Scott Robertson completed another successful season at the Crusaders. Photo / Photosport
OPINION
Phil Gifford runs through four talking points as Scott “Razor” Robertson takes charge of the All Blacks.
The Razor Robertson era with the All Blacks has dawned, and while the public image of the man’s unrelenting enthusiasm is correct, there are elements of him that are not as obvious.
He’s basically been training to be a coach since he joined the Crusaders in 1996 as a 21-year-old loose forward.
“I had three of the greatest coaches, Wayne Smith, Robbie Deans and Steve Hansen,” he once told me. “I had my own playbook with my moves and my structures. I’d go to the different coaches and show them, and say, ‘Can I do this better? What about this?’”
In just his second year in the Crusaders, he was coaching an under-13 side at Christ’s College, and he’s extremely proud of taking his Sumner team into first grade when he retired from playing in 2007.
Defining him as a coach by his breakdancing would be as foolish as ignoring the fact that Muhammad Ali backed up his outrageous verbal outbursts with skills in the ring never seen before in a world heavyweight boxing champion.
We’re in for a different four years with Robertson at the helm. But one thing you can guarantee: The exuberance you’ll see in interviews is backed up by application in private that’s so intense there have been times when he’s found it hard to sleep because ideas keep popping up he needs to jot down.
You’d hope the slings and arrows Ian Foster had to cop, before his All Black side went to within two points of World Cup triumph in France, might bring some reality to the national conversation if the ‘24 All Blacks don’t immediately blitz opposing teams.
We’ve forever been brutal when the All Blacks stumble. Wayne Smith has recalled how, after the All Blacks’ early exit from the ‘07 World Cup, a heckler at the Akaroa Rugby Club in Canterbury told him, “I coach an under-10 team here, and they’ve got more heart than your All Blacks.”
In a perfect world for Kiwis, the All Blacks would finish four unbeaten seasons with a victory in a Cup final.
But as much as the country, the coaches and the players want to win every test, in this universe the Cup has become the Holy Grail.
What the Springboks of 2019 and 2023 proved (with a loss in pool play at both tournaments) was that the road to winning the Webb Ellis Cup can begin shakily, and end in glory.
And for one more small dose of reality, who cares now that in their last game before winning the Cup in 2011, the All Blacks lost 25-20 to the Wallabies in Brisbane?
A strike that may have gone against Robertson when he first applied for the All Blacks coaching job was that he had never coached an international team in Europe, the way that Graham Henry and Hansen did before they won World Cups.
But his rugby experience hasn’t been confined to Canterbury and the Crusaders. After leaving New Zealand rugby at the end of 2003 he had three seasons in France with Perpignan, and then finished his playing career in Japan.
And the answer to a great pub quiz question - What international team did Robertson coach before the All Blacks? - is a startling one: Brazil.
In 2012 and 2013, in what amounted to a rugby version of Volunteer Service Abroad, he was part of a scheme, devised by the Canterbury Rugby Union, to assist Brazil with coaches. Robertson followed Tabai Matson to the home of the samba.
The Brazilian players were used to a totally amateur environment, training just once a week. Robertson introduced daily team sessions.
He also had to deal with some weird issues. The Brazilian fullback at the time, Fernando Portugal, has said, “After training we would all go to a nearby cafe without showering. He was at us, saying that was not professional, that personal hygiene was important. It was about looking after the mind and the body.”
Considering it’s 36 years since the first World Cup, it’s a slightly odd fact that Robertson is the first All Black coach who’s actually played at a World Cup, in the 1999 team in Britain.
He didn’t play in the 43-31 semifinal loss to France at Twickenham, but, as All Blacks do, the memory of a defeat, especially in such a vital game, will be a spur in the background when what is likely to be a massive test programme rolls out next year.