Jack Tame: In replacing Foster, NZ Rugby delivers yet another insult

<p>My girlfriend was in Christchurch last week, waiting at the airport departure gate before flying to Auckland, when she sent me an excited text.</p> <p>“The Crusaders are here. All of them.” She said.</p> <p>“Well, I think they are. I don’t know sports.”</p> <p>She rang me a few minutes later, a bit star-struck for someone who supposedly didn’t care too much for rugby, to say that everyone at the airport was asking one guy in particular for photographs.</p> <p>Richie Mo’unga? I wondered. Sam Whitelock perhaps?</p> <p>‘He’s a bit older. And he keeps looking at a laptop screen.”</p> <p>I sent her a photo.</p> <p>“That’s him! That’s the guy!” she exclaimed.</p> <p>“His name is Razor Robertson,” I said.</p> <p>“You’re probably looking at the next All Blacks coach.”</p> <p>Three days later, the deal was signed.</p> <p>I don’t think there’s another coach in the country who’s stardom compares to or even exceeds that of his top players, but Scott Robertson’s success has propelled him into a different stratosphere.</p> <p>It isn’t just the fact that he wins that makes Robertson popular. It’s how he wins. And it’s always been the same.</p> <p>Rugby journos, players and colleagues rave about the culture he fosters in his team. In a pretty gruff and grunty world, Razor has distinguished by his earnest concern for people and the connections he’s able to make with his players. He’s quirky. A bit unorthodox. But everyone is left in no doubt that he genuinely cares.</p> <p>And as a result, quite aside from any skills or tactics, or anything specific to rugby, he’s proved incredibly successful in getting the best out of his people. It takes a special kind of leader to motivate a team when they win year, after year, after year.</p> <p>It will remain an enduring stain on the reputation of New Zealand Rugby that the organisation’s head honchos could extend the same basic human decency to the current All Blacks coach.</p> <p>I was trying to imagine how I’d feel if my boss announced to the world that he’d be kicking