Birth name | Scott Maurice Robertson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date of birth | 21 August 1974 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Place of birth | Tauranga, New Zealand | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.9 m (6 ft 3 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 109 kg (17 st 2 lb; 240 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
School | Mount Maunganui College | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Scott Maurice Robertson (born 21 August 1974) is a New Zealand rugby union coach and former player. He is the current head coach of the All Blacks, the men's New Zealand national team.
Nicknamed "Razor", he played as a flanker for Bay of Plenty, Perpignan, Canterbury and the Crusaders. He won 23 international caps for New Zealand between 1998 and 2002.
He was the head coach of the New Zealand U20 team, the Canterbury ITM Cup team, and the Crusaders in Super Rugby. With the Crusaders, he won seven consecutive Super Rugby championships, from 2017 to 2023.
During his time as Crusaders coach, not only did he win all seven finals since taking on the role, he achieved a record of 98 wins, 17 losses and 2 draws out of 117 games, [1] making him the most successful Super Rugby coach to date since the competition began.
Robertson grew up in Tauranga and attended Mount Maunganui College.
After college, Robertson moved to Europe, where he played for a number of clubs, including Ards (Northern Ireland) and Ayr (Scotland). [2]
He played for Bay of Plenty. In 1996 he moved to Canterbury to play for the Crusaders in the first year of the Super 12 competition. He played as a flanker. After leaving the Crusaders, he went on to play for Perpignan (France). He eventually moved to Japan where he played for the Ricoh Black Rams, before retiring in 2007.
After retiring from playing, Robertson became the head coach at Sumner Rugby Club in Christchurch, New Zealand. In 2004 he was active in establishing an under-19 team at Sumner.
After working as the assistant coach of Canterbury for five years under head coaches Rob Penney (2008–2011) and Tabai Matson (2012), Robertson was appointed Canterbury's head coach in 2013, when they won the Final in the Premiership Division of the ITM Cup. [3] Under his guidance, Canterbury won the competition again in 2015. Robertson was also appointed as head coach of the Brazil national rugby union team for the 2012 and 2013 seasons, as part of a partnership between the Brazilian Rugby Union and the Crusaders. [4]
In 2014, [5] the New Zealand Rugby Union appointed Robertson head coach of the New Zealand Under-20 team, which subsequently won the 2015 World Rugby Under 20 Championship in Italy.
Robertson coached the New Zealand Under-20s in the 2016 World Rugby Under 20 Championship in Manchester, where they failed to make the play-offs. [6]
In June 2016, Robertson was appointed head coach for the Crusaders for the 2017–2019 Super Rugby seasons. [7] During the 2017 season Robertson captured a Super Rugby title with a 25–17 victory over the Lions, becoming only the second first-year coach to win a championship after Dave Rennie in 2012 with conference rivals the Chiefs. On 4 August 2018 he achieved a second straight Super Rugby title with his Crusaders team again defeating the Lions 37–18, again following in the footsteps of Rennie being the second rookie coach to win 2 titles in 2 seasons. [8] In winning the Crusaders' third successive title, Robertson became the first "rookie" Super Rugby coach to win 3 successive titles in their first three seasons as a head coach. The last time a team won three titles in a row was the Crusaders as well between 1998 & 2000, where Wayne Smith led them to two championships before taking up a role with the All Blacks, Robbie Deans would then claim the third title in 2000 beginning one of the most successful periods in the franchise's history.
In 2020, and 2021 Robertson coached the Crusaders to two successful Super Rugby Aotearoa championships. These were both considered a soft-competition on the Super Level due to the pandemic and only playing 5 New Zealand teams, with many of the teams suffering key player losses early on. Since becoming head coach of the Crusaders, the only competition he hasn't won was the 2021 Super Rugby Trans-Tasman add-on, and despite earning 5 wins from 5 games, the Crusaders only ranked third (based on points difference), and missed the final. Following on from the successful Super Rugby Aotearoa campaigns, Robertson again coached the Crusaders to a championship, this time in the maiden Super Rugby Pacific Format in 2022. On 24 June 2023 he coached the Crusaders to a 7th consecutive title with a 20–25 win over the Chiefs, in Hamilton.
Robertson is known for his post victory match break dancing routine [9]
In March 2023, it was announced that he would take over from Ian Foster as head coach of New Zealand from the start of 2024. [10] Though his first All Blacks fixtures as head coach did not occur until 2024, his role as head coach began on 1 November 2023, after the conclusion of the 2023 Rugby World Cup tournament. [11]
Robertson was a guest commentator for the 2017 British & Irish Lions tour series.
Todd Blackadder is a retired New Zealand rugby union player and professional rugby coach. He played 12 tests for the All Blacks, and had 14 appearances as captain. Blackadder captained the Crusaders to three Super Rugby titles during his time with the franchise. He also won two National Provincial Championship titles with Canterbury. Blackadder coached the Crusaders for nine seasons from 2009 to 2016.
