would sway NZR to sack Robertson. Savea alone won’t do it. It will have to be few of the senior players to turn on Robertson. Taylor, Jordan, Scott Barrett are all Crusaders so you would think they remain loyal to him. I’m skeptical the other 2 Barretts would go against their brother. Rieko and ALB are the other senior players but their position in the team is vulnerable.
You control the senior players, your job is safe. That’s how Foster stayed when his job was on the line. I suspect that’s one of the reasons why Robertson chose Scott Barrett as captain and his brother Jordie as vice captain because he couldn’t trust Savea as he was loyal to Foster. If shit hits the fan like now, Savea wouldn’t have the same loyalty. It’s the same in every office environment or politics.
If Savea’s coup fails, then that would be the end of his All Blacks career. No way Robertson would tolerate him. I doubt even the other senior players will trust him. Once the trust is gone, it’s impossible to repair.
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@xman said in All Blacks 2026:
If all 3 Barrett brothers, Taylor, Jordan, McKenzie backs Robertson but Savea wants him sacked, what does NZR do? Savea would be the odd man out of that senior group. I doubt if less experienced players are dissatisfied that would sway NZR to sack Robertson. Savea alone won’t do it. It will have to be few of the senior players to turn on Robertson. Taylor, Jordan, Scott Barrett are all Crusaders so you would think they remain loyal to him. I’m skeptical the other 2 Barretts would go against their brother. Rieko and ALB are the other senior players but their position in the team is vulnerable.
You control the senior players, your job is safe. That’s how Foster stayed when his job was on the line. I suspect that’s one of the reasons why Robertson chose Scott Barrett as captain and his brother Jordie as vice captain because he couldn’t trust Savea as he was loyal to Foster. If shit hits the fan like now, Savea wouldn’t have the same loyalty. It’s the same in every office environment or politics.
If Savea’s coup fails, then that would be the end of his All Blacks career. No way Robertson would tolerate him. I doubt even the other senior players will trust him. Once the trust is gone, it’s impossible to repair.
Good post, a lot of truth in your post which defies some of the rumours
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@xman said in All Blacks 2026:
If all 3 Barrett brothers, Taylor, Jordan, McKenzie backs Robertson but Savea wants him sacked, what does NZR do? Savea would be the odd man out of that senior group. I doubt if less experienced players are dissatisfied that would sway NZR to sack Robertson. Savea alone won’t do it. It will have to be few of the senior players to turn on Robertson. Taylor, Jordan, Scott Barrett are all Crusaders so you would think they remain loyal to him. I’m skeptical the other 2 Barretts would go against their brother. Rieko and ALB are the other senior players but their position in the team is vulnerable.
You control the senior players, your job is safe. That’s how Foster stayed when his job was on the line. I suspect that’s one of the reasons why Robertson chose Scott Barrett as captain and his brother Jordie as vice captain because he couldn’t trust Savea as he was loyal to Foster. If shit hits the fan like now, Savea wouldn’t have the same loyalty. It’s the same in every office environment or politics.
If Savea’s coup fails, then that would be the end of his All Blacks career. No way Robertson would tolerate him. I doubt even the other senior players will trust him. Once the trust is gone, it’s impossible to repair.
The thing about Savea is, is that he is extremely popular with the public. It would be a PR disaster if he was ousted out of all of this.
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@xman said in All Blacks 2026:
You control the senior players, your job is safe. That’s how Foster stayed when his job was on the line.
Or equally, it's a case of Robertson losing the players. It's all speculation right now - the only thing that rings true is there's clearly a huge problem between the coaching setup and the players
If Savea’s coup fails, then that would be the end of his All Blacks career. No way Robertson would tolerate him. I doubt even the other senior players will trust him. Once the trust is gone, it’s impossible to repair.
Not sure Savea is planning any coup. Seems to me the current camp is dysfunctional to a large degree - it's Robertson's head that's on the block for that.
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@Chris technically I suppose depending on how you define senior. Any of Lomax, Tungafasi and Tuipolotu are technically senior all blacks though all three have spent more time out of camp due to injury than out of it.
