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All Blacks rookies promoted, Barrett benched for Springboks rematch
By Ned Lester
All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson has made a handful of significant changes in his team to face the Springboks in round four of The Rugby Championship in Cape Town.
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Rookies Wallace Sititi and Cortez Ratima have been promoted to the starting XV, while the back three has been reworked with Mark Tele’a and Sevu Reece named on the wings and Will Jordan moved to fullback.
The changes come at the expense of Beauden Barrett, who will look to provide impact off the bench, having had success off the pine against England earlier in the international season.
Caleb Clarke is listed as injured, with Ethan Blackadder the only other injury consideration for this week’s selections. RugbyPass understands both injuries are short-term and not expected to play a factor moving forward.
The midfield duo of Jordie Barrett and Rieko Ioane have retained their places in the starting unit, along with No. 10 Damian McKenzie.
Ratima’s promotion places veteran TJ Perenara on the bench, creating a far more experienced impact unit to finish the contest after last weekend’s disappointing final quarter for the team.
Ardie Savea and Sam Cane retain their starting roles, with young gun Sititi coming in on the blindside flank. The starting tight five remains the same, while Luke Jacobson replaces Saimpeni Finau as the loose forward replacement.
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All Blacks team to face the Springboks
- Tamaiti Williams
- Codie Taylor
- Tyrel Lomax
- Scott Barrett
- Tupou Vaa’i
- Wallace Sititi
- Sam Cane
- Ardie Savea
- Cortez Ratima
- Damian McKenzie
- Mark Tele’a
- Jordie Barrett
- Rieko Ioane
- Sevu Reece
- Will Jordan
Reserves
16. Asafo Aumua
17. Ofa Tu’ungafasi
18. Fletcher Newell
19. Sam Darry
20. Luke Jacobson
21. TJ Perenara
22. Anton Lienert-Brown
23. Beauden Barrett
Jason Ryan told reporters about the non sugar coated confidence of making changes for this weekends game..that being said, Scott Robertson would not have had any doubts of his assessment for improvement...the selected starting back line is what it is and hopefully they're ready to perform with Will Jordans@#15 proving to be the catalyst...Go the AB's...lucks a fortune..so don't give Matt Carley any excuse to hex your chances for redemption and she'll be right...
1st, after BB & Mr mouth TJ performance, demotion a given.
2nd, Biggest bombshell ... the star performer, attack & defense [especially high ball], Clarke is injured / not available. Bok will be relieved.
But 3rd, is that a joke? Blackadder is injured?? Again! 1st all the best, get mended. 2nd, Sorry but no team can maintain consistent performance with players of his endless unavailability due to injury. It must be about 10% availability with Blackadder. Sorry, end it, Gotta go. At least til there’s a whole season back in NPC & SR without injury.
Re Blackadder, time to stop operating in this pretend player fantasy that Mr 66% Razor & Ryan are. Bring on the top SR loosie performer, Sotutu , with his massive performance advantages. Yes iron out his few small wrinkles ie penalties & tackle height (you’re coaches Mr 66%’s Razor & Ryan??...can develop players??).
Actually watched Sotutu playing in 2021 against the Pumas this morning, or yesterday. He was alright, you can see why he was dropped, but you can also see that they might not have understood his strengths either. Involved in all three tryes with his supreme skill.
so in short you hate blackadder & love sotutu, good for you
If this game was played on paper SA would win by 20 points.
A huge opportunity for a lot of players, but Yikes.
Some of these selections are injury forced but main areas of concern are the undersized loose forward unit, and the back three defensively under high balls.
Positives - if they can find a way to open the game up and use width like they did in parts of the first test they have the weapons to take advantage.
I like that they have put their money where their mouth is with Sititi but playing him out of position against the SA pack is a big ask. All of our loosies specialise in playing wider, I hope he gets the chance to play his game rather than playing the Kaino/Frizzell role.
You mean like that paper rugby test v Pumas at the Cake Tin lol.
Finally we get to debunk your style of fullback!
Stupid England for thinking they could play Furbank at 15 against the All Blacks!
So what this tells me is that the AB's are going to run the ball from everywhere. Jordan, Reece and Telea are not going to control the kicking game from the back and Dmac may be a good player at 10 but will struggle to control territory off his boot. Ratima also doesnt have the accuracy on his box kick. The AB's are basically going to surrender the territory game with this line up effectively especially if Willie le Roux plays at full back then they will effectively be dead in the water from a kicking game perspective. What they do have though is a very mobile loose forward trio and also a very powerful strike backline with explosive pace and evasive runners. I expect them to play high tempo with quick lineouts and alot of width. They will not look to build phases but rather strike on the outside quickly and efficiently from deep and other areas trying to expose the Springboks wile creating lots of broken field opportunities. Its a daring strategy but one that could work. They have lots of experience on the bench to manage a lead if thats what they manage or rescue the game and change things up if they need to and Barrett off the bench will give them an attacking edge in the final quarter and he still has the pace to exploit tiring legs. It is daring and may backfire if the Boks dominate the first 60 but Razor is rolling the dice and gambling and its the first time I am seeing him be so proactive with his selection.
Agreed. Good on Razor for picking up his nuts and having a go.
Very excited to see Wallace Sititi!
CRAZY. Absolutely CRAZY. Don't know the reason for all the absentees but Blackadder (believe it or not) will be a big miss.
Still baffled at the Beauden Barrett situation.
Barrett at 10 gives you the opportunity to play Dmac of the wood and cover flyhalf, wing & fullback. Much more useful out wide after 60min than in tight form the start.
Great to see Sititi starting, but i think the Boks will have a field day come lineout time.
Not convinced about the bench at all.
The All Blacks need a 20 Point lead at half time otherwise it's gonna be a tough afternoon.
But no one else can play 10. Sititi a huge improvement of blackadder you just watch! I'd be happy with the 15 the previous game required.
The one player who caused SA problems is injured - no not Ethan! - Caleb Clark. Finau has been treated so poorly by the AB selectors. This was his chance to finally start but they have given it a new player who hardly ever plays at 6. No Hoskins or Akira in the squad! It's Robertson's team and he has a special interest in the loose forwards so good luck to him.
Finau has been anonymous in each appearance, sadly. I think he's done with being given chances. He hasn't made any impression which isn't the selectors' fault. Akira had so much size and potential but never delivered. Clearly the past and current selectors see something wrong with Hoskins that we all don't. Haig from Otago looks good for the future.
They’ll have a plan with finau, he’ll have some specific work ons.
Ahh yes, LOVE IT! Razors new All Black era has finally started. I've been waiting for this.
Chaahoo!
What's new?
I guess that's one way to strengthen your bench. Problem might be that by the time they get on, the game is already long gone! Why would Rassie bother going 7-1 when the ABs have such a dwarf back row?
Sadly our one tall back rower has been so anonymous each time he's played that he may not even board the plane on the end of year tour. Especially if progress has been made getting Frizzell back next year.
rassie to go 7-1?
Time to target those smaller Bok backs then!
No problem here, other than I’d replace Cane with Papali’i
Would have made more sense for me, if Wallace started in his natural number 8 position, with Ardie at 6/7.
Starting an 8 on the flank is a sure fire way to make sure their impact is limited, see Ryan Kankowski for the Boks. Barely played at 8, and even though he was a cracking 8th man, didn't make much of an impact for the Boks since he mostly played flank.