NRL NEWS: New Zealand Warriors boss’ departure confirmed after unexpected announcement

New Zealand Rugby boss explains Leon MacDonald’s silence over his All Blacks departure

The recent fallout between All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson and one of his assistants, Leon MacDonald, which led to the latter leaving the coaching group has certainly got tongues wagging.

The timing of MacDonald’s departure is not ideal as the All Blacks are set to take on their arch rivals the Springboks in back-to-back Tests in Johannesburg on August 31 and Cape Town on September 7 respectively.

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The Springboks will head into those encounters as favourites as they are sitting pretty at the top of the Rugby Championship standings after clinching back-to-back bonus-point victories over the Wallabies in their previous matches in the competition.

Meanwhile, despite starting their campaign with a defeat to Argentina in Wellington, New Zealand bounced back with a win in the corresponding fixture in Auckland and are currently in second position on the table – one point ahead of Los Pumas.

What was strange about the announcement of MacDonald‘s departure is that he has been silent since it was announced while Robertson was doing all the explaining on the reasons for that decision.

Nothing sinister about MacDonald’s silence

Chris Lendrum, who is the general manager of professional rugby & performance at New Zealand Rugby (NZR), said there was nothing sinister about MacDonald not commenting since stepping down from his position when the news broke on Thursday.

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