Pressure mounting on Scott Robertson with coaches ‘not all on the same page’, says ex-All Black
Former scrum-half Steve Devine believes that the All Blacks’ “structured” attack is stifling Scott Robertson’s side as the pressure increases on the head coach.
New Zealand lost their second match of the 2025 season after they went down to a 33-19 defeat to England at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham.
It ended their Grand Slam hopes and was yet another disappointing performance during Robertson’s reign.
All Blacks’ unwanted history
They have yet to win the Rugby Championship under the current head coach, who took over following Ian Foster’s departure, while the All Blacks went down to their largest-ever loss to the Springboks in September.
Questions are therefore being asked of ‘Razor’ Robertson and his backroom team after seeing little improvement during his time in charge.
“My feeling on the coaching staff is there’s certainly something missing, they’re not all on the same page. You can tell from the attack that they’re not all on the same page, they’re not fully understanding of what they do,” 10-times capped All Black Devine told Sport Nation’s The Rugby Run.
“I thought when they got the ball to the wings, they made space, they looked good – that’s the out England are always going to give you when they attack up and in [in defence]. You’re always going to have the outside as the easy option.
“We got the ball there early and we made some ground there, we scored two tries down on one side. We just forgot to do that. It’s a confidence thing but certainly there’s something going on – not everyone looks like they’re on the same page at times.”
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Struggling attack
Although the All Blacks’ set-piece, under the guidance of the highly rated Jason Ryan, has been pretty efficient, the attack has surprisingly struggled.
It has never truly fired since the 2023 Rugby World Cup, while they lost their attack coach Leon MacDonald just a few games into Robertson’s reign.
They decided not to replace him but it was revealed prior to the northern hemisphere tour that backs coach Jason Holland will now follow him out of the exit door.
“At times we lost our direction. We’ve lost our DNA on how to attack because once upon a time people used to kick a rugby ball to us at their peril,” Devine said.
“We just seem to be so structured now, we’re a bit lost at times on how to attack, which is something I don’t think I’ve ever seen from an All Black team before.”
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