Justin Marshall insists that it is vital the All Blacks give youngsters more of a chance in the side, otherwise it will cost them later down the line.
There is a perception that Scott Robertson is a conservative selector and it is a view that the New Zealand legend appears to agree with.
Although the All Blacks boss has handed out plenty of debuts this year, only Fabian Holland has been a consistent presence in the 23 this season.
Simon Parker and Leroy Carter are two others that have begun to make their presence felt in the team, but Marshall thinks that Robertson can still be bolder.
The 52-year-old is not particularly thinking about the Rugby World Cup either and feels that they could be caught out in South Africa during Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour next year.
All Blacks ‘future planning’
“That’s what we’ve got to start thinking about. I bang the drum, and I won’t ever stop banging it, about the way that I feel about my rugby in terms of the All Blacks and the way that in my mind they have to win every Test in front of them,” Marshall told Sport Nation’s The Rugby Run.
“When I say future planning, future planning is not for a World Cup because a World Cup isn’t everything for me as a former All Black.
“A Grand Slam is amazing. The All Blacks haven’t been on a Grand Slam tour since 2005 and before that I think it was 1978 – they don’t happen very often.
“The tour to South Africa, the last time we did that was in 1996, so those things are equally important, but we’ve got to have the cattle.
“The fact that we’ve not pulled the trigger on a couple of players knowing what we’re going to face in South Africa next year with midweek games, as well as Test matches. We’re going to need depth.”
Tevita Mafileo is the only uncapped player in the All Blacks squad for the northern hemisphere tour, while they have also named a second-string All Blacks XV side.
The Jamie Joseph-led outfit will face the Barbarians, England A and Uruguay in November, but the group surprisingly does not contain Otago’s rising star Dylan Pledger.
Marshall believes that Pledger is the type of player the All Blacks should be looking at and that age or inexperience should not count against him.
‘It’s about talent’
“We’ve got to find out about players. When I got thrown into the All Blacks, I was only 21. Andrew Mehrtens, Jonah Lomu, Christian Cullen, these guys were all green. They were great players.
“We didn’t know what we were going to be like as All Blacks but our coaches were ballsy enough to throw us in the environment and we all turned out okay.
“They don’t seem to want to take that risk. If I hear, ‘ah no, he’s too young’, honestly I will lose my s*** because that’s not what it’s about.
“It’s about talent. When we talk about Dylan Pledger, he’s been in the system, so why not?”