All Blacks 2026
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@Jimmy-Jimmy said in All Blacks 2026:
We have been pretty much treading water since around 2017 and we all had high hopes that change was coming from 2024.
What has happened though, in my view, is that we have gone backwards and seen things that I thought I would never see.
Most disturbing to me is the acceptance of mediocrity that so many scribes, punters, players and coaches have tried to ram down our throats.
This is why what David Kirk said on Thursday excites me.
He wants to bring Aura back, baby.And fans.......it was becoming accepted in the stands too.
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@tubbyj while the decision to remove Razor was the right one, it does put us in a predicament regarding the next coaching team.
One assumes Hansen and Ellison are done, so will be a full re-casting, and there dont seem a massive number of experienced coaches available right now, hence.why the likes of JJ is being seen as our.next coach, and as such, hope he is our saviour...much like many thought Razor was...
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@African-Monkey said in All Blacks 2026:
Who would you have as contenders?
Defence coaches?
I think McGrath has the best recent record. His record amongst NZ teams defence is something like 1st, 2nd 1st, 1st. It's impressive when there was a shitload of injuries last year and everything was going wrong the defence stayed tight.
I think he has almost zero chance because these appointments are political and I'm not sure he has the right connectionsJane seems like the favourite, people seem to rate him plus he worked with Joseph with the AB XV.
He has a couple of extras in his favour too. The first is a bit fluffy.. he's a young recent player. I think the coaches might skew older this time around having a younger guy there might be a bonus. The other is a more solid reason, in theory he should be a good coach for dealing with kick reception
I think Kidwell's Highlanders involvement might count against him if Joesph and Brown are involved (they just had a coaching group heavily from one franchise plus they may want to spread the impact of recruitment across more franchises)
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@Bones said in All Blacks 2026:
@tubbyj said in All Blacks 2026:
Love this thread. Not only are Jamie Joseph and Tony Brown going to come in and turn us into world beaters in record time but the snowflake senior players are all going to love Jamie Joseph's style of 'old school' coaching that from what I hear involves swearing and abusing players.
Also not only do the posters on here know more about international coaching than Scott Robertson but also Wayne Smith now.
Cry more. Just go and have a few quiets with Scott, it's all going to be ok.
It is not a matter of crying it is human decency. It didn't work out for Robertson and while I can appreciate some posters may be fueled on here by the adrenaline of the story appearing here well in advance there is no need to carry like a bunch of feral dogs trying to rip Scott Robertsons carcass apart.
This may have been necessary but it is not good for Scott Robertson personally, NZ rugby or the All Blacks. It may play out it is not good for David Kirk or the next lot of caoches as well time will tell. Anyone getting there jollies posting about it makes me wonder if you really care about NZ rugby or just the drama of things like this..
Jesus Wayne Smith expresses some public support for Scott Robertson in what must be one of the low moments in his life that few here will probably experience or could appreciate and you all start branding him as a know nothing has been.
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@junior said in All Blacks 2026:
@antipodean said in All Blacks 2026:
@Bovidae said in All Blacks 2026:
I've never warmed to Robertson's personality and always found it cringe-worthy when listening to him speak. Obviously there are reasons for that, some known, others perhaps not, but I wasn't surprised when reading what a sports journalist had to say about his press conferences:
"You can't really make sense of what he is saying. If that's what he is like to the media, what is he like behind closed doors?"
Agreed - a point I've made before. Add to Razor's incoherent ramblings the manglement of Scott Hansen and it's no wonder our teams looked utterly confused in the second half.
The comments about his communication style - which I also found incomprehensible - keeps bringing me back to the big head scratcher of how this worked at the Crusaders?
I can see how and agree that it was a failure in the AB environment - but is the Crusaders environment that different?
I am honestly really confused how things could have gone so well at the Crusaders and that none of the issues identified in the review - especially around communication - manifested themselves over the course of 7 years in that environment.
Winning does a lot to smooth over issues - could be that his communication with some players was always a bit shaky but his teams won everything so everyone just accepted it.
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@Godder maybe the culture in Crusaders is very different to ABs and he was unable to change that. I think the thing that nailed him was none of the AB performances were good. Mostly just ugly wins…he needed to have made more bold choices that gave everyone a sense of his new direction …dropped some senior players (BB) for new blood ( e.g. Love?), toughened up forwards ( Ardie doesn’t know what a shoulder tackle is ). Didn’t do anything like that so it was just blah
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@kev said in All Blacks 2026:
@Godder maybe the culture in Crusaders is very different to ABs and he was unable to change that. I think the thing that nailed him was none of the AB performances were good. Mostly just ugly wins…he needed to have made more bold choices that gave everyone a sense of his new direction …dropped some senior players (BB) for new blood ( e.g. Love?), toughened up forwards ( Ardie doesn’t know what a shoulder tackle is ). Didn’t do anything like that so it was just blah
Scott Hansen was operating as the head coach and fell out with Ruben Love.
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@African-Monkey said in All Blacks 2026:
@kev said in All Blacks 2026:
@Godder maybe the culture in Crusaders is very different to ABs and he was unable to change that. I think the thing that nailed him was none of the AB performances were good. Mostly just ugly wins…he needed to have made more bold choices that gave everyone a sense of his new direction …dropped some senior players (BB) for new blood ( e.g. Love?), toughened up forwards ( Ardie doesn’t know what a shoulder tackle is ). Didn’t do anything like that so it was just blah
Scott Hansen was operating as the head coach and fell out with Ruben Love.
Hansen talks in riddles - wouldn’t surprise me
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@lak said in All Blacks 2026:
@canefan
Canes fans or canefan?This idea that Hammett somehow "fixed" the culture at the Canes, and that led to our success after he left, is laughably absurd. Our success came when we finally got a coach that could get the team gelling. I'd say the issues Hammett had at the Canes were similar to what Razor has had at the ABs; he came up and tried to force a Crusaders style culture that didn't fit a lot of the players, which led to us losing our very best player of all time. Those were dark years for Canes fans and I won't tolerate even obvious trolls trying to revise history on that. Keep that man WELL away from the ABs haha.
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@KiwiMurph said in All Blacks 2026:
@Bones said in All Blacks 2026:
@tubbyj so don't hurt cantabs feelings, but fuck Foster and Savea? Fair enough.
How about Dalton's feelings when Razor fucked him over?
Human decency does not apply to Auckland, don't be ridiculous.
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@KiwiMurph said in All Blacks 2026:
@Bones said in All Blacks 2026:
@tubbyj so don't hurt cantabs feelings, but fuck Foster and Savea? Fair enough.
How about Dalton's feelings when Razor fucked him over?
Exactly, especially for someone known for his man management skills.
Quite funny going for a run in Perth this morning and seeing multiple Crusaders jerseys being worn. Couldn't help but laugh.
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@tubbyj said in All Blacks 2026:
@Donsteppa said in All Blacks 2026:
@W32 said in All Blacks 2026:
Apologies if this has been asked, but if the ABs were rated #1 in the world instead of #2, does the fern think he still would have been canned? Has this happened because a NZ coach (TB) is assisting Nzeds biggest rival and Kirk et al are thinking this is a genius move? Word is that it wasn't a player revolt so one has to think it’s because the ABs are not number one.
Or is this shake up because NZ rugby as a whole is in a shambles and Razor has effectively been the scapegoat?I think it's less about NZ Rugby as a whole, and more that the All Blacks themselves were a complete shambles by their long term standards.
I've commented probably a few times now - Razor should have been sacked after the night of the Wellington loss to the Springboks.
Not because they lost, but because All Black sides simply do not give up with 20 minutes to go in a game of rugby.
The win percentage sometimes commented on (elsewhere) is a red herring. The All Blacks could be selected, enter a game week with no coaches, and ordinarily should still win a moderate-ish percentage, given some of their schedules.
You don't think that should mean alot of the players who gave up should be sacked also? Robertson wasn't on the field alot of the senior players stabbing him in the back were the gary give ups.
It was a response to reasons specific to Robertson's sacking. Like I said in the follow up post, it wasn't either/or after Wellington. It should have been both.
(Which the coach/selectors then didn't do their part of...)
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@Godder said in All Blacks 2026:
@junior said in All Blacks 2026:
@antipodean said in All Blacks 2026:
@Bovidae said in All Blacks 2026:
I've never warmed to Robertson's personality and always found it cringe-worthy when listening to him speak. Obviously there are reasons for that, some known, others perhaps not, but I wasn't surprised when reading what a sports journalist had to say about his press conferences:
"You can't really make sense of what he is saying. If that's what he is like to the media, what is he like behind closed doors?"
Agreed - a point I've made before. Add to Razor's incoherent ramblings the manglement of Scott Hansen and it's no wonder our teams looked utterly confused in the second half.
The comments about his communication style - which I also found incomprehensible - keeps bringing me back to the big head scratcher of how this worked at the Crusaders?
I can see how and agree that it was a failure in the AB environment - but is the Crusaders environment that different?
I am honestly really confused how things could have gone so well at the Crusaders and that none of the issues identified in the review - especially around communication - manifested themselves over the course of 7 years in that environment.
Winning does a lot to smooth over issues - could be that his communication with some players was always a bit shaky but his teams won everything so everyone just accepted it.
Which suggests that the Crusaders’ winning record had more to do with things other than him.
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@tubbyj said in All Blacks 2026:
Love this thread. Not only are Jamie Joseph and Tony Brown going to come in and turn us into world beaters in record time but the snowflake senior players are all going to love Jamie Joseph's style of 'old school' coaching that from what I hear involves swearing and abusing players.
Also not only do the posters on here know more about international coaching than Scott Robertson but also Wayne Smith now.
The overexcitement around Joseph and Brown is nowhere near what surrounded Robertson before he took over.
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@ShaquilleOatmeal said in All Blacks 2026:
@tubbyj said in All Blacks 2026:
Love this thread. Not only are Jamie Joseph and Tony Brown going to come in and turn us into world beaters in record time but the snowflake senior players are all going to love Jamie Joseph's style of 'old school' coaching that from what I hear involves swearing and abusing players.
Also not only do the posters on here know more about international coaching than Scott Robertson but also Wayne Smith now.
The overexcitement around Joseph and Brown is nowhere near what surrounded Robertson before he took over.
I wouldn't say there is over excitement. Hope and optimism? Definitely. The JJ Brown Cotter/Rennie Schmidt multi headed monster is exciting but a pipe dream IMHO
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I've been waiting 10 years for the AB turnaround.
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Makes you wonder if Razor still had Whitelock in his squad (let's saynhe is still good enough) is he the difference maker for Razor, is he the glue that holds Razors team together and brings the newbies in and up?
