Why All Blacks won’t win World Cup: Aussie journalist hits out at timing of Scott Robertson hire

An Australian journalist says there’s a “creeping sense of arrogance” in the All Blacks side adding that the timing to announce Scott Robertson as the next coach undermines current coach Ian Foster.

Christy Doran, rugby union editor for Roar.com.au, told Newstalk ZB’s Sportstalk the decision to hire Robertson as the next All Blacks coach from the 2024 season could impact New Zealand’s form at the Rugby World Cup later this year and the decision should have been made much earlier.

“A ball hasn’t really even been kicked from an All Blacks perspective this year. And the New Zealand public are welcoming a new All Blacks coach. It just seems extremely odd,” Doran told Sportstalk host D’Arcy Waldegrave.

“It just is extraordinary that an All Blacks coach, a World Cup winning coach, a person that’s been in the system for so, so long has to deal with this.

Doran said when the pressure goes on the All Blacks at the World Cup that’s when the decision could hurt them.

“I just get the feeling that if, if you’re an All Black and you lose one of the Rugby Championship matches or indeed the first game of the World Cup against France in Paris on the opening night of the World Cup, there will be a lot of questions asked is the wrong person in charge and it will take an incredibly strong group to get through that and to not lose sight of what the end vision is for this side.

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“Is the leadership currently in this All Black side? I don’t know if they are. It was always going to be difficult to replace guys like Richie McCaw and Jerome Kaino, Conrad Smith, Ben Smith, guys that have been there for so, so long and had that unique ability to be able to withstand pressure. I don’t think this side’s got it. And there’s been an element of selfishness and you can see it out in the field.”

Doran added there is a “creeping sense of arrogance” in the All Blacks which has been driven from the top.

“I’m concerned about the All Blacks side that there’s been this creeping sense of arrogance which has been driven from the New Zealand Rugby board and Mark Robinson, in particular of where ‘we know best’. We saw it with Super Rugby decisions. We see that with private equity deal that was, you know, it took an extra year to get across the line because the various stakeholders weren’t brought along.

“And you see that with the New Zealand public at the moment. A lot of them are pretty angry around the All Blacks and what the All Blacks represents these days. And we’ve seen that creep into the side more and more over the last few years.

“Here was an opportunity, six to seven months ago to make a bold call, bring in Razor Robertson and they haven’t, but they shouldn’t have brought him in five months before a World Cup when, you know, they didn’t even have the courage and conviction to make this decision when Ian Foster was around. They did it in the middle of the night when the bloke’s asleep. I thought that was a terrible, terrible look.”