COACHING CHANGE: Blow for Kiwis but we’ve seen this movie

A change in the All Black coaching team on the eve of a tour of South Africa - that sounds like a significant blow to the New Zealand chances of being successful in Johannesburg and Cape Town, doesn’t it?

Well, yes and no. What the news that head coach Scott Robertson and assistant Leon MacDonald had parted ways with immediate effect, with MacDonald not being part of the tour party in South Africa, did do was vindicate those who felt that the All Blacks were struggling with the messages being put to them.

When the No 3 team in the world bounced back in such comprehensive style from their earlier Castle Lager Rugby Championship loss to Argentina with a big win in Auckland, it was overwhelmingly met in New Zealand as an indication that the team had found some clarity.

That what had been interpreted as mixed messages had been swept away and the goals and intent of the team had become clearer.

Whether or not the relationship between Robertson and MacDonald was delivered its final blow in whatever discussions that were held and decisions that were made in what must have been a fraught week behind the scenes for the New Zealand team between the Wellington defeat and Auckland victory is something only the two characters in question will know.

CLASH OF PHILOSOPHIES

So far we’ve only heard from Robertson, who stressed that he and MacDonald, who were teammates in a great Crusaders winning team two decades ago, remain on good terms and it was only philosophical differences around how the type of rugby the All Blacks should play that had forced the change.

“Just a little bit of philosophy on rugby, how it’s played. We just didn’t quite click in different aspects,” said Robertson.

“There was no intent to get to this point where we are now. But we just believed for the both of us, the best thing for the All Black group is we make the call now. We went through a process, and we got to here.”

Fair enough, if you aren’t on the same page philosophically then you are doomed as a coaching duo - depending on how far apart the two philosophies are.

Some differences and a willingness to discuss them and for the head coach to be challenged often makes for a more healthy coaching environment.

Which is surely what many New Zealanders will have in their minds.

Robertson is new to coaching the All Blacks. And that is also a relatively new thing for Kiwis, who saw pretty much the same group that first came together after the axing of John Mitchell at the end of 2003 in charge for 20 years (Graham Henry was replaced by his assistant Steve Hansen, and then Hansen by his assistant Ian Foster.

Robertson has only been in charge for five games, with his journey being far from plain sailing up to now.

Until MacDonald tells his side of the story, which he is unlikely to do fully as burning bridges is never a good idea for a rugby coach, particularly in a country like New Zealand, there are questions that will hang in the air and they might just ratchet up the pressure for Robertson to return from South Africa on 8 September having completed a successful tour.

Much like with their opponents in Johannesburg on 31 August and a week later in Cape Town, the Springboks, when the team loses there is massive and sometimes microcosmic scrutiny.

In such an environment of recrimination the post-mortem could gravitate towards a witch hunt that could just finger this breakdown of the relationship on the eve of the tour as a black mark against the new coach.

GRAVE ERROR TO ASSUME IT CAN’T BE OVERCOME

However, the Boks and their supporters would be making a grave error if they assumed the face value perception that this must hurt the All Blacks.

For we have seen this movie before, and it is not the first time that the team the Boks edged out in last year’s World Cup final have come to South Africa having undergone the upheaval of changing assistant coaches.

In fact, the last time they came here in 2022 for a similar Rugby Championship two match tour, they’d just changed two coaches.

To refresh memories, after losing a home series to Ireland the All Blacks were under intense pressure, with much of the heat directed at the head coach Foster.

Foster’s way of lessening that heat was to sack two of his coaches - forwards coach John Plumtree, who is now back coaching the Hollywoodbets Sharks, and backs coach Brad Mooar.

Foster took charge of the backs initially, and former Crusaders assistant and the then Fiji forwards coach Jason Ryan was the replacement for Plumtree.

History reflects that after the 26-10 defeat the All Blacks suffered at the hands of the Boks in Nelspruit in the first game, the fact that it had followed on from a change of assistants was fuel for much acerbic wit among critics: “So what happens now, you’ve dropped two coaches and you are still losing? Who is to blame now?”

All of that led to the All Blacks going into the return game at Emirates Airlines Park the following week has rank underdogs.

But the Kiwis, and the forward pack coached by Ryan in particular, stood up magnificently and shocked the Boks, in the process doing something that the Boks had failed to do the previous week by picking up the bonus point that ultimately led to the All Blacks retaining the Rugby Championship crown.

Of course, there is a fundamental difference this time.

Two years ago the All Black changes were made because of perceived non-performance.

Plumtree and Mooar were effectively axed, and that was the way the headlines put it.

This time the headlines tell a different story: MacDonald ‘quit’.

New Zealand Rugby (NZR) Head of Professional Rugby Chris Lendrum took pains to point this out to the Kiwi media, and he says it is a very different scenario this time.

And it is. But what is the same is that the All Blacks have experienced a big change within the coaching group and the last time that happened they were under even more pressure than they are now and they came through it by rounding off their tour with a face-saving and probably coach-saving victory in Johannesburg.

It was understood at the time that Robertson was poised to take over, but instead there was a stay of execution.

This time it is Robertson under pressure, and he can ease that pressure by doing what Foster’s group did for him 24 months ago.

All of this adds to the already intense interest in an eagerly awaited mini-series between the two traditional powerhouses of world rugby.

For the Boks there is the comfort that in contrast to what used to be the trend before Rassie Erasmus took over the coaching reins, it is the opposition that are experiencing the upheaval and the resultant uncertainty.