Why Justin Marshall wants All Blacks star dropped after ‘his best Test’ against Springboks
All Blacks centre Billy Proctor and an inset of former number nine Justin Marshall.
Former All Blacks scrum-half Justin Marshall has urged Scott Robertson to change his centre pairing again, as he believes that Leicester Fainga’anuku is a better fit in the midfield.
Head coach Robertson has selected Jordie Barrett and Billy Proctor as the starting centres for much of 2025, with one of the rare exceptions being the third Test against France when the former was included on the bench.
It’s clear that the coaching staff want Proctor and Barrett to continue to build a partnership and become more cohesive, with the pair also set to feature together in Super Rugby Pacific next season with the Hurricanes.
This after Rieko Ioane was shifted back to the wing this year after playing at outside centre for New Zealand for the last four years.
Despite his team getting hammered 43-10 by the Springboks in Wellington, Marshall believes that Proctor had his best performance yet for the All Blacks in what was his eighth Test appearance.
Drop All Blacks back after his best game
Ex-Wallabies hooker Jeremy Paul disagreed with the former All Black when the pair discussed the make-up of the midfield on The Good, The Bad and The Rugby AUNZ podcast.
“You’ve got to stay with Billy Proctor,” he said.
Marshall responded: “You and I are going to butt heads on this.
“He played his best Test on the weekend, and I don’t think he is playing poorly. But I just don’t feel that we have enough danger out there.”
When pressed as to who should then be the starting outside centre, Marshall quickly replied Leicester Fainga’anuku.
The Crusaders-bound star has returned to New Zealand after a stint with Top 14 club RC Toulon, where he starred in the French competition, mostly at centre, but is an option on the wing and finished several matches for the club at flank.
He is currently plying his trade with the Tasman Mako in the NPC, and although it was initially stated that he wouldn’t be eligible for selection under New Zealand Rugby policies, he was called into the All Blacks squad ahead of the Tests against the Springboks.
It’s not a criticism of Billy Proctor
However, he did not earn a place in either of the matchday 23s, but Marshall hopes that will change for the remaining two Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup fixtures against the Wallabies.
He believes that Fainga’anuku can provide a similar ‘punch’ and skillset to the role as Andre Esterhuizen does for the Springboks.
“I’d select him with Jordie to have that punch,” he continued.
“When the Springboks brought Esterhuizen on, like honestly. I know he is a tank, but what he was doing, wow. You saw instances where he had two defenders on him, and he is lobbing the ball over them to his outside backs or centre because he is big and powerful.
All Blacks fans blame Nelson Mandela and Buck Shelford’s ‘testicles’ for record Springboks defeat
“Most of his distribution is post-contact, yes, but Leicester Fainga’anuku can do both. He has a great offload, great power when he has two defenders on him. But if you watched him in the Tasman game, now I know it is only NPC compared to a Test match, but three or four times I saw him just pre-contact, when he had defenders sweating all over him, he ripped a pass away.
“And that is key because you’re not going to have a guy who is just going to carry when there is a guy with space on the outside. For everybody who says, ‘You’re going to play him at outside centre and you’re just going to punch your way through, no way, because he has got variation in his game.”
He concluded: “It’s not criticism of Billy Proctor, it’s criticism of our game plan not having the ability to really function in a way that it could.
“Getting Will Jordan into the 15 jersey into the game, getting our wingers with the ball in space because at the moment they are getting it with defenders because of how narrow we are in our attack.”
