All Blacks: the myths and realities of ‘player power’

Source: Radio New Zealand

‘Player power’ is a term that’s cropped up in the wake of the sacking of All Blacks coach Scott Robertson last week – but exactly how much of a role did it play and is it anything new?

That depends a bit on your definition of player power, and how you believe in emotional and often contradictory factors.

Players having their say is not new, not confined to the All Blacks and certainly not to rugby. Indeed, NZ Rugby’s handling of the Robertson affair has garnered at least some praise for being swift, unlike Netball NZ’s saga over Silver Ferns coach Dame Noeline Taurua.

While both have yet to completely play out – Robertson will presumably give his side of the story at some point – NZR is obviously far closer to the ultimate finish line than NNZ.

The Silver Ferns situation has been covered at length, and stands as the most recent and pertinent comparison to the All Blacks, albeit with a few key differences.

Firstly, the timelines were opposite, with the Ferns approaching NNZ first with their concerns, while NZR conducted a standard review at the end of the 2025 season.

“It’s been terrible, it’s been a terrible experience” Taurua told RNZ’s Dana Johansen in November. “My name’s been put out there, without me being able to say anything.

“I’ve taken it all.”

That summed up the emotion around the situation, that had been simmering since June, but it clearly should never have got to that point.

“It’s really not that confusing, but all the outside noise has made it confusing,” a source was quoted as saying. “The key thing that no-one seems to get is, Noeline was not stood down because of any player complaints.

“She was stood down because of how she responded to the issues that were raised, which was to go on the attack herself.”

Meanwhile, chairman David Kirk was quick to set NZR’s narrative straight.

“I can be absolutely definitive – there is no revolt by the players,

“The players were very measured and very thoughtful in their responses,” he said, before adding that Ardie Savea should not be singled out as any sort of ringleader.

“It’s very unfair to say that Ardie somehow led something. Not at all, he expressed public opinions.”

NZ Football found itself in a similar situation in 2024, after the Football Ferns complained about the behaviour of coach Jitka Klimková, who ended up resigning after a drawn out and often confusing process.

One player stated: “This whole situation has been handled poorly, it feels as though there’s been little regard for player safety and wellbeing.”

It’s important to remember that All Black dissent with coaching was well documented long before the days of formalised reviews. All the way back in 1949, Fred Allen had to commence his famed coaching career, while also being captain of the touring team to South Africa, when actual coach Alex MacDonald proved to be woefully out of his depth.

Probably the most famous rugby example of players getting their own way involved the All Blacks, but was committed by their opponents, in the 2011 World Cup final. France had arrived for the tournament with an already fractured relationship between the squad and coach Marc Lièvremont, and after limping into the quarterfinals, it became known that the players had staged a mutiny against him.

That led to the bizarre situation of a coach-less team then progressing to the final and coming within one kick of winning. Lièvremont, whose selection policies and public critique of the team had played a large role in the discontent, still found a way to mess with his side, naming halfback Jean-Marc Doussain to debut off the bench in the biggest game of all.

Former England captain Will Carling also deserves a mention for his infamous description of the RFU as ’57 old farts’ in 1995, right on the eve of a World Cup and the beginning of the professional era.

Then, there’s the soap opera that was the New Zealand cricket team in the 1990s, most notably the toxic relationship between Chris Cairns and coach Glenn Turner.

Cairns’ biography described Turner’s treatment of him and others on an ill-fated tour of the West Indies in 1996 as “deliberate, personal and unfair, with men in their late-20s being treated like errant fourth-formers, who had been caught smoking behind the bike sheds”.

Cairns sensationally quit the tour early and Turner was subsequently replaced as coach for the following season by Steve Rixon. For his part, Turner described Cairns as “headstrong, inconsistent and defiant, with an enormous ego” in his own book.

Of course, this all pales in comparison to the actions of Argentine club player Cesar Pagani, who in 2018 pulled a gun on coach Cristian Neira during training over a lack of playing time.

All said and done, NZR’s actions over the past week showed something that the other cases didn’t – how critical the brand image of the All Blacks was to the organisation and how serious it was about protecting it.

The manoeuvring to frontfoot and make sure everyone, notably Robertson as well, came out looking best as possible showed there was a way to cut deep and clean at the same time.

Now, the focus for the incoming coach is to ensure the same issues don’t repeat, as well as striking a balance between harmony and expectations.

Given what’s just happened though, that may not be easy.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand