All Blacks: Leon MacDonald falls victim of too many big voices in Scott Robertson’s team
All Blacks boss Scott Robertson has learnt his first big management lesson.
Scott Robertson has learnt his first big management lesson following the departure of All Blacks assistant coach Leon MacDonald.
The decision comes after what New Zealand Rugby (NZR) Head of Professional Rugby Chris Lendrum described as “robust but constructive discussions” as MacDonald became the first victim of Robertson having too many voices in his backroom staff.
Being the head coach of a Test team is no walk in the park, but the pressure of being the boss of a side as big as the Springboks or All Blacks is simply in another stratosphere.
Right now, Razor is getting a slight hall pass, having just got his feet firmly under the desk, but the defeat to Argentina in Wellington will still haunt him and the resounding victory at Eden Park barely papers over the cracks as fans and pundits don’t have such short memories.
Even his adversary for the next two Test matches, Rassie Erasmus, knows that while he has the public’s vote right now, those cheers can quickly turn into jeers if results don’t go the Springboks’ way.
Too many cooks
Make no mistake, Robertson clearly recognises that and while it won’t be openly admitted, it must have been partly the reason for those “robust conversations” with MacDonald, who won’t be making the trip to South Africa having tendered his resignation.
It’s not uncommon for the pressure of being in a high-performance and equally high-pressured environment like the All Blacks coaching team to have a swift turnover of staff such as has happened. Even after the stability that Sir Steve Hansen and Sir Graham Henry provided, Ian Foster had his coaching team ripped apart in 2022.
But Robertson will be wary of falling into the same category as Eddie Jones, who has repeatedly been dubbed as a demanding boss and has become renowned for a high turnover of staff particularly when he had the top gig in England – which has equally high expectations as the All Blacks and Springboks.
After the strife that the All Blacks endured during Foster’s era, which included first-time losses to Argentina and historic defeats to Ireland on home soil, NZR were undoubtedly keen on equipping Robertson with the best of the best in order to be successful.
It’s plain to see that he was given one hell of a war chest to fill up his arsenal with the best minds New Zealand Rugby has to offer, even if it was to the detriment of the Super Rugby Pacific franchise. Robertson plucked MacDonald out of the Blues’ hot seat and also lured Jason Holland away from the Hurricanes’ top job.
Scrum-loving and maul mastermind Jason Ryan was the only coach to retain his role from the previous management but that was always going to be the case having been Razor’s right-hand man for so long, while another long-time assistant Scott Hansen was recruited too.
With Sir Wayne Smith also supporting the group, there are so many big voices in Robertson’s coaching team and that is before including assistant Tamati Ellison and skill-specific coaches Corey Flynn and David Hill recruited to focus on throwing and kicking, respectively.
When including the performance analysts, head of leadership and performance scientist, the number of people working under Robertson’s guidance was 14 including MacDonald but excluding the doctors, dieticians and other team managers.
Frankly, that seems an absurd number and far too many cooks for one chef to manage or as All Blacks great Murray Mexted expertly put it: “There are as many coaches as there are letters in the alphabet and you’d have to say that’s pretty hard to manage for a head coach who’s also under the pressure of performing in front of a very educated audience.”
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Strong opinions from ex-head coaches
But perhaps the issue that led to MacDonald’s resignation is not the size of the coaching team but the size of the voices within it.
As mentioned above both he and Holland went from being the top dogs at Super Rugby Pacific franchises to assisting the man in the job they aspire to fill. Let’s not forget about Hansen too, who Robertson said he enjoyed working alongside because of his willingness to speak his mind.
One cannot blame Robertson and New Zealand Rugby for recruiting the best of the best, an all-star coaching team, to take the All Blacks back to the summit of international and be global trendsetters and leaders in the game again, but the lesson Razor will take from this all is the best and brightest isn’t always the right appointment.
Having worked with many of the coaches he hired previously, including MacDonald when the Crusaders won their first title under Robertson in 2017, Razor will have known what to expect and the quality of the expertise he was hiring but one thing even the emotionally sharp boss could have known is how well the personalities would have mixed and ultimately it lead to a situation where the split couldn’t be repaired.
He alluded to as much when he addressed the press after confirming the news of MacDonald’s departure.
“It’s just a little bit of philosophy on rugby, how it’s played,” he said.
“We just didn’t quite click in different aspects.
“There was no intent to get to this point where we are now. But we just believed for the both of us, the best thing for the All Black group is we make the call now. We went through a process, and we got to here.”
For a coach to reach the levels that MacDonald and Robertson have reached, they have to be confident in their knowledge of the game and willing to make their opinions known whether it is popular or not. But the same is true for the rest of the assistants under Robertson’s guide.
Scott Robertson’s opportunity
Club-level success doesn’t always translate to international rugby and differs on so many different levels and with Robertson still learning on the job, he will make mistakes and eventually clash heads with his assistants – it’s part of the job.
But the most important thing for him and the All Blacks is that he learns from it and doesn’t make the same mistakes again.
With MacDonald now gone, Hansen and Ellison are set to take on the additional responsibilities for the remainder of the season at which stage a decision will be made whether to find a permanent replacement. That in itself provides Razor with another opportunity to grow as an international coach.
Perhaps he will take a page out of Erasmus’ book in giving a young coach like Ellison a bigger role in the coaching set-up – much like the Bok boss did with Felix Jones – but he will be keen not to follow Jones’ lead and have a turnstile at the foot of the coaches lounge.
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