All Blacks great Justin Marshall has urged Scott Robertson to rethink his view on the bench after the success of the Springboks and England.
South Africa have inspired a change in how coaches look at the make-up of the 23 after back-to-back Rugby World Cup triumphs.
During their 2019 victory in Japan, they regularly went with a split of six forwards and two backs on the bench before at times going with an even more daring 7-1 four years later.
The likes of England and France have followed suit and it paid off for the former as they claimed a 33-19 victory over New Zealand on Saturday.
Traditional All Blacks
New Zealand have stuck with tradition, however, and remain convinced that 5-3 is the way to go, but Marshall is not so sure.
“The whole 6-2 split, we just don’t want to do it and I’ve been banging this drum; for f*** sake, why do we not want to be innovative and go, ‘righto we’re going to go 6-2 or 7-1?’,” he said on the GBRANZ podcast.
“When England with their ‘Pom Squad’ did what they did, the game dynamic changed. They got real energy out of that, whereas we still put them on in dribs and drabs.
“I think they injected five into the game in one fell swoop and their energy levels went up. That was the intent right from the start, we knew that early in the week because he named his team early.”
All Blacks legend slams ‘disrespectful’ England fans for Haka response
England boss Steve Borthwick took the risk of putting some of his big hitters among the replacements but former Wales and Lions number eight Andy Powell, who joined Marshall on the show, credited the strength of their squad.
“[Henry] Pollock, [Tom] Curry, [Ellis] Genge, [Will] Stuart, they’re massive names who should be starting. It shows the strength that England have got, it’s probably the best England squad they’ve had since the 2003 World Cup – unbelievable players,” Powell said.
Hybrid players
Going with a forward-heavy bench can expose a team if they are unfortunate with injuries during a game, but the likes of Rassie Erasmus and Borthwick have started to look at hybrid players – those who can both play in the forwards and the backs.
“We can emulate that but we don’t want to. We want to carry that extra back reserve and I don’t understand why when we’re supposed to have these players that can play across the backline,” Marshall added.
“They can play multiple positions. If we got really in the s***, you could put Ardie [Savea] in the midfield, you could put him on the wing, and he would do a good job of it wouldn’t he?
“Are we feeling like South Africa are getting it wrong when they do it? England are getting it wrong when they do it?”