{"id":126017,"date":"2025-11-09T09:30:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T09:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/126017\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T09:30:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T09:30:10","slug":"former-all-black-pleased-with-the-growth-of-chiefs-lock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/126017\/","title":{"rendered":"Former All Black pleased with the growth of Chiefs lock"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Despite only making his tenth appearance for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/new-zealand\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">All Blacks<\/a> this morning against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/scotland\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Scotland<\/a> at Murrayfield, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/chiefs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chiefs<\/a> lock <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/josh-lord\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Josh Lord<\/a> has stepped up in back-to-back games without captain, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/scott-barrett\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Scott Barrett<\/a>, who is out with a leg laceration.<\/p>\n<p>Lord was asked to play huge minutes off the bench against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/ireland\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ireland<\/a> in Chicago last weekend, with Barrett going off in the 2nd minute with a leg injury. He didn\u2019t return, meaning Lord was tasked with the lineout calling duties, which in itself is a big job, let alone in your ninth Test.<\/p>\n<p>This week though, the 24-year-old was in the starting XV and started the game with a hiss and a roar in Edinburgh.<\/p>\n<p>The All Blacks had the ball in midfield, in what looked like a regular ruck with halfback Cameron Roigard, before the 2.02m lock saw some space in and around the breakdown.<\/p>\n<p>Scotland\u2019s defensive line was fragile, so Lord took the opportunity to scoop up the ball and charge towards the home side\u2019s line with ball in hand.<\/p>\n<p>Just as you thought the Scottish defence would bring the big lock down, he freed up his arms and offloaded to Roigard who strolled in for the All Blacks\u2019 first try at Murrayfield.<\/p>\n<p>Former All Black halfback <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/steve-devine\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Steve Devine<\/a>, who played ten Tests for the All Blacks, said that Lord was his player of the match in the 25-17 victory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a tough because I thought everyone played pretty well in this match, but I\u2019m going to go Josh Lord because I think it\u2019s the best they\u2019ve played in an All Black jumper,\u201d Devine said on Sport Nation\u2019s Rugby Run with Mark Watson.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought that\u2019s the best All Black performance that he\u2019s put in, special note to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/damian-mckenzie\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Damian McKenzie<\/a> with a couple of big plays at the end. But I thought Josh, he really stood up today and proved himself on the international scene.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His All Blacks coach also was impressed with Lord and his locking partner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/fabian-holland\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fabian Holland<\/a>, who have a combined 21 Tests between them in their short careers in the black jersey.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust the engines from them, from last week to this week, and they executed their role really well. Was really pleased, and they\u2019ll be better for that,\u201d Robertson told media post-match.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite only making his tenth appearance for the All Blacks this morning against Scotland at Murrayfield, Chiefs lock&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-126017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}