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Robinson had finished his playing career with Toulouse in the French domestic competition.
A bicep torn off the bone had prevented him from playing much of that season, and the lock had decided it was the right time to hang up his boots.
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With a degree in sports science, he had lined up a role as a conditioner with Super Rugby side, the Western Force.
Then, his phone rang.
It was Carlos Zalduendo the moustached Toulouse president asking, on the off-chance, if he would be keen to coach the team the following season.
Robinson considered it, knowing he had a concrete offer back in Australia.
As an aspiring first-grade coach, this was a sliding doors moment.
He could have returned to his homeland with a comfortable salary in rugby union, or stayed in France on a modest wage and hone his skills in the code he wanted to succeed in.
Robinson pondered the offer for a while. Then he gave Zalduendo a call to inform him that his answer was ‘oui’ and he would staying in France for another year.
It would prove to be the start of what is shaping as one of the most successful coaching careers in the modern era.
RAW BEGINNINGS
Robinson was just 28 when he took the Toulouse role.
The move was, as his then winger Trent Clayton put it: “a step in the opposite direction.”
His team was a mish-mash of French natives - a police officer in the front-row and a bullocking traffic warden on the edge - coupled with imports from Australia.
Despite his tender years, it had little bearing on how the players would listen to what he was trying to implement.
“We nicknamed him The Intellectual,” James Wynne, the Toulouse halfback at the time, tells foxsports.com.au.
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“When we would be out partying, he would be studying French. He was still sociable and loved a glass of red, but took his footy very seriously. At the time, it felt like he was 10 years older than me, you wouldn’t notice he was such a young guy.”
Robinson would pour over books. He went backpacking across Europe, hiked in the Pyrenees and bought a motorbike, travelling 2,500km from Toulouse to Athens. He had a tight knit bond with Clayton, Wynne and the other Australians, inviting them to dinner where he would offer them books and make his signature cheese fondue.
Coaching was done in French first. His intimate knowledge of the language helped bridge the gap in standards between the local and foreign players.
“There was often a difficulty understanding the cultural differences,” says Clayton, who played a handful of games in the NRL at the Roosters, Wests Tigers and Penrith.
“The Australian way was different to the French. But he was the link between the two.
“The way he articulated... he knew what he was talking about. He was respected. He always had the nous, skill, intelligence, without an enormous amount of mentoring because, well, he already had it.”
PURSUIT OF PERFECTION
Robinson’s messages were short and simple. He wouldn’t spend hours drumming home one play or style. It would be reinforced over a period of time, broken up into digestible chunks.
He placed emphasis on making his players feel valued. He sat down with them individually at the start of each week, going through video. It was in the pursuit of perfection.
Robinson devised his own points-scoring system based on those video reviews. Points were awarded for completions, tries, assists and the suchlike, but were then taken away for missed tackles, kicks that went dead in goal, or handling errors.
It was this that shaped his sessions, and also encouraged an intensity and a desire among his players to strive for more.
“He was able to instil the need to compete on everything,” said Clayton.
“Any dropped ball, any tackle, any play the ball. Every little one per center, his focus was being competitive in the second efforts. He’d say: ‘You’ve done a great kick chase down the field, but where’s the dominant tackle afterwards?’
“He would always praise the play and the build-up to it, not the try.
“He made sure that every player was fine-tuned individually to know their role and loosely as a collective.
“If there was a style or play that he didn’t like, that would really disappoint him. He took losses personally, he was someone who always played to win, but win with style and clinically - even in that first year.”
BACK AND FORTH
Robinson returned to Australia, working with Newcastle as a No.2 to Brian Smith.
He then followed him to the Roosters in 2010, becoming defensive coach when they lost the grand final to St George Illawarra.
It was there he was credited with formulating their defensive strategy. His skill, knowledge and coaching acumen was instantly noticeable and it would bear fruit later down the track.
“When he was with us you could see he had a lot of ability and talent and that he was intelligent,” said Roosters chairman Nick Politis.
No sooner. though, had he settled in Bondi, and Robinson was back to France.
Kevin Walters had been sacked as coach of the country’s sole Super League side, the Catalans Dragons.
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The closest, and easiest, comparison in the NRL would be the Warriors. Despite boasting some immensely talented locals, travel, climate and culture, all play their part in their lack of success.
The French demand that rugby league is played a certain way, too. If a team wins 50-0 playing five drives and a kick, they’ll boo. It seems strange, but sometimes it feels like they would rather lose in a 36-34 thriller than win.
Robinson understood both these elements from his time with Toulouse, and in 2011 and 2012 helped the Dragons play some of their best football.
He retained that commitment to perfection and a desire to innovate, bringing in Smith’s son Keegan as a conditioner.
“He was always thinking one year ahead and wanted you to play what was in front of you,” said Steve Menzies, who was enjoying a swansong in Perpignan at the time.
“He had this ability to have a two or three-year plan on how to play. It was always evolving.
“We’ll do this for the first year because they won’t expect it, for the second year when people start to figure it out we’ll subtly change it, and year three we’ll do something completely different.”
RETURNING ROOSTER
Robinson didn’t get to see out that third year of his plan with Catalans.
By then he was back to Bondi in 2013, replacing Smith at the age of just 35 and becoming the youngest coach in the history of the NRL.
Some headlines screamed: “Trent Who?” when he was appointed, but Robinson has been used to defying the nay-sayers all throughout his coaching career.
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He was coach of 2013, winning a premiership and following it up with a World Club Challenge, a feat he repeated earlier this year.
There have been four minor premierships, and last year’s grand final win to boot.
He has suffered just one annus horribilis back in 2016.
But how does he continue to keep fresh and constantly evolve?
“If you stand still and you don’t change your ways, you’ll be out the back door,” Robinson said in Thursday’s pre grand final press conference.
He has visited football clubs Arsenal and Queens Park Rangers, along with rugby union powerhouses Clermont and Stade Toulousain in the past, as well as engaging the help of the Coach Whisperer.
This year has been no different, whether it was camping out at the SCG or bringing in Adam O’Brien from the Melbourne Storm.
Fourteen years on from starting out at Toulouse, Robinson stands on the cusp of greatness.
If the Roosters overcome Canberra on Sunday, he will become just the 10th coach to win three grand finals, and the first to go back-to-back since Wayne Bennett’s Broncos in 1993.
He would also be the first Easts coach since Arthur Halloway (1935, 36, 37) to win three premierships with the club.
Now, just for one moment, imagine if he hadn’t taken that phone call from Zalduendo all those years ago.