{"id":20140,"date":"2025-09-13T14:08:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T14:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/20140\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T14:08:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T14:08:11","slug":"justin-marshalls-theory-for-robertsons-scrum-half-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/20140\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Marshall’s theory for Robertson’s scrum-half call"},"content":{"rendered":"

All Blacks great Justin Marshall insisted that Scott Robertson was correct to drop Finlay Christie to the bench for the Springboks rematch.<\/p>\n

Christie was handed a starting role at Eden Park \u2013 the biggest Test since the 2023 Rugby World Cup final \u2013 after Cam Roigard, Cortez Ratima and Noah Hotham were ruled out through injury.<\/p>\n

There was obvious concern around their half-back situation going into last weekend\u2019s clash with South Africa<\/a>, but the Blues playmaker allayed those fears in impressive fashion.<\/p>\n

Dropped despite Eden Park epic<\/p>\n

However, despite starring in that 24-17 victory over the Boks, he has been dropped to the bench with Hotham making his first international start.<\/p>\n

From the outside, it appears a tough call but Marshall has no doubts about Robertson\u2019s<\/a> decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout debate, Finlay Christie is the fifth choice scrum-half in this country and he was starting the biggest Test match of his career, and what we\u2019ve seen in this country for a very long time,\u201d the former All Blacks<\/a> scrum-half told SuperSport.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means when any of the others became available and fit again, they were always going to be starting ahead of him, regardless of how good he was \u2013 and he was good last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cFair play, he got stuck in \u2013 he had a lot coming at him \u2013 but Noah Hotham was up the pecking order and he\u2019s come back from his injury.\u201d<\/p>\n

All Blacks great \u2018commends\u2019 Scott Robertson\u2019s \u2018bravery\u2019 after picking wing who won\u2019t \u2018derail the game plan\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Hotham plays for Marshall\u2019s former side, the Crusaders, and the 52-year-old reckons that he has the skills necessary to thrive this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like Noah Hotham, he\u2019s got a really strong running game, he\u2019s really good around the blindside, quite deceptively strong and he\u2019s happy to take on defenders,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatch him on \u2018D\u2019 as well, he\u2019s very defensively secure and he actually puts decent shots on forward, which I gave a miss!<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a look selection and I\u2019m looking forward to see him get a start.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hotham\u2019s experienced Springboks opponent<\/p>\n

Hotham will be up against the experienced Cobus Reinach, who has been selected ahead of Grant Williams for the Wellington game.<\/p>\n

And like New Zealand, Marshall believes that the Springboks have plenty of depth at scrum-half.<\/p>\n

\u201cCobus Reinach, when he came on, I said it in commentary, this guy will challenge defenders. He\u2019s really sharp, I love the way that he plays because he\u2019s got good delivery, really good skill set, but equally he\u2019s got a combativeness to that Springbok front-nine because he\u2019s got the threat,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he doesn\u2019t carry, you\u2019ve got to consider him when he doesn\u2019t take the line on and that attracts defenders.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrant Williams has got speed, delivery \u2013 South Africa are very well stocked. You talk about Faf de Klerk as well, I really love the way that he plays.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a position of strength for South Africa. You could pick anyone of those three and they would deliver big time. They\u2019re very blessed.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: All Blacks team: Winners and losers as Scott Robertson makes \u2018absolutely the right\u2019 Rieko Ioane call but fellow back receives \u2018brutal\u2019 treatment<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Blacks great Justin Marshall insisted that Scott Robertson was correct to drop Finlay Christie to the bench…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1463,1464,17731,111,43,139,69,1465,1466,213],"class_list":["post-20140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-justin-marshall","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rugby-championship","tag-south-africa","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20140","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=20140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}