{"id":209368,"date":"2025-10-13T04:46:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T04:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/209368\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T04:46:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T04:46:08","slug":"scott-robertson-breaks-down-the-tough-grand-slam-selections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/209368\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Robertson breaks down the tough Grand Slam selections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When naming an All Blacks<\/a> squad for an end-of-year tour, there\u2019s always going to be players who feel hard done by, or players who may be lucky to have kept a spot in the black jersey.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s squad naming for the 2025 grand slam feels no different, with All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson<\/a> naming a 36-man squad tasked with taking on four International sides during November.<\/p>\n

Crusaders<\/a> hooker George Bell<\/a> gets the nod over Chiefs<\/a> hooker Brodie McAlister<\/a>, while injuries to members of the Rugby Championship<\/a> squad has forced Robertson to call in some of the previous squad\u2019s injury cover replacements<\/p>\n

Josh Lord replaces Tupou Vaa\u2019i<\/a> who has been ruled out with a knee injury, while Tevita Mafileo<\/a> joins the squad in place of Tyrel Lomax.<\/p>\n

Robertson, who spoke to media in Christchurch on Monday, explains that his squad makeup gives him some options all around the park, with players who can play multiple positions.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, look, you can see with Samipeni Finau<\/a> covering lock, that\u2019s our fifth lock, and we\u2019ve got some outside backs that can cover midfield and vice versa.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that\u2019s a that\u2019s what you need, and it\u2019s great, we\u2019ve got a bench that can come on with a lot of power, and guys can play in different positions, especially in the loose-forwards, which is a real positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about the inclusion of Finlay Christie<\/a> as the third halfback, Robertson says that it\u2019s about the balance of the group.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I think it\u2019s a balance of the group, we\u2019ve had a few injuries, obviously, through the year, and we\u2019ve given guys one or two Test matches, and that\u2019s why the All Blacks XV<\/a> is there, so they can play and then they\u2019re available to come over.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just feel like the thing with Finlay is that he\u2019s Test level, he\u2019s Test ready, and he\u2019ll come in if it\u2019s an arm wrestle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another player who didn\u2019t feature too much in the Rugby Championship was Crusaders winger Sevu Reece<\/a>, but Razor says his coaching staff need to get the best out of him on this end-of-year tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah if you look at all the positions, it\u2019s a great position we\u2019re in, the guys have taken opportunities, and he could compete, and it\u2019s another opportunity for the end of the tour to see who will compete,\u201d Robertson told media in Christchurch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know what he can do when he\u2019s at his best, and ourselves as a group and a coaching group, needs to get the best out of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo another opportunity for him, when he gets the ball his hands, and he can, he can jam and he can play and he just needs to have great weeks. Like some of our trainings this year he\u2019s been really superb, and he\u2019s trained well.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the battle between the two hookers, Robertson and his coaching staff believes that Bell is best suited to this tour, and McAlister for the All Blacks XV.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeorge Bell has had one of those injury plagued seasons, again that hasn\u2019t quite got his feet underneath him, and now he has, you know, is playing really good rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrodie came in and did a great job for us and we just think George\u2019s best suited to this this tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robertson says that Sam Darry\u2019s injury earlier on in this season meant that he hadn\u2019t played much of late, so the lock will be in the All Blacks XV squad instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah Sam just got that injury at a niggly time for Sam and Josh Lord\u2019s played a lot more rugby. He\u2019s been in and around the environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you know it guarantees Sam Darry<\/a> will be named tomorrow as well, so he can be part of the group and actually play some rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the key, fit and ready locks is what we found out, guys coming back into the squad that need rugby, or had played rugby.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When naming an All Blacks squad for an end-of-year tour, there\u2019s always going to be players who feel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-209368","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\/209368","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=209368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}