Interesting job offer lands on Razor's table
NEWS: Former All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson has been offered the chance to make a dramatic switch to rugby league with the proposed Southern Orcas NRL franchise.
The Christchurch-based expansion bid has tabled a four-year deal for Robertson to become the club’s inaugural head coach, according to club president Sir Graham Lowe.
The 51-year-old has been without a full-time coaching role since stepping down from the All Blacks in January 2026, although he recently worked alongside Argentina head coach Felipe Contepomi with the Barbarians.
While Robertson has never coached rugby league, Lowe believes his understanding of the 13-man code, combined with his leadership qualities and coaching record, makes him an ideal candidate to spearhead the Orcas’ bid.
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“We’re well aware that he’s not coached rugby league before, but he’s certainly got a good handle on rugby league and has been looking at it closely and studying it closely for a long time; that’s quite obvious,” Lowe told the Herald.
“We’ll have experienced assistants around him. We think it’ll be a great coup for us.
“I think it shows the open-mindedness that we have of the club, the vision and the passion and also the ambition that we’ve got.”
Lowe believes Robertson’s uncompromising approach would also fit perfectly with the culture the proposed franchise wants to establish.
“He won’t compromise his principles to fit in with mediocrity, and that fits right in with the philosophy that we have going forward and the ambitions we have,” Lowe said.
“He just oozes leadership; he oozes inspiration, and that’s what you need at this level.
“One of the key ingredients is being able to get the best out of people, inspire others around you, and Scott can certainly do that.”
by Scott.”