I can’t help thinking of the guys who aren’t in the All Blacks. There’s not many, obviously. When you pick 33 blokes – plus two more as injury cover – for a three-match series, there’s hardly a reputable player in the country that’s failed to make the cut.
Honestly, New Zealand Rugby is losing money by the tens of millions and we decide we need 35 guys in camp to beat what promises to be a mediocre France? They’ve got neither money nor sense at rugby HQ.
I wrote some time back that the All Blacks really ought to select Mark Tele’a this year. After the farewell tours granted to the Japan-bound pair of Sam Cane and TJ Perenara last season, it would be insulting not to.
And, yet, here we are, with Tele’a nowhere to be seen and Sevu Reece, Will Jordan, Ruben Love and Caleb Clarke named as the designated outside backs.
I rate Jordan and regard Love as highly promising, but Reece and Clarke don’t do much for me. I can only assume, given the whopping six players named in midfield, that Timoci Tavatavanawai and Rieko Ioane could be candidates for a run on the wing at some stage.
The Tele’a thing, as I wrote a while back, just reinforces the fact that some All Blacks are given special treatment and others just make up the numbers.
Mark Telea. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
If I were a Pasifika player and wasn’t making plans for life after the All Blacks, I’d definitely be drawing some up now.
David Havili’s a guy that should be assessing his options. New Zealand once had an abundance of multi-skilled footballers, but now there’s pretty much just Havili.
Clearly those skills aren’t required at Test level anymore.
If I look at those selected in midfield, Billy Proctor offers a bit with the ball. The injured Anton Lienert-Brown has an admirable workrate; the rest just cart the ball up strongly.
I’m glad to see Tavatavanawai included but, to be honest, at 27, he should be looking to parlay this into a lucrative overseas contract.
We all know that Jordie Barrett and Rieko Ioane will start in midfield more often than not, with Lienert-Brown (once fit) the cover off the bench. I’m at the point where I’ve seen all I want to see from that midfield combination.
New Zealand is weak in the backs. We think we’re not, but we actually are.
More than that, we’re dim. We roll the same guys out season after season and expect different results.
What I said about the midfield applies to all the backs, really. I don’t foresee any revelatory improvements. These guys have already performed as well as they’re ever going to.
The bloke hardest done by on Monday, was Ethan Blackadder. I thought he was the best player on the park, as the Crusaders condemned the Chiefs to yet another Super Rugby Pacific final defeat.
Given the news cycle has moved on, we’ll never really give that game its due unfortunately. Well, perhaps that’s actually fortunate for Damian McKenzie and Luke Jacobson (who’s been picked in Blackadder’s place).
Blackadder has positively impacted several All Blacks Test matches. In fact, as he was on Saturday, he’s clearly been the best player in our side.
As decent a fellow as Jacobson seems, I doubt we’ll ever write the same about him.
I suppose I should be giddy with excitement that there are five new caps in the squad, but where and when are any of them going to play?
Is Tavatavanawai unseating vice captain Jordie Barrett at 12? Is Du’Plessis Kirifi playing No.7 ahead of the other vice captain Ardie Savea?
Ardie Savea. (Photo by Justin Setterfield – World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images)
I’ll qualify that slightly by saying Savea has been outstanding at every spot in the loose trio and might stay put as the All Blacks’ No.8, but Kirifi is solely an out-and-out openside.
Is Brodie McAlister getting a game ahead of Codie Taylor or Samisoni Taukei’aho? Or is he just warming a seat in the stands until Asafo Aumua is fit?
I actually quite like Ollie Norris but, once Angus Gardner stopped wrongly penalising Fletcher Newell on Saturday night, the Chiefs’ scrum got annihilated.
Like Norris, Fabian Holland is both a good story and a player of promise. It’s just that Tupou Vaa’i has earned the right to start at lock every week and the other guy in the second row is the skipper Scott Barrett.
I’d love to see a midfield of Tavatavanawai and Proctor. I’d be delighted to see Norris and Holland given opportunities to prove themselves. There’s others in the squad, such as Love and Samipeni Finau, that I believe would thrive with game time.
It’s just that, despite picking a cast of thousands and despite the feelgood factor of unveiling five new All Blacks, the 2025 team will look much the same as it has for years now.
Except for Mark Tele’a. He signed to play elsewhere and it’s only a select few who can do that and remain All Blacks in the meantime.
