All Blacks 2026

@canefan said in All Blacks 2026:

@nostrildamus said in All Blacks 2026:

Speaking of All Blacks, Richie Mo'unga is preparing well for the ABs, his Toshiba Brave Lupus team went down by 46 points, unanswered.

How many current Springboks are in that team?

not enough! I only know of one South African in that team, Stephanus Du Toit and I don't think he is the famous one (he's a fullback), nor an international (?) but he may be related to the famous one.
But on the winning side, Saitama Wild Knights, one Lachlan Boshier scored a try. And they have Damian de Allende.

@Bovidae said in All Blacks 2026:

@game_film said in All Blacks 2026:

Ardie sin-binned for dissent in his first match back in Japan. Make him captain right now and don’t think twice!!

The messiah's team lost 46-0 to Deans' Wild Knights.

No doubt he looked devastated on Insta

@antipodean said in All Blacks 2026:

@Bovidae said in All Blacks 2026:

@game_film said in All Blacks 2026:

Ardie sin-binned for dissent in his first match back in Japan. Make him captain right now and don’t think twice!!

The messiah's team lost 46-0 to Deans' Wild Knights.

No doubt he looked devastated on Insta

He's such an inspirational player and human being. He gives his all for the team week in, week out, never backs down, leaves it all on the field, puts in the hard yards, empties the tank, battles to the end and never gives up. He has the heart of a lion. There's no quit in him. You can tell how much he cares.

Obviously it wasn't clear but I was referring to Mo'unga.

Savea's team also lost a close game. Akira Ieremia got a red card for the winners.

@reprobate said in All Blacks 2026:

@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks 2026:

@reprobate said in All Blacks 2026:

@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks 2026:

@reprobate said in All Blacks 2026:

@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks 2026:

@reprobate said in All Blacks 2026:

@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks 2026:

@mohikamo said in All Blacks 2026:

The thing is, I think the people that hired him knew exactly what they were getting.

A marketing man's dream?

The problem I have with this argument is that he's absolutely not. He's barely coherent in an interview.

Does bloody great PowerPoint presentations though, apparently.

It's pretty obvious why he'd be picked: absolutely excellent Super rugby coaching results. I don't think it is valid to say that marketing had become more important than results to NZR and that's why he got the job - he had the bloody results, that was literally the strongest argument in his favour.

It's the powerpoint presentations which should have countered that - and that's on the people doing the hiring. Every time he opens his mouth seems like a red flag to me.

Nah. The people who hired him wanted someone who looked like a winner at international level - plus he was fresh and "different". They knew he was untested at international level but that was an inconvenience to be ignored.

There simply are not going to be candidates who are tested and a proven success at tier one international level on any sort of regular basis.

Tony Brown, Jamie Joseph, Joe Schmidt and Dave Rennie say "Hi"

Correct me if I'm wrong but at the time of Robertson's appointment:
Brown had not been an international head coach (and still hasn't).
Joseph had coached tier 2 Japan.
Joe Schmidt had not been an international head coach.
Dave Rennie had just been sacked from the Wallabies - after he had been passed over for Foster, who had also not been an international head coach.

I think you're missing my point. Robertson was clearly seen by many in NZR as their poster-boy from the time he applied for the job in '19. They should have taken a cold, hard look at other candidates to replace Foster.

There were plenty of people available with Test experience had NZR taken the time to manage that talent pool. Instead, they seem to have pissed them off.

@Bovidae said in All Blacks 2026:

Obviously it wasn't clear but I was referring to Mo'unga.

Savea's team also lost a close game. Akira Ieremia got a red card for the winners.

Had a customary missed touch from a penalty too.
These games are so far away from top level, it is almost hard to watch.

@reprobate said in All Blacks 2026:

Point remains, we can't expect to have a It's just not realistic.

No-one is expecting NZR to have range of first rate internationally tier 1 experienced head coach candidates available when we want them.

But the point remains that NZR chose a bloke with no experience of Test rugby whatsoever. rather than court other candidates.

This might not be the right thread, as many of the points may be more related to Super rugby and alignment in the domestic game, but interesting interview with Pat Lam on Devlin. He talked about how much time he gets with their players (like 30 games) and how they know that unless a player is with their international side, they have them there with them - he contrasted that with NZ and the piecemeal approach that you get as a Super rugby coach. Quite damning when you look at our organization in comparison to what they are doing up North.

@Victor-Meldrew

Also it's not just the top job (culture coach), I'm astounded that NZR got into a situation where the 3 selectors are all from the same franchise. In previous appointments there was an effort to have a variety of backgrounds. It's unthinkable that Henry could've had two Blues selectors with him etc

One of the reasons that the cartel succeeded was because they challenged each other and Henry didn't win every argument

@Duluth said in All Blacks 2026:

@Victor-Meldrew

Also it's not just the top job (culture coach), I'm astounded that NZR got into a situation where the 3 selectors are all from the same franchise. In previous appointments there would be an effort to have a variety of backgrounds. It's unthinkable that Henry could've had two Blues selectors with him etc

One of the reasons that cartel succeeded was that they challenged each other and Henry didn't win every argument

Good point. And it's interesting that the 2 Assistants who have left were non-Cantabs, I'd still have Ryan there though, done a pretty good job/

@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks 2026:

@Duluth said in All Blacks 2026:

@Victor-Meldrew

Also it's not just the top job (culture coach), I'm astounded that NZR got into a situation where the 3 selectors are all from the same franchise. In previous appointments there would be an effort to have a variety of backgrounds. It's unthinkable that Henry could've had two Blues selectors with him etc

One of the reasons that cartel succeeded was that they challenged each other and Henry didn't win every argument

Good point. And it's interesting that the 2 Assistants who have left were non-Cantabs, I'd still have Ryan there though, done a pretty good job/

But arguably is the worst for provincial bias, going by the rumors about his thoughts on Sotutu and (unconfirmed) Akira.

