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'What the hell did that achieve?': Justin Marshall shreds All Blacks selections
By Ned Lester
The conclusion of the Bledisloe Cup leaves the All Blacks with just one match before the Rugby World Cup and five Tests before the knockout stages commence. Former All Black Justin Marshall is hoping coach Ian Foster manages selections for those five games better than he did in the Bledisloe Cup.
The World Cup brings nations of varying rugby pedigrees together, inevitably leading to some skewed results in the pool stages before the eventual heavy-hitting centrepiece.
Typically, tier-one nations in strong from heading into the tournament have the luxury of resting players against lesser tier-two or three opposition, with a win considered a given regardless.
The All Blacks open their World Cup campaign against the tournament hosts, France. After that, they play Namibia, Italy and finally Uruguay.
Namibia and Uruguay both fall outside the tier-one nations list and historically have been the kind of opposition the All Blacks would rest their top talent against, but Marshall says that may not be in New Zealand's best interests.
"I do feel that we need to continue to keep trucking these players out there that are going to be the team that play that quarterfinal," Marshall told The Platform.
"You know that side just need to, again they just need to galvanize, they need to be really assured of the game plan. They need to be confident and chopping and changing, I don't think helps that at all.
"Honestly, they gave Shaun Stevenson a Test match and they gave Samipeni Finau a Test match and they are now All Blacks but they're not even the Rugby World Cup squad. What the hell did that achieve? Honestly.
"So, I'm a bit lost as to why they did what they did at the weekend.
"I still feel very adamant, if they're still going to give players game time they feel that they need it, they should know enough about them now if they're in a World Cup squad.
"Give them the time off the bench, but let that team create its own rhythm and synergy and let them go through. Look at the end of the day it's seven Test matches to win a Rugby World Cup. Now that's not a hard ask for the modern player. Super Rugby teams do it, the second half of the season. They just truck the players out there.
"So my mindset is no, I wouldn't like to see them completely change the team during the course of Rugby World Cup just to give players a run. Run them off the beach."
Opportunity vs continuity has been a chunky talking point over the past year for Ian Foster, the coach expressed his intent to name the same unit as much as injury would allow during the 2022 Rugby Championship and maintained a similar philosophy during the 2023 tournament.
Although, the preferred XV has changed a fair amount in that time. Aaron Smith and Rieko Ioane are the only players who have retained their position in the backline since last year's Ireland series while in the forwards, the preferred props have changed, Scott Barrett looks to have taken Sam Whitelock's place at lock and Shannon Frizell has locked up the vacated No 6 jersey.
As Marshall would go on to point out, that amount of change is a far cry from the recipe for success that Sir Steve Hansen and Sir Graham Henry enjoyed in their 2011 and 2015 World Cup-winning campaigns, when iconic combinations created a foundation for bolters to feed off.
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Latest Comments
Yeah nar I pretty much agree with that sentiment, wasn't just about the lineout though.
Yeah, I think it's the future of SR, even TRC. Graham above just now posting about how good a night it was with a dbl header of ENGvSA and NZvFrance, and now I don't want to kick SA or Argentina out of TRC but it would be great if in this next of the woods 2 more top teams could come in to create more of these sort of nights (for rugby's appeal). Often Arg and SA and both travel here and you get those games but more often doesn't work out right.
Obviously a long way off but USA and Japan are the obvious two. First thing we need to do is get Eddie Jones kicked out of Japan so they can start improving again and then get a couple of US teams in SRP (even if one its just a US based and augmented Jaguares).
It will start off the whole conferences are crap debate again (which I will continue to argue vehemently against), but imagine a 6 team Pacific conference, Tokyo Sunwolves (drafted from Tokyo JRLO teams), Tokyo All Stars (made up of best remaining foreign players and overseas drafts), ALL Nihon (best of local non Tokyo based talent, inc China/Korea etc, with mainland Japan), a could of West Coast american franchises and perhaps a second self PI driven Hawai'i based team, or Jagaures. So I see a short NFL like 3 or 4 month comp as fitting best, maybe not even a full round, NZvAUSvPAC, all games taking place within a 6hr window. Model for NZ will definitely still require a competitive and funded NPC!
On the Crusaders, I liked last years ending with Grace on the bench (ovbiously form dependent but thats how it ended) and Lio-Willie at 8. I could have Blackadder trying to be a 7 but think balance will be used with him at 6 and Kellow as 7. Scott Barrett is an international 6 sized player. It is just NZ style/model that pushes him into the tight, I reckon he'd be a great loose player, and saders have Strange and Cahill as bigger players (plus that change could draw someone like Darry back). Same with Haig now, hes not grown yet but Barrett hight and been playing 6, now that the Highlanders have only chosen two locks he'll be playing lock, and that is going to change his growth trajectory massively, rather than seeing him grow like an International 6.
Go to commentsDan Carter is the leading points scorer and leading points per game person for a player with significant tests. 2s RWC winner and member of the games greatest ever team. It's not even close. The only question of GOAT for rugby is whether McCaw deserves it given Carter's numbers.
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