The Silver Fern

@KiwiMurph said in All Blacks 2026:

@kiwiinmelb said in All Blacks 2026:

@KiwiMurph said in All Blacks 2026:

@African-Monkey said in All Blacks 2026:

Not saying I'm a supporter of Razor - far from it infact, but I too, would be surprised if he went before the 2027 RWC.

He has a hell of a 2026 season to try and negotiate first.

the problem will be, even if 2026 isnt good,

Who is going to want to take over the team 1 year out from the WC and be judged on that

It's not without precedent. Cheika took over the Wallabies in 2014 and made the RWC final in 2015.

And of course who can forget a certain Rassie Erasmus, the year after the All Blacks shellacked the Boks 57-0 in Auckland, taking over as head coach of South Africa from the bumbling Alistair Coetzee? It was March 2018 that Erasmus took the reins. In September of that year, the Boks came back to beat the ABs in Wellington 36-34. Another year later in the World Cup final in Japan, the Boks fairly comprehensively beat England 32-12, the latter having played their final against the ABs in the semi. So there was a little over 18 months from Erasmus’ seemingly radical appointment till the World Cup final.

If NZR is going to rip off the plaster, the earlier they do it the better. Another ‘review’ piled on top of the current one would be a paper-shuffling exercise, would only prolong the agony and would leave Robertson’s successor an impossible task. ‘Consensus’, PR-driven, arse-covering, politically correct decision-making (which they seem to specialise in at the NZR) is a recipe for disaster. They need to move quickly.

“The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.” - Machiavelli.

I have no particular inside knowledge, but I really am surprised at the consensus among Kiwi commentators - like Devlin and TJ - that Robertson is safe till the World Cup. I think there is a fairly solid case - in the early exit of Leon MacDonald, the unexplained departure of Jason Holland, the unconvincing AB wins (particularly against Scotland), the capitulation to the Boks in Wellington, the klutzy and ill disciplined loss to Argentina in Buenos Aires, and their limp performance against England together with the ritual mid-game drift and now the talk in the Liam Napier story of real dissent in the ranks - suggests something is really rotten inside that camp. Knowing David Kirk, having seen him in action at Fairfax when I worked there, he is big on governance and accountability. The mates network, winks and nudges culture and cosy Canterbury relationships behind Robertson’s initial appointment left a bad taste in the mouth of Joe Schmidt and suggests to me something off in the whole set-up. In conclusion, I really wouldn’t be surprised if Robertson is gone within months. In fact, I think the only argument against his sacking being expedited is the fact that NZR is still looking for a new CEO. My two cents worth.

Kill the TMOs. Just kill them. Then burn them

@sparky Hansen is definitely gone.

Agreed. Both assistant coaches are gone,

Clueless.

@BerniesCorner said in England Vs All Blacks:

@nostrildamus said in England Vs All Blacks:

@BerniesCorner said in England Vs All Blacks:

The frustrating thing about all this is we have some really good players. I've seen much worse AB teams in recent years. Historically the ABs invariably won the mental battle with grit and intelligence. This lot are all over the shop.

And they're checking out before they even get to the counter.

At times they're off their trolley

Everything must go.

Come to God Moment for Surf Jesus

For All Black fans, this team offers a constantly recurring cycle of briefly raised hopes followed by crushing disappointment.

Nothing changes - the dropped balls, the pushed passes, the fundamental errors like missing touch from penalties, the brain fades and ill-discipline, the paucity of on-field leadership when heads droop amid the inevitable third-quarter meltdowns and, most galling of all, the Pollyanna rhetoric from Robertson and his mediocre coaches (‘we played some good footy out there, eh’).

Of course, the lottery that is the yellow card-red card ‘system’ is not helping, but that is an issue every team is having to contend with. We just contend with it worse than most.

Absent the sacking of the overrated Robertson and/or his deputies, together with the overdue retirement of a few of the old guard long living on past glories (you know who they are), I really can’t see what changes next year.

What I do know is that the high performance, no-excuses culture that the All Blacks once prided themselves on is now shattered. Rugby NZ ‘monetised’ the AB brand for private equity cash and ever since the marketing department and the PR spinners have been running the show - at the expense of on-field performance.

It is a shambles from top to bottom - from the factional, divided boardroom that leaks like a sieve, to coaching, to strategy, to selection, to on-field leadership, to skill development and to individual performances. The All Blacks are busted. We can all see it. The time for excuses is over. Arguably, they’ve gone backwards since 2023.

What should happen next? Ideally, heads should roll - from the top. More likely, there’ll be an official and non-transparent ‘review’ that will be largely a public relations exercise like everything else NZ Rugby does these days. Someone mentioned the possibility of tell-all books from MacDonald and Holland. Whatever, a light needs to be shone very broadly and very deeply into the mismanagement of the All Blacks brand.