Edit: Seems confirmed, thanks @African-Monkey

@gt12 said in All Blacks 2026:

@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks 2026:

@Duluth said in All Blacks 2026:

@Victor-Meldrew

Also it's not just the top job (culture coach), I'm astounded that NZR got into a situation where the 3 selectors are all from the same franchise. In previous appointments there would be an effort to have a variety of backgrounds. It's unthinkable that Henry could've had two Blues selectors with him etc

One of the reasons that cartel succeeded was that they challenged each other and Henry didn't win every argument

Good point. And it's interesting that the 2 Assistants who have left were non-Cantabs, I'd still have Ryan there though, done a pretty good job/

But arguably is the worst for provincial bias, going by the rumors about his thoughts on Sotutu and (unconfirmed) Akira.

@chchfanatic (wherever he is now) can confirm for us that they hated Akira. He was at a bbq with them and Akira's name got bought up and they all laughed at him circa 2018.

@African-Monkey said in All Blacks 2026:

@chchfanatic (wherever he is now) can confirm for us that they hated Akira. He was at a bbq with them and Akira's name got bought up and they all laughed at him circa 2018.

Laughed at Akira, circa 2018? Professional coaches did that?

Pat Lam actually touched on a lot of what’s being debated in this thread — not just results, but the system underneath the All Blacks. He was pretty blunt about NZ not being the benchmark anymore and said that’s actually an advantage if NZ Rugby is honest about it and makes the right decisions around development, Super Rugby, and funding.

What I found interesting is that he wasn’t having a go at Razor or the players at all — more the structures, the crowds dropping, and whether NPC/Super Rugby are still doing the job they used to.

I wrote up a piece pulling together his main points if anyone’s interested:

@nostrildamus said in All Blacks 2026:

@African-Monkey said in All Blacks 2026:

@chchfanatic (wherever he is now) can confirm for us that they hated Akira. He was at a bbq with them and Akira's name got bought up and they all laughed at him circa 2018.

Laughed at Akira, circa 2018? Professional coaches did that?

According to him, yes.

@African-Monkey said in All Blacks 2026:

@nostrildamus said in All Blacks 2026:

@African-Monkey said in All Blacks 2026:

@chchfanatic (wherever he is now) can confirm for us that they hated Akira. He was at a bbq with them and Akira's name got bought up and they all laughed at him circa 2018.

Laughed at Akira, circa 2018? Professional coaches did that?

According to him, yes.

I'm a little bit shocked!

@giorgi1997

Welcome aboard.

It was interesting interview, and he brought up many interesting points, including that he hardly knew Robbie Deans when he was asked to coach with him on the AB ticket. His story on that really showed how stupid it has been to make coaches find a team - often independent from others - of what the whole team would look like. He's right that they should hire the head coach, who then gets to help select the right and best assistants.

On many other points, I think he makes good points - falling interest from the public etc, but his solution (a Giteau rule to free up more money) was rightly questioned by Devlin - taking more stars out of the NZ game isn't going to get punters to the games.

@African-Monkey said in All Blacks 2026:

@nostrildamus said in All Blacks 2026:

@African-Monkey said in All Blacks 2026:

@chchfanatic (wherever he is now) can confirm for us that they hated Akira. He was at a bbq with them and Akira's name got bought up and they all laughed at him circa 2018.

Laughed at Akira, circa 2018? Professional coaches did that?

According to him, yes.

Him being chchfanatic or Akira?
The Cantab mafia have been a bit quiet lately. I really enjoyed ChCh sauce as he clearly knows much and was happy to share. It would be fascinating to hear what is being said there at the moment.

@gt12 said in All Blacks 2026:

@African-Monkey said in All Blacks 2026:

@nostrildamus said in All Blacks 2026:

@African-Monkey said in All Blacks 2026:

@chchfanatic (wherever he is now) can confirm for us that they hated Akira. He was at a bbq with them and Akira's name got bought up and they all laughed at him circa 2018.

Laughed at Akira, circa 2018? Professional coaches did that?

According to him, yes.

Him being chchfanatic or Akira?
The Cantab mafia have been a bit quiet lately. I really enjoyed ChCh sauce as he clearly knows much and was happy to share. It would be fascinating to hear what is being said there at the moment.

Him being chchfanatic.

@nostrildamus said in All Blacks 2026:

Professional coaches did that?

Clearly not professional. Pity NZR are only just finding out, eh?