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Scott Robertson sheds further light on 'likely' role with British and Irish Lions

Scott Robertson and Warren Gatland. (Photo by Michael Bradley/Getty Images)

Scott Robertson has shed light on his potential involvement with the British and Irish Lions, admitting it’s highly likely he joins Warren Gatland’s coaching staff.

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The Crusaders coach revealed in August after missing out on the All Blacks job to Ian Foster, he approached Gatland about joining the team in their tour of South Africa in 2021, with a desire to fill out his CV with international coaching experience.

Robertson says he’s in ongoing talks with Lions management, which have been promising.

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The Aotearoa Rugby Pod discuss the performance of super sub Will Jordan in the All Blacks 38-0 win over the Pumas in their final Tri-Nations match.

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The Aotearoa Rugby Pod discuss the performance of super sub Will Jordan in the All Blacks 38-0 win over the Pumas in their final Tri-Nations match.

“We’ve had some good conversations the last couple of weeks around the opportunity. I’m looking at potentially being involved with the team, that could play against the Springboks and then stay on in some capacity.

“It wasn’t an assistant role I was wanting it was a learning opportunity for me, [to] help a lot around the professional development and support their current coaching group, it wasn’t about being an assistant as such.

“Those conversations are continuing … it’s a highly likely chance, I’m finding ways I can get there.”

Any involvement will follow on from the 46-year-old’s duties in Super Rugby, where he will look to win a fifth consecutive title with the Canterbury franchise in next year.

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The experience Robertson is after will ideally aid in him landing a more prominent role, likely outside of New Zealand, should his time with the Crusaders finish up soon.

Robertson earlier revealed he had aspirations to coach oversees, and recognised the sensitive timing around roles on the international market. He played in France for three years to learn French, in the hope of boosting his chances to coach there one day.

The Lions series in South Africa kicks-off on July 3, with the three tests running on three consecutive weekends from July 24.

Meanwhile, Robertson has this morning revealed his squad for next year’s Super Rugby Aotearoa campaign, and will need to utilise the depth within his squad right off the bat.

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All Black Braydon Ennor is out for the entire season with an ACL injury, while fellow international George Bridge along with Manasa Mataele with miss the start of the season, both with pectoral injuries.

That will see the likes of Leicester Fainga’anuku and Dallas McLeod relied on more in the first team, players Robertson has touted as having big seasons in 2021.

“We’ve got a lot of guys that can play in multiple positions.

“Leicester during Mitre 10 Cup was carrying a few people out the on the field, he’s an awesome talent. If you want to win championships you need depth and if George is out, Leicester comes in. There’s great completion in all positions.”

Listen to the latest episode of the Aotearoa Rugby Pod below:

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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