{"id":196238,"date":"2025-10-07T22:52:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T22:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/196238\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T22:52:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T22:52:08","slug":"flavour-of-the-month-selections-for-the-all-blacks-are-not-viable-long-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/196238\/","title":{"rendered":"Flavour of the month selections for the All Blacks are not viable long-term"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tupou Vaa\u2019i\u2019s injury is a huge blow to the All Blacks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Only a handful of established All Blacks have maintained or improved on their previous standards since Scott Robertson<\/a> and company took charge. Vaa\u2019i is one of them.<\/p>\n

You can add Ardie Savea<\/a>, obviously, Cam Roigard<\/a>, Codie Taylor<\/a> and probably Tamaiti Williams<\/a> too. The names stop springing to mind after that.<\/p>\n

You see, I have a theory about Robertson and his coaching staff and that it\u2019s that they don\u2019t make very good, good or even adequate players better. No, they kind of just make them worse.<\/p>\n

Instead of improving what they\u2019ve got, the All Blacks\u2019 brains trust defaults to picking new blokes and hoping their athleticism and enthusiasm fill the void in tutelage.<\/p>\n

Rieko Ioane appears to be yesterday\u2019s man now. Sevu Reece<\/a> and Anton Lienert-Brown<\/a> the same. A bit like David Havili<\/a> before them. Caleb Clarke\u2019s hardly first-choice and Billy Proctor\u2019s poised to become an afterthought as well. You don\u2019t get much runway with these guys. Just ask Christian Lio-Willie.<\/p>\n

Leroy Carter, Simon Parker<\/a> and Fabian Holland<\/a> are flavour of the month at the moment. Just as Wallace Sititi<\/a> was this time last year.<\/p>\n

Quinn Tupaea is new to this coaching group as well, and basking in the warm glow of the coaching staff\u2019s approval for the time being.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know about you, but I thought New Zealand\u2019s Rugby Championship<\/a> campaign was unsatisfactory on the whole.<\/p>\n

The team was okay against Australia<\/a> and did take a test off South Africa. But losing to Argentina<\/a> and imploding against the Springboks was a really poor look.<\/p>\n

If I was enthused about anything during the competition, it was Savea, Roigard and the new boys.<\/p>\n

That worries me in a couple of senses: first, that most of the senior pros hardly fired a shot and, second, that there\u2019s a limited supply of other potential debutants.<\/p>\n

Because, let\u2019s be fair, the modus operandi isn\u2019t to get more out of what you\u2019ve got, but to select someone else entirely.<\/p>\n

Are any of the Barretts better for their involvement with this coaching staff? How about Damian McKenzie? Will Jordan\u2019s so good that, like Savea and Roigard, it almost doesn\u2019t matter who\u2019s in charge.<\/p>\n

I mention those guys because they always get picked, whenever fit. Others are not so fortunate.<\/p>\n

Samipeni Finau and Asafo Aumua<\/a> should probably be making alternative plans. Injuries meant Pasilio Tosi got a bit of gametime in Perth on Saturday, but he\u2019s a peripheral figure too.<\/p>\n

I see this selection group throwing a lot of darts at the board and, yes, they do hit the odd bullseye, with Holland definitely being one.<\/p>\n

But will we see much of George Bell<\/a> again? What about Luke Jacobson<\/a>, Ethan Blackadder<\/a> and Dalton Papali\u2019i? Are Ollie Norris<\/a>, Du\u2019Plessis Kirifi and Ruben Love<\/a> going to kick on?<\/p>\n

Or should they emulate Mark Tele\u2019a and Harry Plummer<\/a> and try their luck elsewhere?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to opt for bright, shiny new toys. The potential\u2019s limitless, at least until they\u2019ve played a couple of games and it becomes clear there\u2019s one or two flaws to tidy up.<\/p>\n

A scattergun selection approach is one thing, but I do harbour concerns about how quickly players are discarded and suspect the problem isn\u2019t necessarily them, but the quality of coaching they receive.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s sufficient talent in the All Blacks\u2019 squad \u2013 and hopefully always will be \u2013 to ensure they continue to win more games than they lose.<\/p>\n

But, at the risk of labouring the point too long, this is a team winning on ability alone. I\u2019m not seeing anything to suggest there\u2019s much method behind it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tupou Vaa\u2019i\u2019s injury is a huge blow to the All Blacks. Only a handful of established All Blacks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-196238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}