I suppose if any of Groota (Who I could see being pissed off if there’s inconsistency in punishments), Vaii, Clarke or Big Samisoni are kicking up a fuss than you’d think that would carry some weight too given they’ve all been around five seasons or more.
You’d have to think ALB & Reiko are both with Savea on this one too. Doubt Christie is speaking highly of his treatment too. That could be your four players. Maybe throw in Papalii & possibly Groota into the mix as having legitimate concerns and the deck starts looking uncomfortable for Razor. Though by no means impossible.
The real tipping point is if you get a few more players willing to join them. It would only take a few more voices of dissension to make it untenable for Razor or Hansen.
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@African-Monkey said in All Blacks 2026:
@xman said in All Blacks 2026:
If all 3 Barrett brothers, Taylor, Jordan, McKenzie backs Robertson but Savea wants him sacked, what does NZR do? Savea would be the odd man out of that senior group. I doubt if less experienced players are dissatisfied that would sway NZR to sack Robertson. Savea alone won’t do it. It will have to be few of the senior players to turn on Robertson. Taylor, Jordan, Scott Barrett are all Crusaders so you would think they remain loyal to him. I’m skeptical the other 2 Barretts would go against their brother. Rieko and ALB are the other senior players but their position in the team is vulnerable.
You control the senior players, your job is safe. That’s how Foster stayed when his job was on the line. I suspect that’s one of the reasons why Robertson chose Scott Barrett as captain and his brother Jordie as vice captain because he couldn’t trust Savea as he was loyal to Foster. If shit hits the fan like now, Savea wouldn’t have the same loyalty. It’s the same in every office environment or politics.
If Savea’s coup fails, then that would be the end of his All Blacks career. No way Robertson would tolerate him. I doubt even the other senior players will trust him. Once the trust is gone, it’s impossible to repair.
The thing about Savea is, is that he is extremely popular with the public. It would be a PR disaster if he was ousted out of all of this.
And it's clearly not one player causing all the problems and we'd all be hunky-dory if he left.
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@Canes4life said in All Blacks 2026:
A bad culture, players thinking they are bigger than the team… only one person for the job.
IT’S HAMMER TIME!
Actually Nonu might make a useful assistant coach, what is he doing?
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@nostrildamus said in All Blacks 2026:
@Canes4life said in All Blacks 2026:
A bad culture, players thinking they are bigger than the team… only one person for the job.
IT’S HAMMER TIME!
Actually Nonu might make a useful assistant coach, what is he doing?
More than Piri.
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I thought they were mostly pissed off with Hansen not Razor? Could it be (if rumours are true) that they decided to fire Hansen and Razor went down with the
head coachship? -
@gt12 said in All Blacks 2026:
In case this is not a rhetorical question, the current WC winning coach.
Appointed 2017, they won in 2019.
Fair enough, I should have qualified that.
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@mariner4life said in All Blacks 2026:
if it was me?
The skipper moves to a squaddie spot
I am looking at 3 new starting loose forwards, Ardie to the bench.
BB to the paddock, DMac promoted and the most promising young 10 to the bench.
I am looking very hard at both midfield spots, definitely a new (or even returned) centre.
A new fullback, Jordan back to a wing.I'm not convinced we have much depth in those positions to be that excited. I'd agree Ardie would probably be better on the bench. Or do you mean previous ABs? We seem to be loosing a lot of loosies in the last two years...
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@xman said in All Blacks 2026:
If all 3 Barrett brothers, Taylor, Jordan, McKenzie backs Robertson but Savea wants him sacked, what does NZR do? Savea would be the odd man out of that senior group. I doubt if less experienced players are dissatisfied that would sway NZR to sack Robertson. Savea alone won’t do it. It will have to be few of the senior players to turn on Robertson. Taylor, Jordan, Scott Barrett are all Crusaders so you would think they remain loyal to him. I’m skeptical the other 2 Barretts would go against their brother. Rieko and ALB are the other senior players but their position in the team is vulnerable.
You control the senior players, your job is safe. That’s how Foster stayed when his job was on the line. I suspect that’s one of the reasons why Robertson chose Scott Barrett as captain and his brother Jordie as vice captain because he couldn’t trust Savea as he was loyal to Foster. If shit hits the fan like now, Savea wouldn’t have the same loyalty. It’s the same in every office environment or politics.
