‘Not a shock’: Commentator on All Blacks’ ‘inevitable’ coaching split

New Zealand rugby commentator Tony Johnson believes it was “inevitable” and “not a shock” to see the All Blacks make a significant change to their coaching staff. Before two Tests against the Springboks, assistant coach Leon MacDonald has stepped down.

Earlier this week, New Zealand Rugby revealed that head coach Scott Robertson and MacDonald had “some honest conversations” before agreeing to part ways. This headline-grabbing change comes just five Tests into the ‘Razor’ coaching era.

In April of last year, NZR announced that MacDonald would leave the Blues to join the All Blacks as their attack coach. But the 46-year-old wasn’t the only one stepping up with the Robertson appointing multiple coaches into various roles.

Scott Hansen, Jason Holland and Jason Ryan were confirmed as the other three assistant coaches, while Tamati Ellison and Wayne Smith also had ‘coach’ in their new titles. There were a lot of chefs in the kitchen under Robertson and eventually, “Something’s got to give.”

Hansen and Ellison will take on more responsibilities with MacDonald leaving the All Blacks. But the departure of the former Blues head coach has certainly raised eyebrows around the rugby world considering New Zealand only played their first Test of the year on July 6.

“I suppose people will be shocked by it because you don’t see this happen very often, but in a way, perhaps not a shock,” Tony Johnson said on SENZ’s Afternoons With Staffy.

“I was at a briefing early on this year where Scott Robertson outlined his strategic approach or the format that he was going to take with his coaching and that was going to involve a group of coaches, each with a distinct portfolio or a part of the team that they had to look after.

“I remember thinking at the time, ‘Boy, this is quite radical.’ With him, Razor, at the top… you almost got the feeling, was it more like an English football manager than a hands-on coach?

“Obviously, in the past, Graham Henry, Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith, the best coaching setup we’ve ever had in certainly the professional era since we’ve started having multiple coaches, they had multiple roles but they were clearly defined and it was only three of them.

“Those three guys, they covered the whole range of coaching areas.

“The talk all along, and not unsurprisingly, has been it’s all got a bit convoluted – eight voices… in theory it might be okay, it might be radical. But the reality appears to be that there’s simply too many voices, too much information.

“One coach, Jason Ryan, appears to  have a reasonably broad range of responsibilities. If that happens then where’s the balance? You’ve got the danger of others tripping over each other.”

In MacDonald’s final Test on August 17, the All Blacks returned to winning ways in style. New Zealand had been beaten by Argentina 38-30 the week before in Wellington but bounced back with a 32-point annihilation of the same foe at Eden Park.

The All Blacks have only lost one of five Tests under ‘Razor’ Robertson and co. this year but it’s fair to say most of their performances haven’t been convincing. They’ve looked like an All Blacks team who are trying to find their identity under a new coaching group.

But that 42-10 win over Los Pumas was a step in the right direction. It doesn’t get any easier for the All Blacks, though, who are preparing to take on the two-time defending Rugby World Cup champion Springboks on their home deck in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

“I think it was quite notable that the reason why they played so much better against the Pumas in the second Test was that everything got simplified and maybe the weather forced that – that they had to take a more simplified approach,” Johnson continued.

“Maybe this might be part of a process that this whole coaching setup has to be simplified a little bit.

“It’s not great for it to happen and Leon MacDonald is a guy I’ve known for a long time, great regard for him, and it’s a bit sad to see this happen, but you’d have to think that it was inevitable if you put so many different people, so many different voices, something’s got to give.

“The only thing that’s probably good about it is, okay, they’ve confronted it now rather than let it burn on, fester away and drag on… they haven’t minced their words in the way that it’s come out.

“I think overall, it’s just clear evidence that New Zealand Rugby allowed too much leeway in how the coaching staff were picked, how many of them were picked, and how it was going to run because quite clearly there have been some issues there.”