All Blacks: Scott Robertson explains Ardie Savea captaincy call with Scott Barrett ‘clearly not right’
Ardie Savea has been backed to slot straight into life as All Blacks captain again, with Scott Barrett injured
All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson has backed Ardie Savea to ‘slot straight in’ as captain, with the back-rower taking over for the injured Scott Barrett.
The 31-year-old Crusaders lock has been skipper since Razor took the reins as head coach last year, featuring in 16 Tests since, but will now take up a spot on the sidelines ahead of this weekend’s clash at Eden Park.
Barrett is among six personnel changes to the All Blacks 23-man squad to take on the Wallabies this weekend, with Fabian Holland coming in to take his spot. Elsewhere, Codie Taylor, Caleb Clarke, Cam Roigard all come into the starting line-up, while Cortez Ratima and Peter Lakai come onto the bench.
‘He’ll be pushing to get back for next weekend’s Test’
Losing a player of S. Barrett’s experience is always a blow, especially heading into a Test of this magnitude, but Razor is confident he won’t be out for too long.
“Scott Barrett’s shoulder; he hurt it last week and played and finished the game with a shoulder injury,” said the All Blacks boss. “It’s pretty hard not to see his name up there (in the team), but he’s not quite right for this weekend. He’ll be pushing to get back for next weekend’s Test.”
Springboks team: Five takeaways as Rassie Erasmus gets ‘consistency’ with ‘formidable partnership’
“He did (train), measured and very strapped up,” Razor added. “He did all he could to be available, but he’s not 100%. He landed on it after running down the sideline in the game, he played through with it but it’s clearly not right for this weekend.”
In his place, Savea will lead the All Blacks into battle after being handed the captain’s armband by Razor. This role is nothing new to the Japan-bound back-rower, either, with Savea previously playing eight Tests as captain.
“We’ve gone for Ardie as captain,” Razor said of Savea. “He’s slotted straight in, he’s played 100 games and has been captain before.
“They’ve (S. Barrett and Savea) worked together closely.”
