1
00:00:07,133 --> 00:00:10,493
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast

2
00:00:10,613 --> 00:00:11,733
Speaker 1: from News Talks at Me.

3
00:00:12,773 --> 00:00:15,853
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what thirteen year old Jack Tame would

4
00:00:15,973 --> 00:00:20,133
Speaker 2: never have believed that Scott Robertson and Leon McDonald were

5
00:00:20,173 --> 00:00:26,133
Speaker 2: not getting along. The year was two thousand, having survived

6
00:00:26,253 --> 00:00:29,413
Speaker 2: y two k, started high school and become a teenager

7
00:00:29,973 --> 00:00:33,293
Speaker 2: in the space of a few short months. The highlight

8
00:00:33,373 --> 00:00:37,453
Speaker 2: of my year was yet to come May twentieth, when

9
00:00:37,453 --> 00:00:41,333
Speaker 2: the Canterbury Crusaders defeated the Act Brumbies by a single

10
00:00:41,493 --> 00:00:44,973
Speaker 2: point at Bruce Stadium in Canberra to become Super Rugby

11
00:00:45,053 --> 00:00:48,133
Speaker 2: champions for the third year in a row, the first

12
00:00:48,173 --> 00:00:53,133
Speaker 2: team to achieve the feat. It is actually honestly amazing

13
00:00:53,293 --> 00:00:56,093
Speaker 2: to go back and look at the team from that night,

14
00:00:56,253 --> 00:00:59,093
Speaker 2: the starting fifteen for the Crusaders. We didn't know it then,

15
00:00:59,133 --> 00:01:01,693
Speaker 2: but several of the winning Crusaders would end up becoming

16
00:01:01,733 --> 00:01:05,373
Speaker 2: successful coaches after their playing careers had finished. So winning

17
00:01:05,413 --> 00:01:10,493
Speaker 2: finalists included Todd Blackadder, Darryl Gibson and Mark Hammett, all

18
00:01:10,533 --> 00:01:14,453
Speaker 2: of whom have enjoyed pretty high profile rugby coaching careers.

19
00:01:14,973 --> 00:01:18,493
Speaker 2: The Crusaders' second five eighths was a guy called Mark Robinson,

20
00:01:19,133 --> 00:01:22,093
Speaker 2: who in years to come would be appointed the CEO

21
00:01:22,293 --> 00:01:24,133
Speaker 2: of New Zealand Rugby. And of course we didn't know

22
00:01:24,213 --> 00:01:27,733
Speaker 2: it then, but in a couple of decades he would

23
00:01:27,813 --> 00:01:31,533
Speaker 2: hire his blindside flanker teammate as the All Blacks coach

24
00:01:32,053 --> 00:01:35,573
Speaker 2: and his fullback as assistant. But if you could have

25
00:01:35,573 --> 00:01:37,973
Speaker 2: told thirteen year old me that two of the guys

26
00:01:38,053 --> 00:01:42,013
Speaker 2: on that team of all teams would end up having

27
00:01:42,013 --> 00:01:44,653
Speaker 2: a very public split after just a month at the

28
00:01:44,653 --> 00:01:47,253
Speaker 2: helm of the All Blacks, I would never have believed you.

29
00:01:48,613 --> 00:01:51,573
Speaker 2: I have to say, though, as shocked as I was

30
00:01:51,933 --> 00:01:54,573
Speaker 2: to learn that McDonald and Razer hadn't worked out, from

31
00:01:54,653 --> 00:01:57,053
Speaker 2: what we know so far, New Zealand Rugby, the All

32
00:01:57,053 --> 00:02:00,173
Speaker 2: Blacks and both Scott Robinson and Leon McDonald deserve our

33
00:02:00,253 --> 00:02:04,653
Speaker 2: praise and thanks. I thought that statement from New Zealand

34
00:02:04,733 --> 00:02:10,373
Speaker 2: Rugby and Scott Robertson's subsequent statements were honestly amazing. Look,

35
00:02:10,453 --> 00:02:12,533
Speaker 2: I mean, we're never going to know the full story, right,

36
00:02:12,573 --> 00:02:17,333
Speaker 2: of course, but they didn't sugarcoat anything. No one made

37
00:02:17,413 --> 00:02:20,693
Speaker 2: up a rubbish excuse, you know, the old more time

38
00:02:20,733 --> 00:02:24,413
Speaker 2: with the family. It wasn't nasty, it wasn't spiteful.