If Savea’s coup fails, then that would be the end of his All Blacks career. No way Robertson would tolerate him. I doubt even the other senior players will trust him. Once the trust is gone, it’s impossible to repair.
Fascinating post in that this is the first time in a very long time that we have an AB coach who has actually coached the players involved at the domestic level.
People can bag Foster all they want, and I'll join in, but he wasn't picking people from the Chiefs who he had coached. The last person involved like that was probably Shag but that only probably applied to McCaw, if that, and was years removed. Before that, Ted and Smith will have had such players.
If part of Razor's plan is to transplant success from the Crusaders across to the ABs, you may end up with Crusader players who may be happy with that and the others not happy with that. If the leadership group is filled with Crusaders, and they are the only ones really supporting the team, while fringe players are moaning, NZRU would be in a very tough spot.
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@handa457 said in All Blacks 2026:
@Chris technically I suppose depending on how you define senior. Any of Lomax, Tungafasi and Tuipolotu are technically senior all blacks though all three have spent more time out of camp due to injury than out of it.
I suppose if any of Groota (Who I could see being pissed off if there’s inconsistency in punishments), Vaii, Clarke or Big Samisoni are kicking up a fuss than you’d think that would carry some weight too given they’ve all been around five seasons or more.
You’d have to think ALB & Reiko are both with Savea on this one too. Doubt Christie is speaking highly of his treatment too. That could be your four players. Maybe throw in Papalii & possibly Groota into the mix as having legitimate concerns and the deck starts looking uncomfortable for Razor. Though by no means impossible.
The real tipping point is if you get a few more players willing to join them. It would only take a few more voices of dissension to make it untenable for Razor or Hansen.
Which has the chance to split the team into 2 factions which is a big shit feast a new coach is never going to sort out as the damage is done ,
Which NZR are very aware of.
Any ABs not in the leadership group also have no guarantee of selection with a new coach which they will be aware of
So a major problem for everyone no matter which way certain people go. -
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks 2026:
@Chris said in All Blacks 2026:
@xman said in All Blacks 2026:
If Robertson is sacked, the pressure on the next coach will be enormous to get better results. If the next coach loses the South Africa tour, loses the Bledisloe, loses the Eden Park streak, then what does NZR do? Don’t just assume Jamie Joseph will be the saviour of the All Blacks. Coaching Japan where you’re not expected to win, versus coaching the All Blacks where you’re expected to win every game is different level of pressure.
It will bring massive pressure in a very tough year ahead for a new coach.
Then again, if he's takes over a complete shit-show and we start to see signs of improvement, we'll all be happier.
I am of the opinion the RWC is basically gone for us. We need to rebuild our entire team from the ground up. Only then will we have a chance to be great again
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Did anyone see the news about Mike Anthony, the head of high performance, quitting to go to a performance role in the English Premier League?
This thickens the plot even further as it was Anthony who had been tasked with carrying out the review of Robertson’s 2025 AB campaign.
Did the board find fault with his report? Anthony worked with Robertson at the Crusaders. Perhaps Kirk and the board rejected his review as a whitewash?
I think Razor and his crew are gone. Yes, the AB performances were underwhelming. But the real reason to clear out the coaches are the multiplying signs of real dysfunction in the coaching and management and selection set-up.
That dysfunction began almost as soon as Razor was appointed when Leon MacDonald walked out. Then you had Jason Holland getting out of his contract earlier with little explanation.
You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to see this is not a happy camp and that the problems are unlikely to get better without radical action.
Knowing David Kirk, he’s not one to linger in ripping off the plaster if it needs to be done. They could muddle through for another year under some stitched-up compromise, but does anyone seriously believe this will get any better?
The disastrous Mark Robinson era is over at the NZR. Razor’s appointment was symptomatic of that era, in which PR spin, image management and careerist politicking took precedence over substance and results.
The only real argument I can see against doing the deed now is that a new CEO has yet to be appointed. (Honestly, the management of NZ Rugby is a shambles.)
For now, though, a hard-headed, cool-eyed assessment of the past two years of drift and endless experimentation would suggest Razor will be packing his bags next week.