The Crusaders are a New Zealand professional rugby union team based in Christchurch, who compete in the Super Rugby competition. They are the most successful team in the competition's history and have won a total of 14 titles.
Richard Hugh McCaw is a retired New Zealand professional rugby union player. He captained the New Zealand national team, the All Blacks, in 110 out of his 148 test matches, and won two Rugby World Cups. He has won the World Rugby Player of the Year award a joint record three times and was the most capped test rugby player of all time from August 2015 to October 2020. McCaw was awarded World Rugby player of the decade (2011–2020) in 2021. McCaw is also a winner of the New Zealand sportsman of the decade award.
Hamilton Boys' High School is a boys' secondary school in Hamilton, New Zealand and is the largest secondary school in the Waikato region. The school was established as Hamilton High School in 1911 but was later split into separate boys' and girls' schools, with the current school opened in February 1955. Its sister school is Hamilton Girls' High School. The school crest features a lion, sash and star, and bears the motto "Sapiens Fortunam Fingit Sibi" which translates to "a wise man carves his own fortune". The school colours are black and red.
Bradley Carnegie Thorn is a New Zealand Australian rugby union coach and former rugby league and rugby union footballer. Born in New Zealand, he represented Australia in rugby league and New Zealand in rugby union in a twenty-two year career as a player, starting at age nineteen and finishing at age forty-one. He was the head coach of the Australian Super Rugby Pacific team, the Queensland Reds. Thorn is their second longest-serving coach in history and their longest serving coach in the professional era.
Leon Raymond MacDonald is a retired New Zealand rugby union footballer, and former head coach for the Auckland Blues rugby team, who played 56 tests for the national team, the All Blacks. He played as a first five-eighth (fly-half), centre, and fullback.
Robert Maxwell Deans is a New Zealand rugby union coach and former player, currently the head coach of Japanese club Saitama Wild Knights. He was head coach of the Australian national team between 2008 and 2013. Deans previously coached the Crusaders for eight seasons and was an assistant coach of New Zealand between late 2001 and 2003. As the coach of the Crusaders, Deans won three Super 12 titles and two Super 14). He also coached Canterbury in the National Provincial Championship, winning the title in 1997. As a player, Deans represented Canterbury, first playing at fly half, and later fullback. He also played nineteen matches for the All Blacks, including five tests.
Sir Wayne Ross Smith is a New Zealand rugby union coach and former player. He has won three Rugby World Cups; he was an assistant coach with New Zealand's men's team, the All Blacks, who won the 2011 and 2015 World Cups, and as head coach of the New Zealand women's team, the Black Ferns, won the 2021 World Cup, held in 2022.
Mark Garry 'Hammer' Hammett is a New Zealand rugby union coach and former player. Having represented Canterbury provincially 76 times, and the Crusaders 81 times and the All Blacks 30 times – including 29 Test matches, Hammett later went on to coach both Canterbury and Crusaders as a forwards/assistant coach. He is currently on the assistant coach of the Highlanders in Super Rugby and the Tasman Makos in the Mitre 10 Cup.
Samuel Lawrence Whitelock is a former New Zealand rugby union player.
Matthew Brendon Todd is a New Zealand rugby union coach and former player. He is currently an assistant coach for the Crusaders.
Ryan Stevenson Crotty is a New Zealand-born rugby union Rugby player. He currently plays as a midfield back for Canterbury in the Bunnings NPC and the Crusaders in the Super Rugby competition.
Codie Joshua Dane Taylor is a New Zealand professional rugby union player, who currently plays as a hooker for the Crusaders in Super Rugby and is contracted to Canterbury for New Zealand's domestic National Provincial Championship competition. He represents New Zealand internationally.
Richie Mo'unga is a New Zealand professional rugby union player who plays as a first five-eighth for Japan Rugby League One club Toshiba Brave Lupus and the New Zealand national team.
Jordan Matthew Barrett is a New Zealand rugby union player who currently plays as a centre or fullback for Irish side Leinster in the United Rugby Championship. He represents New Zealand internationally.
Quinten J. Strange is a New Zealand rugby union player who currently plays as a lock for Tasman in the Bunnings NPC and the Crusaders in the Super Rugby competition.
George Crispin Bridge is a New Zealand rugby union player who currently plays as an outside back for Montpellier in France's domestic Top 14. Bridge made his international debut for New Zealand in 2018, aged 23.
Oliver G.J.T. Jager is an Irish rugby union player who currently plays as a prop for Munster. Previously he represented Canterbury in New Zealand's domestic Mitre 10 Cup and the Crusaders in the international Super Rugby competition. In November 2023, he announced that he was joining Munster Rugby from 1 December 2023. Jager made his international debut for Ireland on 24 February 2024 coming on as a replacement in the Six Nations match against Wales.
Tamaiti Patariki Thomas Williams is a New Zealand rugby union player who plays as a Prop for the Crusaders in Super Rugby and Canterbury in the Bunnings NPC.
Scott Leon Richard Hansen is a New Zealand rugby union coach and former professional player. He is currently an assistant coach with the All Blacks.