tukapa1:

 

Combination of two things - we don't have the world class cattle anymore, and I'm sure the coaching must follow the way Razor thinks and speaks - completely muddled.

 

If his mates can't work with Razor (Leon McDonald and Jason Holland) then who else is going to be able to?  I doubt any other quality coaching options will put their hand up to work in that environment.

 

Razor had the mandate to have a clean out when he came in but he instead chose to be conservative and basically pick who was still around following Foster finishing up.  He claims to want to be 4 deep in all positions prior to the World Cup, yet doesn't give people an opportunity.  I'm sure the NZ rugby public would have been understanding if he had a major clean out when he first turned up with an eye to RWC '27, but he's left that far too late.  Most of the new players he has blooded have been because he was forced through injury and unavailability. 

 

If Scott Barrett and Patrick Tuipolutu had been available for every game then Razor would have kept picking that combination and you wouldn't have seen the likes of Darry, Holland and Lord playing.

 

We've not seen a young 10 because he has all of his eggs in the Mounga basket, and we know on past performance that's no guarantee.

 

Without injury to Jordie Barrett we wouldn't have seen the recent midfield experiments.  The fact Reiko Ioane is still in the squad is a joke.

 

In short, Razor has been uninspiring, his cherry picked assistants struggle to work with him (and in particular Jason Ryan) and we have built very little for the World Cup in just under two years.

 

NZR need to make a decision at the end of year review if they need to dump Razor and his team (what's left of it) or allow him to perhaps lead NZ to their worst equal performance at a World Cup.

 

It's interesting looking back at the bayong for Fozzies blood by red and black supporters and the silence now that Razor is trucking along worse. First ever loss to Argentina over there, record defeat to the Boks (and losing the Freedom Cup) and now only three points off equaling the biggest defeat to England (and losing the Hillary Shield).  Together with losing the Rugby Championship and two narrowish victories over Aussie to hold the Bledisloe, and those two wins being put in perspective with the Aussies results on their endo of year tour (loss to Italy last week and hammered by an Ireland side on the decline this morning).

 

Still, should be thankful I suppose.  There's still one trophy in the cabinet.

 

 

 

Yawn. This is a Foster rant all over again. Just because Robertson picked people, doesn't make them automatically able to deliver the goods. Fosters first assistants were good coaches, who could not deliver at the top end. If Robertsons comms are so 'muddied' it's pretty lucky he has all the titles at all the levels he has coached at then? It's very surprising that he has such good reviews from all the players he has coached and he managed to turn players who were previously struggling in other provinces, into excellent strong performers. 

You reap what you sow. As Fans, Kiwis are the worst. We can't tolerate not winning by 30 points every week, so with that, you force conversative 'safe' options to be taken by the coaches. 

He had a 'mandate' to make changes, so long as there were no losses.  

As for your baying for Fosters blood, that's laughable you'd put that on Canterbury supporters. You were one of them, and you are anything but. Pretty much everyone in this thread bar me wanted him gone almost the entire time he was coach. 

You put the real problem in the first sentence. We don't have the world class cattle any more. We have some. 

Robertson was never going to be the messiah, and people expecting such are delusional, and there was plenty to go around. 

I think what needs to change, is the messages need to be clearer with the players. The mistakes and errors we see every week, to me, that's a sign of uncertainty in decision making, some around fitness (tired bodies don't make good decisions). 

You can put it on the head coach entirely, but you'd be dead wrong. Robertson is one part of the equation.