Scott Robertson could throw the All Blacks\u2019 game against the Wallabies in order to avoid facing the Springboks in the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals.<\/p>\n
That is a suggestion from former New Zealand back three star Israel Dagg, who believes that some fans and pundits might just be thinking that.<\/p>\n
While Dagg himself is against it, there may be those out there who would accept losing to Australia<\/a> just so they could be on the other side of the draw.<\/p>\n Try and avoid the Springboks?<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re going into a Rugby World Cup<\/a> and you\u2019re Razor<\/a>, you\u2019re thinking, \u2018are we going to raise the white flag? Maybe we can rest our top XV for the first match to avoid the Saffas<\/a>\u2018,\u201d he said on Sport Nation\u2019s Scotty and Izzy show.<\/p>\n \u201cNow you don\u2019t want to avoid the Saffas, you\u2019ve got to beat them, you\u2019ve got to play them so you never want to go to that situation.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not thinking that but how many people out there are thinking that?\u201d<\/p>\n While head coach Robertson is already in the process of building for the next World Cup by bringing in younger players and trying to find his best 23, Dagg claims the tournament itself offers an opportunity to do just that.<\/p>\n The 37-year-old pointed to the 2011 success, which he was a part of, and how Graham Henry developed the side.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got to go through this World Cup, you\u2019ve got to build momentum, you\u2019ve got to still look for your best XV,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI go to my experience in 2011. We played Tonga first up and there was a lot of experimenting but, from that, it actually brought you a lot of big decisions that you had to make.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of ideas and new combinations that could potentially go in it. Would Razor go into that Rugby World Cup thinking along the same lines? Or would you go in and play your best team from the outset and see what happens?\u201d<\/p>\n