Leon MacDonald Leaves All Blacks: Reaction to Scott Robertson's Assistant Stepping Down

In a shocking move, attack coach Leon MacDonald is departing the All Blacks, effective immediately. MacDonald has only been involved with the national side for five test matches, having been brought on board as an assistant to coach Scott Robertson ahead of the 2024 test season. Rugby reporter Jamie Wall joins Martin Devlin on It's Only Sport to dissect the news and how it may have come about.

Then, Devlin works through cuts from Robertson at his stand-up in Christchurch, where he continually affirms how 'great a coach and person' MacDonald is and that things 'simply weren't clicking' between the two.

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[kainoizking]

Honestly I like this. The thing that turned most people against Foster was his insistence of continuing to do things that clearly weren’t working. He put loyalty and personal relationships before the jersey and you just can’t do that as a head coach. You have to be willing to make the tough calls, even if it means potentially sacrificing friendships, this is the job that they sign up for. Razor has shown time and time again that he’s willing to make tough calls and that no individual is more important than the team. He wasn’t even under any real pressure to do so, but he identified something that could negatively affect the team and he dealt with it swiftly and decisively, didn’t muck around just hoping things would get better.

[sleati]

Good decisive leadership. If it's not working, make a call and move on. Simplify your coaching stocks and reduce your overheads 😅😂

[zabaleta]

Bad timing? Unprofessional?
Say what you want, Razor obviously has big kahunas!

[markthompson]

Leadership is not the same as management.

Leadership is about setting the direction of the ship. If Leon was not heading in the direction set by the leader, he needed to change or go. The ABs cannot have mis aligned players in its coaching team. They all need to buy into and manage the team in the same direction. It is simply leadership 101, in this context it is called the cold scalpel approach.

[mo-px]

They were never a close unit, McDonald left for a year before the blues job, saying he was homesick. He turn down Razor earlier when Razor went to be AB's coach. This was a Mark Robertson appointment to please Jaffa media. The telling is going to be team selection.

[markthompson]

Full credit for them to admit it, and deal with it straight away. Putting up with a sub par situation and muddling along would not have been the best thing for the ABs.

[waynehunt]

Give Razer a chance needs 12 months just to sort players and run in game style

[paperfoxradio]

3:30 this has book written all over it 😂

[duncanwcraig]

GOOD MOVE by Razor to trim the sails, the AB backline attack has been mostly woeful bar one half vs Los Pumas and a blowout vs Fiji. A major rethink is needed, we cannot continue to kick so badly, shelve chances out wide, and lack penetration in the middle of the backline. We need new patterns, increased fluidity, and more set moves. None of this kick and hope stuff.

[sanjivat]

Wonder what Sir JK has heard from the corridor ?😂😂😂

[SteveViljoen-zv]

The hairstyle & break dancing on the pitch has had me worried for a while! At least the routine was slightly better than Raygun 😂

[HezekiahEdwards]

Shocked & sad to hear the resignation of AB's assistant coach Leon Rangi MacDonald, Rugby is like a business also. If you cant to agree to disagree let alone agree one can face major problems going forward. However looks like Leon MacDonald & AB's Coach Razor Robertson couldn't agree to certain situation in regards to how the AB's are playing & came to an amical agreement & Leon decided to resign. The good thing the situation was handled democratically & expeditiously with no bad malice between Razor & Leon. Now its really up to the coaching management & the AB's to stay on track & focus for this up coming two test series against SA & put this little speed bump aside & move on. This test series is going to be the clash of the Titans or is it the Gods of world in International rugby. I have to say I love watching AB's play I'm big fan & supporter, the AB's they will be there they only lost the last world cup by 1 point & that's with 14 players on the field for the last 10mins. The AB's will be in this till the end its an 80 minutes plus game. Go the AB's all day, every day.

[patricksargent]

MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY. NOT THE END OF THIS. I PREDICT A LOT MORE TO COME

[darrenormsby]

i never noticed Rangi in the coaches box at all last Saturday. Was he in there or did he get the flick before the Pumas Test. That would make sense, as our backline looked much better than in previous Tests

[victorvaeau]

It started when Scott wouldn’t select Sotutu who was Leon’s key ‘attack’ star…..

[roleinc]

When the coaching staff was announced under Razor and I heard MacDonald was the back coach, I groaned. When I learned that Tony Brown was snapped up by Rassie, something inside me died. I am relieved by MacDonald's departure. Now, if we could get Tony Brown, who is a bloody genius, back and part of Razor's coaching team, I would be over the bloody moon.

[petaiaseiuli]

All Blacks will be great again with RAZOR in full control 🖤🖤🖤

[jake-pv]

Seems that there is some pressure on the coach and players...never happened in the past when ABs were winning every match.

[Jase-pf]

Good, its nothing personal its business, better now than 2 years in

[rodwellchigome]

2 years to the day Fozzie sacked his assistants. Madness. NZR are all over the place