D'Arcy Waldegrave: Sportstalk host on Leon MacDonald's surprise departure from the All Blacks

Rugby philosophies going in different directions.

That's what All Blacks coach Scott Robertson is singling out as the main reason for Leon MacDonald's surprise departure as one of the team's assistant coaches.

The former Blues mentor was part of Robertson's original pitch for the job back in 2019 - while the pair played together for both the Crusaders and All Blacks.

Sportstalk host D'Arcy Waldegrave hinted there might be more to Leon MacDonald's abrupt departure.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Darcy water Grave sports talk hosters with us dars.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Hey, hey, how are you doing? You're not so bad.
I'm going to be responsible with my tap at Its
sound like a good idea. Yeah, what do you think
I'm going to have a go at this weekend Red Bull? Well, no,
I mean there's good odds on it. But if people
don't know what I'm talking about. The Dutch Grand Prix
is back and it's one of the best race tracks
you could imagine. This is the return after the holiday break. Yeah,

(00:26):
break the comeback Max for stapp and plainly it's home
Grand Prix. He's done very well there previously. So they're
looking at zan Vort that he's paying what three bucks?
He's not the favorite, but paying three dollars is pretty good.
That sea of orange that he races in front of
was really good. But I must add this, the rebul
hasn't been that quick of recent times. Max for Steppen

(00:48):
hasn't been that dominant of recent times. He's still leading
the championship by seventy seven odd points. But I think
to set the standard and to make a real statement
very important for him in front of his home fans
to have a crack So if your fancy having a go,
if you're over eighteen, jump on the TB app Now
lay your bets down. Bet responsibly is the most important thing.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Absolutely, very good advice. Hey do have you got to
the bottom of why Leon McDonald has quit Raisers team.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
I've been on the phone since midday. I came in
hered a little cross with the boys.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Now and then you hit the phone halfter that man
hit the phone.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
I've been doing the Fixed podcast as well. I've talked
to so many people, most of them who won't come
on understandable. The theory is around when you have a vacuum,
ehither what happens?

Speaker 1 (01:33):
It gets filled by everybody's theories. Yeah, so they've left
too much of a vacuum, is what you're answering. Where's
what you're saying?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Basically, if there's one side of it, it is they've
kind of fronted up and Raises said, Look, it wasn't working,
we weren't we weren't getting on and he's going to
walk away. Find that odd only five test matches into
this season. It suggests a bit more than that. Something
that I've keep rabbiting on about all day to the
people I've been talking to in the sport department too,

(02:00):
So there's no comment from Leo McDonald's in that release. Yes,
now to me, that screams that's red flag, that's a site,
and it's like, what's going on? And because normally there's
a even if it's not his quote, they attribute a
quote to him. Nothing in there.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
That's his very very bad blood. He is very upset.
That's what I would read into that.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
That's what I read in too.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Does this maybe go somewhere because they have said that
this is a strategy disagreement that's been going on between
Razor and Leon, Does that go some way to explaining
why the squad has been so inconsistent, like maybe following
one path one day and one another path the other day.
One is more successful than the other.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Well, you've got an over overview of a coach. That's
what Razor does. He looks right across and he looks
at the culture of the team, and he looks at
the general thrust of it like a director of rugby morning.
And then he's got about four million coaches coaching. So
I think the instruction for all of the player is
very difficult to start. Getting blinded by noise if there's
such a thing, what's it when deafened by anyway? Yeah,

(02:59):
so you've seen some kind of breakdown disruption within that.
So that could be part of it. What could also
be part of it? Finley Christie suddenly out of nowhere,
he's gone, he's a Blues player. What happened there? We've
got Ricca Yoanni who's been moved from from the wing

(03:19):
to the center to the back agend. What was their
disagreement at that level about what happens to these blues
players and how they operate? Again, I don't know. I'm
just floating some ideas around what may or may not occurred.
But what we do know is he's not on the
plane to southf.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
You have got two and a half hours to keep
heading the phones and we're looking forward to the goss
at seven. Thank you, Darcy, Darcy Watergrave Sports Coast Back
at seven with all the hot details. For more from
Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news Talks. It'd
be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.