Justin Marshall: Former All Black on the internal review into the All Blacks leadership, 2025 season

An All Blacks bombshell to start the New Year. 

The Herald has detailed elements of a 'scathing' internal review into the side's 2025 season, with critical feedback on the coaching, culture, and environment. 

Head coach Scott Robertson and his lead assistant Scott Hansen are believed to be at the centre of the critical feedback. 

All Blacks player of the year for the 2025 season Ardie Savea is reported to be seriously unhappy. 

Former All Black Justin Marshall told Andrew Dickens what we want out of the All Blacks is consistency, and everyone can see that there are too many fluctuations, and the results are reflective of that.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
So this is shocking. Rumor has it that Ardie Saver
is seriously unhappy with the coaching and culture within the
All Blacks. He's captain the team more than a few times,
but unless major coaching changes have made it's unlikely he'll
put on the black jersey again now looking at Japan
and the UK. Meanwhile, skating internal review has linked of

(00:37):
the last season and it shows that many of the
senior members of the team are also unhappy with the
coaching direction of Scott Robertson and in particular his assistant
Scott Hansen. So former All back Justin Marshall is with us.
Good Morney to you, Justin, Good morning Andrew. This is
quite remarkable, isn't it, the unhappiness becoming public.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
Yeah, well, obviously it's rumors, that's first and foremost. But
I think there's always been a little bit of a
feeling that some players are unhappy, and obviously what you
want with the All Blacks's consistency and results happened over
those last two years. I'm very sure that Scott Robertson
is about very well aware of that. He's a perfectionist
and he's a winner and equally sary than he's in

(01:17):
a rugby football union, and that's why there are reviews,
and reviews obviously do the cleaning out of what they
feel is wrong. And obviously the players have some issues
that they are not happy with, but equally so will
the coaches. And what we want out of the All
Blacks is consistency, and I certainly think that everybody can

(01:37):
see there's too many fluctuations here at the moment and
the results are reflective of that.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yes, the team's performance last year certainly was Radick left
a lot of us scratching our heads. If you look
at the history since Scott Robinson's been in charge. Was
the voluntary departure of Leo McDonald and Jason Holland a
bit of a clue to the un west inside the
coaching team.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
I think more so that when this process happens, I
think what they need to do when they go through
a regime where they are finding a coaching group, what
they don't want is disrupt and that's happened not only
with the current coaching format, it's happened under end Foster
as well, with the exodus obviously of plum Tree and
Brad More, and that's disruptive in itself. Like when you

(02:20):
look at consistency, and I know that's a word I'm
using a lot, but that's important when it comes to
the All Blacks, and because consistency is performance. You know,
it's a performance level that is always at a certain level.
And that hasn't been the case, you'd have to say,
probably over the last eight years. But when you look
back to successful coaching regimes under the likes of say

(02:40):
Steve Hansen and Graham Henry, there wasn't any changes of coaches.
There wasn't people coming in and coming out, and all
of a sudden you had an environment where everybody was comfortable,
everybody knew what to expect, and because of that, you've
got those performance levels that we expected. Will you took
It is a bit concerning that this has happening.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
You talked about consistency and this is a very important
thing in the coaching level as well. Scott Robertson is
obviously a great coach, but that was mostly at super
rugby level. He never had an apprenticeship in the all
Black system, the way Fozzy did, the way Hanson did
under Henry, the way we did for a decade. Was
that a mistake not to get Scott in earlier and
show him the ropes and then move on and so

(03:20):
he knew how the team worked.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
I think probably he did show that he was capable
of coaching at that level. You know, he had been
a coach with the New Zealand under twenty. He'd equally
had the opportunity to coach teams like the Barbarians and
some other various teams that were playing at level that
were successful.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
It's actually being inside the system and seeing everything and
in the back room stuff and also the coaching stuff
as well, which which I have to say Fozzy did
underneath the Scott Hanson learned all of that and then
could then do his his on field coaching things as well.
Scott never got that, No he.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Didn't, but many coaches don't when they step into that role.
And I would argue that that it was starting to
already feel the effects of that that problematic same you
know thought process. Under Steve Hansen and Foster. You never
saw a great change in players. You never saw a
great change in the thinking and the way that the
All Blacks are playing, and it was already starting to

(04:19):
be on the decline. Let's let's think about the fact
that when Scott Robinsons took over this coaching job, it
was because the All Blacks were having those problems with
consistency with performance. So what they needed was a change
and a fresh en up. And when you get that,
there is going to be some disruption. And we've seen
that over two years. So ultimately they'll know that as

(04:40):
much as anybody. Everybody can see it, but it doesn't
mean that they can't get to where they need to get.
But it is a worry that somebody like Ardie Savia
might not be a part of that if he's unhappy.
So what we've got to do, Andrew, is get a
guy like that happy, and somehow they have to make
sure that they formulate an environment where he's going to
want to play for the All Blacks, that he's motivated
because you're one of the best players in the world

(05:02):
and any player any team would want them in their side.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
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