All Blacks coach Scott Robertson with Finlay Christie and Tyrel Lomax speak to media in Auckland ahead of the Springboks Test at Eden Park. Video \ Jason Dorday | NZ Herald
All Blacks coach Scott Robertson faces his most significant test against the Springboks at Eden Park this weekend.
The team has struggled under Robertson, losing five of 19 tests.
A loss on Saturday would end a 50-test unbeaten streak at Eden Park.
It’s perhaps the strongest sign yet that we are in the golden age of international rugby that 20 games into his tenure, All Blacks coach Scott Robertson admits this weekend is the most significant he’s faced in his career to date.
He didn’t go so far as tobrand the forthcoming clash with the Springboks as tenure-defining, but that’s only because the heavy media phalanx in attendance at the All Blacks’ waterfront hotel didn’t need the obvious to be stated to understand what is at stake this Saturday at Eden Park.
This will be Razor’s defining match – his chance to show the world that he’s a talismanic leader: the sort of innovative colossus who can use pressure to bring the best out of himself and those around him.
In his 18 months at the helm, the All Blacks have failed to separate themselves from the pack. They have lost five of their 19 tests, played without the definition of some of their all-conquering predecessors and intensified the somewhat simplistic but effective narrative that the All Blacks have lost their aura.
In a horribly compounding way, the walls will start closing in on this All Blacks team if the 50-test, 31-year unbeaten record ends.
All Blacks coach Scott Robertson talks to media in Auckland on Monday and admits all eyes of the world watching this weekend's test. Photo / Jason Dorday
It would be a consecutive loss (following defeat in Buenos Aires), but more significantly it would be a fifth straight defeat to the Boks – and New Zealand’s claim to be rugby’s first nation would not so much be tenuous as almost comically misplaced.
“Yeah, I think this press conference covers that off,” Robertson said when he was asked if he’s in the midst of the most significant week of his coaching career.
“One plays two; all eyes of the world watching. It is pretty exciting for us as a country. We have got a record that we are really proud of and we will play for.
“My job is to set this team up to perform on Saturday night but you take a couple of deep breaths and realise the stakes that are at hand.”
Most of Robertson’s predecessors have faced similarly confronting junctures in their respective careers and pressure has mostly been able to squeeze the best out of the All Blacks in the past two decades.
The All Blacks have mostly liked these must-win occasions they have occasionally faced – the everything-on-the-line encounters where jobs and reputations have been at risk.
Recent history is rich with stories of the All Blacks responding to adversity with intelligent, innovative, committed and brilliant performances that have evoked a deep sense of New Zealand’s dogged ingenuity and ability to endure and excel in the most extreme circumstances.
The ethos of the All Blacks brand is effectively tied into these big-response moments – this innate ability to be inspired and not intimidated by the past, and to play to enhance and honour a legacy and not sit in fear of it.
Sir Graham Henry’s test of character came midway through the 2008 season when, having lost to South Africa in Wellington and then Australia in Sydney, the All Blacks produced a clever and destructive performance at Eden Park to blow the Wallabies away.
But looking back at these previous tenure-defining games, there has been a hero or a deeper storyline to serve as a catalyst or an obvious point of galvanisation.
In 2008, Richie McCaw returned from a six-week layoff to produce a breathtakingly inspirational performance that lifted his teammates to a higher level.
Richie McCaw produced a "breathtakingly inspirational" performance on his return to the All Blacks in 2008. Photo / Photosport
In 2022, the senior players were motivated by the notion they were playing to save Foster’s job – and they felt a victory would at least deter, in their view, NZR from making a terrible mistake.
But from where will Robertson’s All Blacks draw their inspiration? Will the fit-again Tyrel Lomax give the All Blacks the weaponry they need to make the scrum an unexpected battleground?
Can Scott Barrett lift his performance in the same way McCaw so often used to, or can the under-pressure Rieko Ioane and Sevu Reece – should they both be picked – change the psychology of the contest by plucking high balls from the sky and nullifying what is likely to be a heavy kicking approach from the Boks?
Or will Robertson make a bold call to inject the now eligible Leicester Fainga’anuku straight into the fray and hope he brings a balance of power and finesse that the Boks can’t contain?
And what about the coaching brains trust? Can they refine and reformulate a stuttering All Blacks attack and give it direction, authority and potency in a way that they haven’t managed so far in 2025?
These big games need big players to play in a way no one could have predicted, and they require the head coach to have clarity, confidence and composure that pervades their selection, tactics and demeanour.
