‘Unhappy’ All Blacks great wants ‘pretty anonymous’ Wallace Sititi dropped
Wallace Sititi in action for the All Blacks against the Springboks and former New Zealand number eight Murray Mexted.
All Blacks great Murray Mexted was left unimpressed by the balance of their loose trio in the victory over the Springboks at the weekend.
Scott Robertson started with Simon Parker, Ardie Savea and Wallace Sititi in the New Zealand back-row, with Tupou Vaa’i, who has been at blindside, moving back to lock.
It worked well enough for Robertson’s men to claim a 24-17 victory over South Africa and keep them at the top of the Rugby Championship standings, but Mexted was not quite so enthused about the loose forwards.
Parker the answer, not Sititi
Asked by Martin Devlin on DSPN about whether he was “happy” with the combination, he responded: “No, I’m not.
“I think Ardie moving back to seven was an interesting call, and I wanted to see that. I think they did that because they wanted to play Sititi, but Sititi was pretty anonymous in that game, to be frank.”
Mexted ultimately believes that Parker is the player who should be at the base of the All Blacks scrum, with Vaa’i taking the blindside role long-term.
“You’ve got to put a lot of emphasis on possession. We need more ball, we need more than 48 per cent possession, so I would be moving Parker to number eight and moving Vaa’i back to six,” he said.
“Parker at eight because he’s 1.97m and get him more involved in the game – throw him a few as well – and of course we’ve still got [Scott] Barrett, who’s bloody good.
“We’ve got to use those four jumpers, you can’t play against the Springboks and get 55 per cent of the ball unless you’ve got four guys in the air – not only at lineout but it’s kick-offs and aerial possession.”
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Ex-All Blacks coach’s view on Boks
Despite Mexted’s insistence, Robertson may well be reluctant to change things around too much for the Wellington clash after their fine win at Eden Park.
In comparison, Springboks boss Rassie Erasmus has wielded the axe, making a huge amount of alterations to the backline as they look to respond to that reversal.
It is a bold call from Erasmus and one which ex-All Blacks boss John Hart thinks could backfire, even though he believes that it is a more “exciting” team.
“Well, I have no doubt he was very keen to win at Eden Park, and no doubt he’d be very keen to win in Wellington, because if he loses in Wellington, he’s out of the Rugby Championship,” Hart told Newstalk ZB.
“His season’s on the line next Saturday at Wellington.
“So he’s obviously decided to cut away the conservative approach that he had last week. And look, some of those players are very exciting, but I’m just not sure the continuity, the change in selection, whether they can be as fluent as they’ll need to be.
“But I’m sure there’ll be a little more adventurous with their backs, and honestly, I’d expect their forwards to play a lot better than they did last week.”
