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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.
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.
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
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Latest Comments
I like it.
Would have had Reuben at 23 if he wasn’t injured.
They need to make up their mind about will Jordan, I think he rips up at 14 so leave him there, develop Reuben Love at 15.
Interesting to see Blackadder left out. Still recovering from injury is all I can think of.
Can’t wait to see Tosi in action, hope he makes a monsters effort in all areas.
Go to commentsI'm a bit sad John. I thought we were going to get a nice statistical table on the relative physicality of the two packs or something.
There is a big misconception about New Zealand rugby's lack of size. They do, along with Australia, and the homelands of Pacifika people, have a lot of big rugby players, they just haven't been favoured by the All Blacks, or indeed with the likes of Will Skelton, neither NSW or the Wallabies, either.
A quick jump on all.rugby gives a quick look at last weeks teams
SA -------------------------- NZ
963 kg (120.38 kg) --- Pack weight (average) --- 939 kg (117.38 kg)
31 ans - --- Forwards average age ---- 28 ans
29 ans --- Backs average age --- 28 ans
ARG ------------------------ AUS
922 kg (115.25 kg) --- Pack weight (average) ---- 925 kg (115.63 kg)
28 ans ---- Forwards average age --- 25 ans
26 ans ---- Backs average age --- 26 ans
As you can see here, there might be a trend to say that the Wallabies will get more powerful with age, but you wouldn't think one would suggest a physical edge over the Abs at this point. Indeed, their edge comes from a completely different concept, dynamism. In players like Tupou, Bell, some say Frost, Rob, they have players that can edge their opposites. Taylor and Sami (Aumua hopefully) at hooker, Barrett on a good day, and Ardie (and his heir apparent) can provide it for the All Blacks, but Australia's game should definitely be about tempo and speed of play at their young age LSL seems to be thought of as perhaps a strong foil to that when needed, but I would honestly rate him below Patrick.
So I tihnk the pack is much closer to how you view the backline, so makes for a cohesive plan if Joe can get it right. I think the most telling stat for these two teams (haven't checked this mornigns announcement yet) would be in test caps, and it would be stark if Slipper was told he was no longer needed.
Use that youthful exuberance and try and get them confident. That Argentine side is a great, they put a record score on NZ in not as favourable conditions as well. Theyve just got to take that one on the chin, and like SBW says, come out swining for round 2. Remembering that no matter what, in this sport, this game, theyre going to still be standing by round 12 when the Lions come. There should be no fear here.
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