Analysis: A defeat at Eden Park would have made Leon MacDonald's shock split from the All Blacks an even bigger story, writes Patrick McKendry.
All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson and everyone associated with the team were noticeably buoyant before and after media duties at the team hotel in downtown Auckland the day after the victory over the Pumas at Eden Park.
On a basic level that was understandable – the All Blacks had avenged their defeat to the Pumas in Wellington the week before with a first-half performance that featured the best attacking execution of the year despite the miserable weather conditions.
The players delivered with a sense of purpose and intelligence unseen at the Cake Tin and which only flickered occasionally against England in Dunedin and Auckland in July.
The team had successfully defended their Eden Park fortress for the second time in 2024 and it meant they could leave for South Africa with genuine confidence they could do something special against the world champions.
With the benefit of hindsight, there were probably other reasons for the upbeat mood which featured a large dose of relief.
Robertson and his staff knew the MacDonald news would be released in a few days. Another loss would have made MacDonald’s departure hard to spin in any way other than he was a victim of under-performance and a made a scapegoat of the team’s failures.
An All Blacks coach stepping down after only a couple of months is unprecedented and questions remain about the issues between Robertson, who fronted the media yesterday, and MacDonald, who did not.
One source on the periphery of the team insisted MacDonald felt undermined by the coaching structure.
Another, closer to MacDonald, insisted that was not the case and that MacDonald just didn’t see eye to eye with Robertson on how the team “was run”.
The pair, who coached together at New Zealand Under-20 level and for one season at the Crusaders, believed they could make it work despite their philosophical differences which were clearly an issue before they joined forces this year.
However, the white-hot heat of international rugby forced those differences to the surface and made them incompatible.
While the exact details haven’t come out and are unlikely to, the openness displayed by Robertson and New Zealand Rugby over this affair was almost as remarkable as the break-up.
The 299-word statement delivered at 11.45am yesterday didn’t hide much.
“Leon and I have been having some honest conversations with each other for a little while now,” was Robertson’s opening comment. He added: “As coaches we have differing views and both agreed it wasn’t working.”
Such transparency hasn’t always applied by NZR, and the organisation, plus Robertson and MacDonald, should be commended on it. NZR’s head of professional rugby Chris Lendrum faced the media in Auckland an hour after the statement was released, with Robertson doing likewise in Christchurch half an hour later.
Robertson said he and MacDonald just “didn’t click” and that it was better for the team to quickly move on.
Of all the messages delivered yesterday, this one may resonate the most with the players, who have to constantly prove themselves in the hope of being selected.
If a combination doesn’t work, the selectors will try a different one.
In this case Robertson and MacDonald, who won’t be replaced, decided just that for themselves.
A final observation linked to the point above is that assistant coaches Scott Hansen, previously a defence coach and now helping Jason Holland on attack, and Tamati Ellison, previously a part-time “contact skills” coach and now fulltime on defence, have seen their stocks rise significantly as a result.
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