A bereavement in the Ioane family may have played a part in the selection process but Robertson didn\u2019t cite that in his reasoning for changing his left wing.<\/p>\n
Leroy Carter heads for the tryline in Chiefs colours. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve given another player an opportunity. My job is to build depth in the team and it\u2019s Leroy\u2019s chance,\u201d Robertson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRieko, there\u2019s a lot of one-on-one technical stuff every player has to grow in their game. We\u2019ve given him a crack at wing. His work ethic, his work off the ball has been incredible and there will be a few touches we have to improve, which he\u2019s well aware of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robertson acknowledged it was a close call between Caleb Clarke and Carter, while intimating he viewed Leicester Fainga\u2019anuku more as a midfield prospect after his two-year stint in France.<\/p>\n
This week<\/a>, though, the All Blacks are keen to unleash Carter\u2019s pace on the Springboks after he\u2019s spent the full Rugby Championship with the squad. <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s trained incredibly well; he complements the back three,\u201d Robertson said. \u201cHe\u2019s great at the kick chase and is extremely quick. His workrate is as good as they come so we\u2019re excited by it. He\u2019s had a great year so now is his time. Like all players we\u2019ve picked, we believe he\u2019ll step up.\u201d<\/p>\n Carter has travelled a contrasting route to most All Blacks finishers. <\/p>\n While he follows the likes of French flier Gabin Villi\u00e8re and Springboks legend Cheslin Kolbe<\/a>, whom he will face on Saturday, to traverse from the global sevens scene to the XV\u2019s test arena, debuting for the All Blacks at 26 years old is a rare feat for any outside back.<\/p>\n Reflecting on his path, Carter paid tribute to the sevens scene for elevating him from Tauranga Boys\u2019 College to semi-professional provincial utility to the national radar. <\/p>\n \u201cIt made me a professional,\u201d Carter said. \u201cI was playing NPC and then going back to work as a sparky. The sevens environment gave me a professional contract where I could focus on rugby. All the little things \u2013 nutrition, planning, that\u2019s helped me a lot. I wouldn\u2019t be there if it wasn\u2019t for that. Now I get to live out my dream on Saturday night. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve played in some big matches. The Paris Olympics was a big occasion so hopefully that\u2019ll help. Playing for the All Blacks the nation is on your shoulders so it\u2019s going to be a new experience all together but I\u2019m looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n Robertson dubbed Carter the fastest man in New Zealand rugby when he called him up after injuries hit the All Blacks outside backs. Such a tag left Carter rather bashful but the All Blacks hope to harness his speed to spark their attack that is yet to ignite this season. <\/p>\n \u201cI think that was picked up on the GPS bibs we wear on the back of our jerseys. I haven\u2019t run a 40m time for a while. I was a bit surprised when he said I was the fastest in NZ because we\u2019ve got a lot of speedsters around,\u201d Carter said. <\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got to be quick if you want to be a winger or you\u2019re going to get skinned a couple of times so I try to use it to my advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n Carter, who has adopted the moniker \u201cBoomfa\u201d from Justin Marshall\u2019s commentary, is well aware of the storied history attached to the jersey he will don this weekend in front of 18 family and friends among the sold-out crowd.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s been so many legends wear that jersey; Jonah Lomu, Joe Rokocoko, Rieko. It\u2019s another proud moment to be able to wear the No 11 with the silver fern on the front.\u201d<\/p>\n While slight in stature and small in height \u2013 marginally taller than Kolbe at 1.8m \u2013 Carter punches above his weight on defence and during his rookie, breakout Super Rugby Pacific campaign with the Chiefs this year, he regularly displayed courage by snaffling turnovers at the breakdown. <\/p>\n The sevens scene and Super Rugby are not exactly breeding grounds for expert high ball proficiency, but Carter is confident he will handle the inevitable aerial barrage the Boks will bomb his and the revamped All Blacks\u2019 back three\u2019s way. <\/p>\n \u201cWe know what they\u2019re going to bring, lots of high balls, so we make sure we get through it in training. We\u2019ll be ready for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Test debuts don\u2019t get much bigger than facing the Boks<\/a> but if Carter can nail this audition, he may help solve one half of the All Blacks\u2019 evolving wing riddle.<\/p>\n All Blacks side<\/p>\n 1. Ethan de Groot, 2. Samisoni Taukei\u2019aho, 3. Tyrel Lomax, 4. Scott Barrett (c), 5. Tupou Vaa\u2019i, 6. Simon Parker, 7. Ardie Savea, 8. Wallace Sititi, 9. Noah Hotham, 10, Beauden Barrett, 11. Leroy Carter, 12. Jordie Barrett, 13. Billy Proctor, 14. Will Jordan, 15. Damian McKenzie. Replacements: 16. Brodie McAlister, 17. Tamaiti Williams, 18. Fletcher Newell, 19. Fabian Holland, 20. Du\u2019Plessis Kirifi, 21. Finlay Christie, 22. Ruben Love, 23. Quinn Tupaea.<\/p>\n South Africa side:<\/p>\n 1. Ox Nche, 2. Malcolm Marx, 3. Thomas du Toit, 4 Lood de Jager, 5. Ruan Nortje, 6. Siya Kolisi (c), 7. Pieter-Steph du Toit, 8. Jasper Wiese, 9. Cobus Reinach, 10. Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 11. Ethan Hooker, 12. Damian Willemse, 13. Canan Moodie, 14. Cheslin Kolbe, 15. Aphelele Fassi.<\/p>\n Replacements: 16. Marnus van der Merwe, 17. Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 18. Wilco Louw, 19. RG Snyman, 20. Kwagga Smith, 21 Grant Williams, 22. Manie Libbok, 23. Andre Esterhuizen<\/p>\n Liam Napier<\/a> is a Senior Sports Journalist and Rugby Correspondent for the New Zealand Herald. He is a co-host of the Rugby Direct podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bereavement in the Ioane family may have played a part in the selection process but Robertson didn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6030,3017,5263,1863,17885,8136,17878,4500,17890,17881,221,13232,17884,17877,130,5971,111,139,17882,69,1118,17886,17889,17888,17894,17883,17891,17893,17879,17880,213,13172,8137,9343,17892,17887,223,1961,16483,2044,8982,52,102,1339],"class_list":["post-15697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-again","tag-ahead","tag-all","tag-back","tag-bigname","tag-blacks","tag-carters","tag-changes","tag-doubt","tag-got","tag-how","tag-inclusion","tag-ioane","tag-leroy","tag-more","tag-need","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nod","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-omission","tag-panache","tag-perhaps","tag-rematch","tag-rieko","tag-rookie","tag-saturdays","tag-selection","tag-speedster","tag-sports","tag-spotlight","tag-springboks","tag-statement","tag-steals","tag-subduing","tag-the","tag-this","tag-though","tag-time","tag-victory","tag-wellington","tag-with","tag-without"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15697","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=15697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}