All Blacks selectors have entered 2025 with a greater willingness to experiment and reward form, which has resulted in the All Blacks’ starting XV evolving steadily throughout The Rugby Championship.
The campaign saw Simon Parker, Kyle Preston, and Leroy Carter join the All Blacks fraternity as the latest Test debutants, and their respective arrivals both revealed and questioned the perceived hierarchies in various positions.
The nature of the selection changes saw the New Zealand team become younger and more explosive, while maintaining the veteran spine of Codie Taylor, Scott Barrett, Ardie Savea, and Beauden Barrett, with Jordie Barrett now seemingly joining that group thanks to his high game IQ.
Around the nailed-on veterans, some new faces are making their mark and forcing others to step up their game. But for every arrival, there is a departure, and more than a handful of All Blacks have finished the Rugby Championship lower down the pecking order than where they started it.
These are the players who have taken a step backward over the past two months.
The Fijian Flyer
The All Blacks have a long history of their wingers expiring at age 27. Sevu Reece turned 28 this year, and while he became Super Rugby’s all-time leading try-scorer, it looks as if the age-old winger’s curse may have finally struck at Test level.
Reece was dropped after the opening Argentina tour and has only been seen in Southland Stags colours since.
In his place, Leroy Carter has made an immediate impact in international rugby, playing a brand of rugby not all that dissimilar to how one would characterise Reece at his peak: robust, energetic, with a relentlessness on both sides of the ball.
But the Crusaders star’s X-factor has simply been lacking in the black jersey, and with New Zealand never short on outside back talent, Reece must act quickly if he wants to prolong his All Blacks career.
After beginning the season as a starter and one of just two specialised wingers in the squad to face France, it now appears Reece, who covers both left and right wing, sits behind not only Carter, but Emoni Narawa, Caleb Clarke, Leicester Fainga’anuku and Rieko Ioane in the pecking order. There are undoubtedly some youngsters in the NPC nipping at his heels, too, namely Auckland’s Caleb Tangitau.
Casting our mind back to last year’s Rugby Championship campaign, Mark Tele’a was in stuttering form, struggling to have the impact that saw him win World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year in 2023. But the Northern Tour saw a return to game-breaking form, and raised his stock once more, something he took advantage of when the deep pockets of Toyota Verblitz came calling.
Can Reece produce a similar turnaround? Will he have the opportunity to do so? Those are questions that November will answer, if not next week, when Scott Robertson names his final squad of the year.
Ireland
New Zealand
The stumbling former sensation
What does Rieko Ioane’s future hold? For the first time since he was a teenager, the speedster’s prospects at the international level are uncertain.
Having started the season as the go-to guy on the left wing, emancipated from the years-long criticisms of his centre game, the Blues star has now dropped out of the starting XV, and the pressure is undoubtedly on Ioane to perform as his opportunities to do so narrow.
The centre position is a closing window, and the wings are flying beyond Ioane’s reach.
In terms of skillset and form, Quinn Tupaea and Leicester Fainga’anuku comfortably overshadow Ioane’s prowess as a crash-ball threat; his distribution game doesn’t stack up well against Billy Proctor, he doesn’t break tackles or finish like Leroy Carter or Caleb Clarke, and his high-ball game isn’t up to scratch at the Test level.
His strengths lie in defence, where he is second to none at keeping pace while tracking the ball as it is put through the hands, and still has an uncanny ability to save tries right on the goal line.
When it comes time to select the 23 to face Ireland in Chicago, Ionae’s best bet at gametime appears to be on the bench, where he can offer experience in multiple positions.
A defence-minded reserve may not be what All Blacks fans want to see, but Anton Lienert-Brown’s selection ahead of Leicester Fainga’anuku in the No. 22 jersey at the 2023 Rugby World Cup showed there is value in the tactic.
The sidelined and stagnant
Luke Jacobson is making a habit of enjoying fine health during the bulk of Super Rugby Pacific, only to pick up some pesky injury that derails his international season. And in the meantime, players like Wallace Sititi, Peter Lakai, and Simon Parker are proving themselves as must-haves in the All Blacks’ matchday 23.
The 28-year-old has yet to play a single minute for the All Blacks in 2025, and missed the entire Northern Tour last year due to injury. That injury, along with others to Dalton Papali’i and Ethan Blackadder, paved the way for Lakai’s superb debut in Paris last November while travelling with the squad as an injury reserve.
These young talents only need an inch, and they’ll take a mile, and Jacobson has given them that inch.
Likewise, Anton Lienert-Brown has dealt with a concussion and shoulder niggle that haven’t helped his chances at playing time. In the meantime, Chiefs running mate Quinn Tupaea has made the most of the opportunity to prove himself on the bench and in the starting unit.
Unlike Jacobson, Lienert-Brown’s lack of minutes hasn’t been entirely due to injury, but with just a yellow card and a head knock to show for his 11 minutes on the park in Cordoba in round 1, he opened the door for Tupaea, and that door has since been slammed shut.
Also in the midfield, Billy Proctor has had ample opportunity to stake his claim on the No.13 jersey, but failed to hit the heights needed to keep his contenders at bay. Some bumps and bruises were to blame for his absence in Perth, according to selectors, and now, the centre position remains as one of the most intriguing selection calls for the Chicago Test.
Noah Hotham can be seen as in a similar position, battling consecutive injuries, while Finlay Christie swoops in as the knight in shining armour. Ollie Norris missed a shot at playing in the second Bledisloe Cup due to injury, and George Bower profited with the first try of his Test career.
Rugby Championship
P
W
L
D
PF
PA
PD
BP T
BP-7
BP
Total
1
6
4
2
0
19
2
6
4
2
0
19
3
6
2
4
0
11
4
6
2
4
0
10
The scrummagers
After being overpowered by the Springbok scrum at Eden Park, the All Blacks said that kind of humiliation would never happen again. Except it did, seven days later.
New Zealand had their top talent on deck, barring Codie Taylor in the rematch, but were marched backward by a lethal Boks pack, even after a week to fix their form.
Although the scrum success rate was high overall at 94 per cent, which was the second-best in the tournament, the stark lack of competitiveness against the eventual tournament winners is a significant concern.
Is Super Rugby Pacific providing the challenge that emerging front-rowers need to front up in the international arena? Is it a matter of power or execution? Forwards coach Jason Ryan has his work cut out for him answering these questions.
Neither here nor there
When jerseys are changing hands and you’re not getting a look-in, standing still is as good as moving backwards. In that sense, players like Samipeni Finau, Brodie McAlister, and Du’Plessis Kirifi have slipped down the pecking order, with limited gametime to prove their worth.
Simon Parker has clearly eclipsed Finau as the bruising blindside the All Blacks were looking for, with Finau’s only saving grace the fact that he has now shown he can cover lock, giving him a point of difference and making him a valuable asset should injuries strike.
For rookie hooker Brodie McAlister, a horror cameo off the pine in Wellington during a Springboks avalanche was a harsh temperature check for what Test rugby can look like.
Peter Lakai’s Bledisloe Cup statement has placed Du’Plessis Kirifi on the back burner, meaning it’ll likely take an injury or a selection overhaul against an opponent like Wales for him to get another shot.