Scott Robertson on the All Blacks’ ‘opportunity’ against England & Ireland

You can see it happening, they are taking a slim B squad of 29 players, and will be utilizing those guys. So yes, you most like will still see Beauden, Cane, TJ going north. But Cane might only be used in a couple, so Lakai comes in for one of them etc. Yes Beauden might be seen as the pro that also comes off the bench for a couple of big ones, but Perofeta will hopefully be fit and starting as Jordans backup. Then Fihaki might slide in. I could use other names but you haven't offered any. It might end up being like South Africa were you don't know which is the A team or B team, was the the one against Ireland, or the match v England?

Blackadders in there as DP doesn't quite seem to cover all the grunt work that's needed, he's someone they know will try to execute xyz plan, and the first thing he probably wanted to do was find out if he's somenoe who can do it at international level. Why TJ? Well maybe they just see the shift in game plan to play Hotham is probably too many changes at once. I think they're excited by a largely running 9 and they would want him to play to his strengths, rather than say ask him to just give speedy pass and kick service for now. He's basically Roigard and Ratima on steroids, his game is not quite filled out enough yet to surpass TJ is my thinking. Cane is a much easier one isn't it. They got beat up by Argentina, that's why Cane is there. Could it have been different? Of course, Jacobsen and DP both got injured, and I think Finau, then Ethan. Maybe if everyone was fit and at the top of their game he is scrapping to try and get 100 in this eoyt.

I would hope to see a couple of more debutants next month and if not quite a few more playing their 2nd and 3rd All Black test starts.

I was also expecting Razor to be a bit comfier with test rugger given his own ABs experience, so it's curious to hear the things coming out of his mouth. Maybe he's nervous - I imagine media stand-ups would be pretty tough - trying to be genuine, deflect anything hairy and bridge to your key messages. He does look like he's had a reasonable amount of media training though.

From your list it just seems like you are unhappy with the 'micro' time. That I can agree with, he should not have kept guys on for the whole game. That was one of his many poor failings. I think I have squad selection balance (really on his idea of how that will work than his own selections), not playing to players strengths (wrong kicking strategy for the wrong wings etc), no game day hot mic involvements (didn't see any comms going out and poor sub use as pointed out), media, and a small portion for not enough ingenuity to do without starting Beauden, Ardie, Blackadder, when injuries struck for the most part. There are probably some tactical things I have forgotten, and there are some I'm not going to expect development in until they have more time.

This article is terrible, I know it, you know, everyone knows it. It's by Ben Smith.

Gerhard Steenekamp

Ntuthuko Mchunu

Andre-Hugo Venter

Johan Grobbelaar

Jan-Hendrik Wessels

Salmaan Moerat

Ruan Nortje

Evan Roos

Elrigh Louw

Ruan Venter

Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu

Jordan Hendrikse

Quan Horn

Morne van den Berg

Edwill van der Merwe

Players that lost out on test caps due to injury-

Cameron Hanekom

Henco van Wyk

Suleiman Hartzenberg

Sanele Nohamba

By the way Ben, you also forgot to mention that in the 2024 season to date the Springboks have played 10 tests and won 8 including The Rugby Championship, all achieved while playing B and C teams and not their best players all the time.

It changed when Foster and Schmidt pulled the team together for the RWC I believe. They showed many from that team were quality All Blacks, and Razor continued to believe they were beneficial. I would say I am about 85% happy with selections, and about 65-70% happy with their implementation by the coaches.

Certainly the most disappointing thing has being his application of the role externally. I had no idea he was like this, is he really including himself when he says they're learning what it requires to win test foot? He played in one of the best AB teams FFS! Or is he just using pandering words that don't tell you anything about where they think they're at?