Codie Taylor feels “gutted” for Scott Robertson, who was sacked halfway through his tenure as All Blacks head coach, but says there is now an opportunity for someone to reassert New Zealand’s place at the top of the international game.
Speaking at the launch of the new Super Rugby season – the competition’s 30th – in Auckland this morning, Taylor, 34, was asked about the man known as Razor who lost seven games in two years while in charge of the All Blacks and was sensationally dismissed last month.
“On a personal note, I’m pretty gutted for ‘Ray’,” Taylor told 1News.
“I consider him a great man and I have a lot of respect for him. He and his family – it will be hard. He wanted so much for the team and the All Blacks and gave a lot.
“What’s done is done now. Looking forward, obviously as an All Blacks team we want to be successful and dominant. Whatever that looks like now I hope that’s the case with whoever comes in… there is an opportunity.”
New Zealand Rugby have cast the net far and wide for Robertson’s successor, a coach the organisation insists must be a New Zealander with international experience.
The two most obvious candidates are Jamie Joseph, the Highlanders head coach who was in charge of the All Blacks XV last year, and Dave Rennie, the former Chiefs and Wallabies coach currently in Japan.
Crusaders and All Blacks hooker Taylor won seven consecutive Super Rugby titles under Robertson at the red and blacks and another last year with Rob Penney after a lean 2024, a season he started late due to a non-playing sabbatical.
“You can always draw on disappointment and that’s probably where we were last year,” Taylor said. “We didn’t get 2024 right – in 2025 we turned it around. We had a good look at ourselves internally and talked about what we wanted to achieve. Off that back of that we were successful.”
The Crusaders edged the Chiefs in last year’s grand final at their “temporary” home in the suburb of Addington, a stadium supported by scaffolding which sprung up after the 2011 earthquakes in Christchurch.
Very much open to the weather, the stadium, generally loathed by opposition players and supporters, suited the Crusaders on several levels.
It is a symbol of the city’s ingenuity and resilience after the lethal quakes 15 years ago and its exposure to the elements during the playoffs, which coincided with the traditionally cruel southern winter, played into the hands of the Crusaders’ forward-dominant game plan.
The Crusaders, who kick off their season with a derby match against the Highlanders in Dunedin on Friday, February 13, will play the first part of the 2026 edition at their old stadium before moving into the 30,000-seat Te Kaha, the new arena in the central business district, in April.
“It’s a new home and something Christchurch has deserved for a long time after a pretty hard time with that tragedy,” Taylor said. “It’s a chance for our community to gather and really celebrate a new city.”
When it was put to Taylor, who admitted visiting teams would likely prefer the new stadium to the old one, that the indoor nature of Te Kaha could play against the traditional strengths of the Crusaders, he said: “I know in the past playing down at [Dunedin’s] Forsyth Barr the roof can be a case of ‘fool’s gold’ – you try to play too much and it’s a detriment to your game.
“I think that could be the case with our new stadium. Yes, in Super Rugby you want to throw the ball around and play but when it comes to crunch time it’s all about applying pressure and whichever team does that the best usually wins.”
The Crusaders will welcome back Leicester Fainga’anuku this season but will be largely without former skipper and lock Scott Barrett, who is taking a non-playing sabbatical for the majority of it.
“He will be missed with his physical presence but it gives others opportunities like Antonio Shalfoon, Jamie Hannah and Taylor Cahill," Taylor said. "We have some good, exciting locks who can play.”
Taylor, who had a similar break in 2024, said: “I think with someone like Scooter who really wants to kick on next year and put his hand up for the World Cup, it will be great. It’s a chance to step away from the game, connect with you family and get a little bit of longevity. It hasn’t been done that often; when I did it I loved it.”
The 106-Test All Black, sporting a black eye and eight stitches in a cut after a head clash with prop Tamaiti Williams while wrestling in training – “I’ve got a pretty big swede myself but I’m not going to win that head battle” – agreed that seeing the final details of the Rugby World Cup draw had made next year’s tournament all the more real.
“[But] for me still feels quite far away. There is still a lot to get through and achieve before then. It’s exciting times; there has been a bit of chat about the draw. If I get the honour of playing in that tournament in would be awesome.”
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