39
00:02:24,533 --> 00:02:24,973
Speaker 1: It was.

40
00:02:26,453 --> 00:02:29,413
Speaker 2: I mean, it was honest. They just didn't see eye

41
00:02:29,413 --> 00:02:32,413
Speaker 2: to eye. They have differing views after a series of

42
00:02:32,693 --> 00:02:36,493
Speaker 2: robust conversations. That might be a bit of a euphemism,

43
00:02:36,733 --> 00:02:39,373
Speaker 2: or at least an understatement. It simply wasn't in the

44
00:02:39,453 --> 00:02:41,973
Speaker 2: best interests of the team to have McDonald and Robertson

45
00:02:42,013 --> 00:02:45,773
Speaker 2: working together, resentment building as they pulled in different directions.

46
00:02:46,133 --> 00:02:48,533
Speaker 2: And look, it's just so easy to imagine an alternative,

47
00:02:48,533 --> 00:02:50,653
Speaker 2: don't you think to just imagine it for a moment,

48
00:02:50,693 --> 00:02:56,053
Speaker 2: another world where they didn't recognize or didn't acknowledge that

49
00:02:56,133 --> 00:02:59,253
Speaker 2: things weren't working, or tried to hide it. You know

50
00:02:59,733 --> 00:03:02,773
Speaker 2: that they didn't accept that things weren't clicking, and whatever

51
00:03:03,013 --> 00:03:07,933
Speaker 2: tension existed fested and grew into something much more damaging.

52
00:03:08,453 --> 00:03:11,133
Speaker 2: You just know that rumors would start. The odd you know,

53
00:03:11,173 --> 00:03:15,333
Speaker 2: the odd news report would intimate something wasn't quite right.

54
00:03:15,453 --> 00:03:17,253
Speaker 2: Greg Or Paul would get a bit of a sniff.

55
00:03:17,573 --> 00:03:20,373
Speaker 2: There would be cliques, there would be factions, players might

56
00:03:20,413 --> 00:03:23,493
Speaker 2: have split loyalties, and ultimately the whole thing would hurt

57
00:03:23,493 --> 00:03:27,293
Speaker 2: the team. Again, we don't know everything, but given the

58
00:03:27,333 --> 00:03:31,053
Speaker 2: frankness of the explanation, it's the best we have right

59
00:03:31,733 --> 00:03:33,293
Speaker 2: and man, there is just so much to be said

60
00:03:33,333 --> 00:03:36,813
Speaker 2: for calling it early. They didn't battle on for a

61
00:03:36,893 --> 00:03:39,333
Speaker 2: couple of seasons, they didn't try and fake anything for

62
00:03:39,373 --> 00:03:43,933
Speaker 2: the rugby loving public. They called it. Leon McDonald clearly

63
00:03:43,933 --> 00:03:48,133
Speaker 2: has I mean, I think Leo McDonald clearly has a

64
00:03:48,133 --> 00:03:51,093
Speaker 2: lot of money, and as a coach he has had

65
00:03:51,413 --> 00:03:54,293
Speaker 2: real success. I'm sure he will get a great coaching

66
00:03:54,373 --> 00:03:58,013
Speaker 2: job somewhere different. Obviously, thirteen year old me would be

67
00:03:58,053 --> 00:04:01,973
Speaker 2: gutted to see two of his sporting heroes split. But

68
00:04:02,093 --> 00:04:05,773
Speaker 2: twenty years or twenty four years since they won that

69
00:04:05,813 --> 00:04:10,933
Speaker 2: third time, their collective handling of this situation I think

70
00:04:10,973 --> 00:04:14,373
Speaker 2: has been mature and strangely refreshing.

71
00:04:15,013 --> 00:04:18,133
Speaker 1: For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live

72
00:04:18,213 --> 00:04:21,053
Speaker 1: to News Talks at B from nine am Saturday, or

73
00:04:21,093 --> 00:04:23,013
Speaker 1: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio