The next All Blacks coach will have the invaluable scar tissue that Scott Robertson lacked
Sunday, 25 January 2026
Leading All Blacks contenders have all had failures to deal with.
Scott Robertson was appointed despite question marks being held within NZR.
Henry, Hansen and Smith all came through school of hard knocks.
ANALYSIS: The next All Blacks coach will invariably have failures on his CV of one degree of another, necessitating a mindset shift among restless All Blacks fans about what actually prepares a coach to take on the job.
The credentials and coaching records of Dave Rennie, Joe Schmidt, Jamie Joseph, Ian Foster and others are already being picked apart on the premise that their harder career periods point to a disqualifying flaw, but it is precisely these events that will decide if they get the job or not.
“Scar tissue needed” won’t explicitly be part of the New Zealand Rugby job description, but it’ll be the underlying message after Scott Robertson’s near-flawless run of success at provincial and Super level manage to outweigh the concerns about his suitability.
And there were concerns. The Star-Times understands that even before Robertson was appointed, there were question marks at the upper levels of New Zealand Rugby about how he might deal with adversity, with one theory being that he would need “a Yoda-style figure” to help him make the enormous step up.
This time round, NZ Rugby should have a much clearer line of sight into how the leading contenders coped with rocky periods - and there have been a few.
Rennie was punted by the Wallabies in 2023, Schmidt famously couldn’t get Ireland beyond the quarterfinals of a Rugby World Cup when the heat was really on, Joseph has had a few bad years at the Highlanders (including last year’s wooden spoon) and Foster lost a home series against Ireland, among other lows.
A well-run process - the Star-Times understands more details will be revealed on Monday with interim NZ Rugby chief executive Steve Lancaster taking a lead role - will dig into those hard times to see whether they do actually point to a recurring weakness or whether there has been growth over the scar tissues.
Graham Henry lost a British and Irish series before changing the All Blacks, Steve Hansen was put through the wringer with Wales, and Wayne Smith was let go as All Blacks coach before returning as part of the three wise men panel.
None of that accumulated wisdom would have been possible without their earlier failures.
There are other question marks in the All Blacks coach hunt, which is now running parallel with the search the new full-time chief executive officer.
The Star-Times understands that it could be a “neck and neck” race in terms of which appointment is made first, which does not come without some risk.
The relationship between the chief executive officer and the All Blacks coach is critical, and ideally the latter would in place to oversee the appointment of the former to make sure they are on the same page from the outset.
Another part in the jigsaw puzzle is the New Zealand Rugby head of high-performance role soon to be vacated by Mike Anthony.
Ideally, Anthony’s successor would have enough gravitas to challenge the incoming All Blacks coach when necessary, as well as providing support and guidance.
All Blacks coaching candidates will therefore have queries of their own, but the most significant question over the coming weeks or months will be: who has the demonstrated resilience to take on a role that can chew you up and spit you out?