‘Ardie Savea would play the same in the 12 jersey!’ – All Blacks great believes Scott Robertson missed a ‘perfect opportunity’
Ardie Savea in action for All Blacks against England, and head coach Scott Robertson.
Justin Marshall ‘does not agree’ with Scott Robertson’s decision not to play Ardie Savea at openside flanker during the recent mid-year series.
The 30-year-old played all three games against England (twice) and Fiji at number eight, and was the only constant in the back-row.
After Samipeni Finau and Dalton Papali’i started at flanker in the Tests against the Red Rose, Luke Jacobson and Ethan Blackadder were handed an opportunity in San Diego.
Marshall felt that was the wrong call and would have preferred seeing Savea moved to openside with either Blackadder or youngster Wallace Sititi getting a chance at the base of the All Blacks scrum.
However, he believes that selection call is highly unlikely. Asked on SENZ what the chances are of Robertson shifting Savea from number eight, the 50-year-old responded: “At the moment, I would have to say none.
‘Perfect opportunity’ missed
He added: “The Fijian game was the perfect opportunity to do that. They could have started Sititi and played him on the side of the scrum.
“You don’t need to play Jacobson, you know what he’s going to give you. Every time he puts on any jersey, he’s going to deliver the same type of performance.
“They weren’t ever going to find anything out about Luke Jacobson that they didn’t already know, whereas Blackadder hasn’t played a lot lately and he needed to have the opportunity.
“It was the perfect chance to give either Blackadder or Sititi an opportunity in the eight jersey with Ardie on the flank, just to see how that blend works.
“But they didn’t, they selected him at number eight as vice captain. Putting him as vice captain made me think, ‘well, he’s obviously part of their leadership group’, so for all the debate we want to have, I don’t see them having the mindset to shift him.
“I don’t agree with it and I’m sure many of you out there don’t agree with it either but, from what you can see looking out to in, that looks like the jersey they want him in.
“Personally I don’t agree. Ardie would play the same sort of game in the 12 jersey, it’s what he would play in any jersey!”
Marshall is concerned about the make-up of the loose trio, suggesting that they have not settled on a combination since the conclusion of the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
A strength of the All Blacks
“Traditionally, really strong All Blacks teams always have awesome back-row combos, not just individuals,” he said.
“The team that I was involved with, the loose forward trio was initially Mike Brewer, Zinzan Brooke and Michael Jones, and then developed into Josh Kronfeld, Zinzan Brooke and Michael Jones.
“What we need to do is establish a trio which can work together and work together in a way which benefits the team, and complement each other.
“The thing with the game is that it’s moved on and the role of the seven has dramatically changed. But I knew in that back-row, Josh Kronfeld would be over the ball, Michael Jones would annihilate anything that came down his channel but he would also offer himself as a ball carrier.
“Zinny then had the freedom and license to do what Zinny did. He could carry hard, Zinny, but equally he could be a second receiver, a distributor. The synergy worked really well.
“I knew as a nine what each player offered and each player in their own individual performance knew that if they weren’t at the breakdown, the other one would clean it.
“When was the last time we’ve selected the same loose forward combination for five Tests in a row? There’s a challenge. We can’t settle on it, not since (Richie) McCaw, (Jerome) Kaino and (Kieran) Read. We haven’t found the answers.”
