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Crusaders coach Scott Robertson 'optimistic' ahead of All Blacks interview
By Online Editors
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The 44-year-old steered the Crusaders to their third successive Super Rugby crown on Saturday thanks to their 19-3 grand final win over the Jaguares at Orangetheory Stadium in Christchurch.
In doing so, he became the first person in Super Rugby history to win a hat-trick of titles as both a player and a coach, as he also claimed three consecutive titles during his time as a loose forward with the franchise between 1998 and 2000.
With current All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen stepping down from the position of which he has held since 2012 - and thus ending a 16-year association with New Zealand Rugby - at the end of the year, speculation has been rife as to who will replace the two-time World Cup-winning coach.
Robertson has established himself as a favourite to take over the role through his success with the Crusaders, which comes off the back of title-winning campaigns in previous roles with both Canterbury and the New Zealand U20 side.
Others, such as All Blacks assistant coach Ian Foster, Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt and Glasgow Warriors head coach Dave Rennie, have also been shortlisted as potential candidates, but Robertson remains quietly confident of becoming Hansen's successor when he is interviewed for the position in December.
"I've got to prepare as best I can to put myself forward," he told media during the Crusaders' victory parade in Christchurch today.
"I've done what I can do so then hopefully I'll have a great interview and if they want someone, they know who they're getting with me.
"We'll wait for December."
When pressed further about how he feels about his chances, Robertson, a 22-test All Black himself, was coy with his answer.
"Ask me closer to the time," he said.
"I'm a pretty optimistic person - if you have a crack I'd like to think you have a chance."
Since coming into coaching at first-class level as Canterbury assistant coach in 2008, Robertson has won a plethora of accolades.
He won five straight domestic titles while working under head coaches Rob Penney and Tabai Matson, before adding a sixth consecutive crown as a head coach in 2013.
Robertson was appointed head coach of the New Zealand U20 side in 2015, and guided them to a title at the World Rugby U20 Championship in Italy that year.
He then won back-to-back titles with Canterbury in 2015 and 2016, and was subsequently named Crusaders head coach for the 2017 campaign after Todd Blackadder's departure to Bath.
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Latest Comments
Turn it up. Give me your john A game would ya!
Go to commentsI didn't really get the should tone from it, but maybe because I was just reading it as my own thoughts.
What I read it as was examples of how they played well enough in every game to be able to win it.
Yeah I dunno if Ben wouldn't see it that way (someone else would for sure need to point it out to him though), I'm more in the Ben not appreciating that those close losses werent one off scenarios camp. Sure you can look at dubious decisions causing them to have to play with 14 or 13 men at the death as viable reasons but even in the games they won without such difficulties they made a real struggle of it (compared to how good some of their first half play was). This kind of article where you trying to point out the 3 losses really would most likely have been wins only really makes sense/works when your other performances make those 3 games (or endings) stand out.
There might have been a sentence here and there to ensure some good comment numbers but when he's signing off the article by saying things like ..
and..
I don't really see it. Always making sure people are upto date with the SH standing/perspective! NZ went through some tough times with so many different perspectives and reasons why, but then it was.. amusing how.. behind everyone was once they turned a corner. More of these 'unfortunate' results returned against SA and France at the start of the RWC which made it extra tasty to catch other teams out when they did bring it. So that created some 'conscious' perspective that I just kept going and sharing re thoughts on similar predicaments of other teams, I had been really confident that Wallabies displays vs NZ were real, that the Argentines can backup their thing against Aus and SA (and so obviously the rest), and current one is that England are actually consistent and improving with their attack (which everyone should get onboard with), and I'm expecting a more dominant display against Japan (even though they should have more of their experienced internationals for this one) that highlights further growth from July. 👍
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