New Zealand Rugby (NZR) is calling in an external expert to oversee the review of Scott Robertson and his All Blacks’ 2025 season.
Don Tricker, who was NZR’s high-performance leader between 2010-2017, will be involved with the review in an advisory and guidance capacity.
NZR has opted to bring Trickerin, as the former NZ softball coach is recognised as one of the country’s finest exponents at evaluating high-performance environments.
Tricker, a former softball world champion as both player and coach with the Black Sox, was NZR’s high-performance leader between 2010-2017.
He left to take up a role as director of player health and performance with Major League Baseball’s San Diego Padres and was replaced by Mike Anthony – who is recognised as one of the leading authorities on strength and conditioning.
Previous All Blacks coaches who worked with Tricker say he’s adept at extracting information from players, coaches and management to form a true picture of how environments are operating, and that his reviews often led to key improvements being made.
Don Tricker will lead the review of the All Blacks' 2025 season. Photo / Photosport
Tricker, who is fulltime with the San Diego Padres, wasn’t able to commit to leading the review – but agreed to overview the work of Anthony and general manager of professional rugby Chris Lendrum.
Engaging Tricker – albeit in an advisory rather than lead role – is symbolic of NZR’s determination to set up the All Blacks to succeed over the next two years.
The team has delivered inconsistent performances and comparatively underwhelming results since head coach Scott Robertson took over in 2024, and there is now a determination to drill deep into the inner sanctum to ascertain where improvements can be made.
Tricker’s involvement also signals a realisation on the part of NZR’s board that the process would benefit from having a degree of independent oversight.
Tricker has previously worked for NZR and reviewed the All Blacks – but he’s far enough removed now for that knowledge to be useful and with enough detachment to be considered a fresh set of eyes, with no perceived or real ties to the current regime.
It’s not clear yet whether the review will be completed before the Christmas break – although Tricker is due to be in NZ for some of the holiday period – but it is understood that the format will follow the usual template of players, coaches and management being asked a set menu of questions.
NZR has been a big believer in this process, but not all elite coaches have held the same view about it.
In his autobiography, Leading Under Pressure, previous All Blacks coach Ian Foster picked apart what he felt were the flaws in the review template.
Foster felt that the process lacked sophistication and that the views of players who had little input into team strategy were given the same weighting as those players who had been heavily involved.
But he felt that a seasoned professional such as Tricker had the ability to work around the systemic flaws.
Foster wrote: “The key is the question and the questioner and so that is why we had always pushed for Don Tricker to get involved in the reviews, and that is why Don is the biggest loss to NZR in the last 15 years.
“He had the ability to ask questions and extrapolate the right information to help the All Blacks grow. He could say to players who were disgruntled, ‘Well, okay, what do you really mean by that?’.
