All Blacks stars have leapt to the defence of Ardie Savea, who has been criticised following the sacking of head coach Scott Robertson.<\/p>\n
Robertson was sacked last month after a mixed couple of years in charge, with a player review reportedly key to his downfall.<\/p>\n
Savea<\/a> was seen as the face of the alleged revolt after it was claimed that he was seeking a move away from New Zealand if changes weren\u2019t made.<\/p>\n NZ Rugby chair David Kirk denied that the flanker had a significant role in Robertson\u2019s<\/a> sacking, but that the 32-year-old has still received backlash.<\/p>\n \u2018It won\u2019t bother him\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a bit disappointed. He\u2019s been used as a scapegoat when he\u2019s probably just expressed his views in a review, and it\u2019s come out. A lot of people expressed their views in the review; everyone in the team does,\u201d All Blacks<\/a> lock Patrick Tuipulotu told reporters.<\/p>\n \u201cI suppose it\u2019s just easy to latch onto him because he\u2019s probably the best player in the world at the moment. It\u2019s a bit disappointing, but people are going to say what they\u2019re going to say.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t spoken to him, but on the Zooms we\u2019ve had, he seems alright. It won\u2019t bother him, he\u2019s the type of guy to just carry on.\u201d<\/p>\n Tuipulotu was speaking during the Super Rugby Pacific launch and the Robertson situation was a topic for all of the All Blacks that were present.<\/p>\n The lock was representing the Blues while Codie Taylor was there for the Crusaders and the hooker \u201c100 per cent\u201d agreed with his international colleague about Savea.<\/p>\n