All Blacks hero offers ‘style’ theory for Scott Robertson’s shock selections which raise ‘more questions than answers’
All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson and lock Tupou Vaa'i.
Former All Blacks fly-half Stephen Donald has given his verdict on the team Scott Robertson named for their upcoming encounter with France.
New Zealand’s head coach has decided to make a number of interesting calls for the match against Les Bleus in Dunedin on Saturday.
That includes Billy Proctor coming in at centre and Rieko Ioane shifting to the wing, and Beauden Barrett starting ahead of Damian McKenzie at fly-half.
However, the biggest decision is in the back five of the scrum with Tupou Vaa’i moving from lock to blindside flanker and Fabian Holland making his debut alongside captain Scott Barrett in the second-row.
‘New Zealand’s outstanding lock’
“The thing that jumps out is Tupou Vaa’i,” Donald said on The Aftermatch with Kirst & Beav. “He was arguably in the top three players in the entire Super Rugby season – he was certainly New Zealand’s most outstanding lock.
“He has been named at six and for me that is just fascinating. They experimented a little bit with Tupou just before the last World Cup and having a couple of runs at six, but it never really got off the ground.
“Here they are, Test number one and he is in the number six jersey. There are more questions than answers, you could say.”
Robertson has not explained in detail the Vaa’i decision, despite briefly giving a reason for his move in his Thursday’s press conference, and Donald is unsure as to whether it is a long-term plan.
“The big question we haven’t heard from Razor yet is if this is part of a bigger plan or is it forced upon them due to the fact that there’s no Luke Jacobson and no Wallace Sititi?” he said.
“You tend to think that but who knows. You’ve still got Samipeni Finau, who was named in the initial squad.
“You’ve got to think guys like [Christian] Lio-Willie, they were named as extended cover but they’re starting, and Samipeni Finau, who was named in the initial squad and is an out-and-out six, is on the bench.
“I can see the rationale of having Samipeni Finau on the bench because he is an athlete that can bring some real impact. But when you couple it with the fact that we’ve shifted a lock to the number six jersey, it’s fascinating.”
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How if affects the game plan
Many New Zealand pundits felt that the All Blacks’ game plan was too conservative in Robertson’s first year in charge and Donald is worried that could happen again in 2025.
The ex-fly-half felt that they were too obsessed with matching the size of some of the other top nations and thinks that putting Vaa’i on the blindside indicates a similar approach.
“The big question for me straight away being a rugby nerd is what does that mean from a style point of view?” he added.
“When the squad was first named I thought it was interesting and we might be shifting a little bit from last year, where I thought we got caught trying to match northern hemisphere rugby and not always playing to New Zealand rugby’s strengths.
“I wonder still if there’s a little bit of that, if there’s a little of picking the biggest forward pack to match these big northern hemisphere packs, to match these South African packs.
“Was there always this in the back of the mind of the All Blacks selectors that they need a monster number six? And that’s where we’ve ended up.”