Mark Reason: Scott Robertson’s appointment a beautiful day in the neighbourhood of NZ Rugby

Mark Reason is a sports columnist for Stuff

OPINION: It feels like someone just opened the curtains.

Razor Robertson is the new All Blacks coach and the dark ages are at an end. Robertson will bring enthusiasm and humour and innovation after 12 years of men in dark suits talking down to a nation of rugby fans who have been turning off in droves.

There was a glimpse of what was to come at the press conference when Robertson was asked if he would still be breakdancing in his new role. There was a pause. Was it too soon to start surfing the wave? Then Dame Patsy Reddy, the chair of the NZR board, slotted through a neat grubber by saying with a smile: “Only when he wins the World Cup.”

In that one moment it already felt as if the sun was breaking through the clouds of all those painful defeats of recent times. And a word of appreciation for Reddy’s role in this. The board of NZR was a stagnant and occasionally divisive mess. She assumed the chair and pushed through in super quick time a decision that should have been taken months ago.

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Some, and I am among them, would say years ago. I had a conversation with Steve Tew, the chief executive at the time, a few months before the 2019 World Cup. Who would your next coach be, he wondered. I had no hesitation in nominating Robertson. And his? He said he suspected that Robertson would be the next, but one.

Tew was of course right. He wielded the power. But the appointment of Ian Foster was a poor one based on a shockingly false premise. The NZR argued for promoting from within, the succession theory. Heaven help us, I wrote at the time, if it were that simple don’t you think sports organisations would be doing it all over the world. Liverpool Football Club tried it. It worked when the No 2 was good enough, but fell over in a heap when he wasn’t.

That wasn’t rocket science, but it appeared to be beyond the thinking of the men who influenced Foster’s appointment. Inspired by reinventing a wheel that no longer turned smoothly, they then came up with a new theory, the one of overseas experience.

More nonsense of course. Robertson was able to knock that one over when he presented a list of leaders who had all had great success without overseas coaching experience. Sir Clive Woodward and football’s Gareth Southgate are obvious names from England, but there are a myriad of others from all over the world and across all sports.

The board had to appoint Robertson or they would have undermined the whole value of Super Rugby. Imagine an Englishman coaching a club to six consecutive Premiership titles and then being told he had to go overseas before he would be ready to coach the national football team. Apply the same thought to Indian or Australian cricket and you see how ludicrous it is.

The only thing that may have troubled the appointments panel was that Robertson was another very white knight. The All Blacks have yet to have a head coach of Maori or Pasifika origin and in Jamie Joseph, Dave Rennie and Clayton McMillan they had three outstanding candidates.

So this is an important issue for Robertson, one touched on by Sonny Bill Williams when he immediately urged him to bring Tamati Ellison on board. Robertson needs diversity in coaching his group. He also needs a heck of a good defence coach as the All Blacks are shipping points at 25 a game, an all time low.

There is much work to be done. Perhaps top of Robertson’s list should be to begin negotiations about the overseas player rule. As things stand he will start his tenure without Richie Mo’unga, the man he calls his Steph Curry, available, along with several other leading All Blacks. The rule, brought in for the excellent reason of protecting Super Rugby, is starting to look anachronistic.

South Africa and Australia have both weakened the eligibility requirements for overseas players in recent years, while the All Blacks haven’t even begun the process. That conversation needs to be had.

The curtains and the windows are now open. Fresh air is rushing in. There is a chance, if only a small one, that were Foster able to open his mind and refrain from peevish comments that undermine his employers, he could surf the wave of new optimism to the World Cup. Come on Fozzie, it’s a beautiful day. Smile.