{"id":270266,"date":"2025-11-08T04:24:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T04:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/270266\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T04:24:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T04:24:13","slug":"the-absolute-machine-all-black-making-an-ex-scotland-flyer-nervous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/270266\/","title":{"rendered":"The ‘absolute machine’ All Black making an ex-Scotland flyer nervous"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There\u2019s a new face in the All Blacks<\/a> midfield, and he\u2019s bringing a physical flavour that hasn\u2019t gone unnoticed in Scotland<\/a> ahead of this weekend\u2019s historic bout.<\/p>\n

News that Jordie Barrett<\/a> will miss the remainder of the All Blacks\u2019 season this week was a blow softened by the performance of his replacement, Leicester<\/a> Fainga\u2019anuku, against Ireland<\/a> in Chicago last week.<\/p>\n

While Barrett\u2019s triple-threat attack and game IQ have established him as New Zealand\u2019s premier inside centre over recent years, the explosive running game of Fainga\u2019anuku has been a consistent game-breaker over the last two Test matches, earning him more minutes on the park.<\/p>\n

The Crusaders\u2019 star\u2019s return to New Zealand<\/a> has been a rampaging one after two seasons in the Top 14<\/a> with Toulon. Fainga\u2019anuku got his first taste of midfield Test rugby\u00a0in the Ireland showdown, coming in at centre when Barrett went down clutching his leg. This week, he has been named for his first Test start in the No.13 jersey.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old will partner Quinn Tupaea<\/a> in the All Blacks midfield, with the selection dilemma of an injured star seemingly resolving itself as quickly as it emerged.<\/p>\n

While it took some time for Fainga\u2019anuku to get the nod in the matchday 23 upon his return to the All Blacks camp, the immediacy of his reasserting himself in the Test arena came as no surprise to Kiwi-born former Scotland flyer Sean Maitland.<\/p>\n

The 48-Test Scotland winger has shared the same position as Fainga\u2019anuku at the Crusaders, and made the effort to see the Nelson College product in person while he was competing in Europe with the French heavyweights.<\/p>\n

\u201cI watched the Ireland game and I saw big Leicester come on, he\u2019s an absolute machine,\u201d Maitland told Sport Nation<\/a>. \u201cI flew out to watch Sarries play Toulon<\/a> last year in the Champions Cup, and I watched the big man in action first-hand. He\u2019s good, isn\u2019t he? He\u2019s bloody good.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can run through you, he can run around you, he can step you, and he\u2019s obviously confident. That\u2019s the scary thing, I think this All Blacks team are confident.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve obviously had the Rugby Championship, they\u2019ve done pretty well there. They\u2019ve banged Ireland over in Chicago. The thing that worries me is Scotland; they haven\u2019t played. How many players who played last week are playing this weekend? Only one or two?<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I\u2019m nervous. The All Blacks are confident; they\u2019ve played a lot of rugby together, and now they\u2019re bringing in Leicester, who\u2019s an absolute machine. It\u2019s scary. I\u2019m nervous, I\u2019m not going to lie.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a new face in the All Blacks midfield, and he\u2019s bringing a physical flavour that hasn\u2019t gone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-270266","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270266","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=270266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}