In the meantime, there is simply no evidence that the coaching group have any idea what they are trying to achieve and it is that muddle-headed cluelessness that is reflected on the field of play as a rudderless AB team is reduced to gambling on individual brilliance and luck to win games. It worked against Ireland and Scotland. But England found them out and exposed their significant weaknesses.

You don’t win World Cups by failing to catch a high ball, or kick for touch, or defend on your own line, or rethink strategy when the run-on instructions prove wanting. You don’t win when you resort to tripping opponents up or going for miracle intercepts. And you don’t win when your coaching staff fail to correct the same recurring frailties in test after test and then come back with motherhood statements about ‘walking toward the pressure’.

It’s time for Surf Jesus to hang up his sandals.

Brown paper bag being passed to the TMO by two cigar-smoking toffs.

There needs to be a commercial takeover of World Rugby. The cards situation just defies common sense. How many games are these pissant unaccountable pedants going to ruin?? We need an advertiser boycott and a ginger group to force a spill of the governing body. It is beyond a joke.

If it had been McKenzie who missed a simple penalty kick for touch he would have been pulled.

Robertson’s stubborn refusal to make the transition from a clearly past-it Beauden Barrett is mystifying. I almost would rather have Reuben Love out there. What is the issue in the coaching panel that they can’t see this guy is in terminal decline??

Interesting watching Aussie ex-hack David Pembroke’s podcast interview with two former Wallaby coaches in Eddie Jones and Ewen McKenzie on the prospects for England vs All Blacks this weekend. Jones reckons Borthwick has England 12 months ahead of the ABs in terms of development and believes they’ll have too much depth and power. He reckons it will be close, but England will take it by “a few”. McKenzie, however, likes the AB bench and believes they’ll have the lateral power to go around England to win by a couple of points. Both are highly critical on the use of cards in the autumn internationals. Jones says the English Rugby Union told him when he was there that they could sell Twickenham out three times over when the All Blacks come to play. But the people paying those high-priced tickets deserve to see 15-on-15, he said.

ALB hasn’t played since the second RC test against Argentina nearly three months ago. He’ll be a bit underdone, won’t he? Perhaps they’re trying to ensure the now steady flow of yellow cards continues?

@Victor-Meldrew Well spotted. Writing this on a phone in a crowded beer bar in Hanoi so you’ll have to excuse the typos.

@sparky said in Scotland v All Blacks:

How many bad games can Ardie Savea and Beauden Barrett keep having in Black?

I can't remember any of our players in the past escaping scrutiny for such consistently disappointing performances.

It does have a ‘Zombies: Dawn of the Dead’ feeling to it or at least a John Farnham ‘Final Ever Farewell Tour’. Perhaps not so much with Ardie - although he’s starting to turn a little bit green. Beauden, however, is well into his Fat Elvis ‘Vegas Era’ - religiously playing the greatest hits and denying any possibility of the team growing or innovating beyond a legacy that now feels like a dead-weight. There’s the rub. Razor has brought in significant new talent, but in holding on grimly to these former talismen way beyond their. expiry dates he’s giving the whole team a haunted look. The message the newer players are absorbing is ‘you’re not as good as the originals so I’m keeping these old guys on payroll for the hits and memories crowd’. This explains the collective panic and breakdown of discipline when oppositions begin to develop the upper hand. The sheer fear of losing, the bunker mentality from the coaching box, infects the whole team and, zombie-like, they grope blindly through what they perceive as the enfolding darkness for a ‘secret’ that is never spelt out to them - a ‘secret’ that the un-zombie-like DMac displayed in his cameo - chance your arm, come out of your shell, and play. The problem is the coach.

They really are useless, aren’t they? Devoid of composure, judgement, brains. Mirror image of the head coach.

@Chris-B said in Scotland v All Blacks:

@mohikamo said in Scotland v All Blacks:

@Chris-B

I really dislike it when the All Blacks play in any colour other than black and in fact we should just refuse. The Scots and the French can wear whatever the fuck they like - as long as it's not a kilt. That I don't need to see.

Why don't they wear a tartan jersey?

Agree entirely. Ever since that awful grey kit we were forced to wear in that match in 2007 (one I barely remember) it seems other teams - like France and Scotland - go out of their way to wear darker and darker kits that force the ABs out of their totemic black ensemble. This is equivalent to John Travolta going to the Saturday night disco and discovering someone else in all-white suit with platforms. That’s OUR thing. In any case, wasn’t it the tradition that in the event of a colour clash, the host nation switches to an alternate kit?

Is the fact Parker has been dropped right out of the 23 a sign that that particular experiment is over?

@booboo They went for the bucks and now they howl at the moon for selling their souls