{"id":267453,"date":"2026-02-04T16:27:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T16:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/267453\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T16:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T16:27:11","slug":"senior-all-blacks-duo-come-out-in-defence-of-scapegoat-savea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/267453\/","title":{"rendered":"Senior All Blacks duo come out in defence of ‘scapegoat’ Savea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

All Blacks<\/a> veterans Patrick Tuipulotu<\/a> and Codie Taylor<\/a> say they\u2019re disappointed to see Ardie Savea<\/a> taking heat in the wake of Scott Robertson\u2019s departure from the team, calling the vice-captain\u2019s treatment \u201ctotally unfair\u201d.<\/p>\n

Savea was highlighted in a report the day before Robertson\u2019s exit was announced on January 14, with the 2023 World Rugby Player of the Year said to be considering a full-time move overseas due to his dissatisfaction with leadership within the All Blacks.<\/p>\n

The report was quickly followed by speculation and narratives that progressively framed Savea as a central figure in New Zealand<\/a> Rugby\u2019s decision to part ways with Robertson, and the 32-year-old has since faced criticism over his reported expressions of disgruntlement.<\/p>\n

The negative reactions haven\u2019t been sitting well with fellow leaders within the All Blacks playing group, and Tuipulotu made his feelings clear when asked about the situation at the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific<\/a> season launch event in Auckland<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a bit disappointed,\u201d the Blues<\/a> captain told reporters. \u201cHe\u2019s been used as a scapegoat when he\u2019s probably just expressed his views in a review, and it\u2019s come out. A lot of people expressed their views in the review; everyone in the team does.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose it\u2019s just easy to latch onto him because he\u2019s probably the best player in the world at the moment. It\u2019s a bit disappointing, but people are going to say what they\u2019re going to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lock didn\u2019t expect the noise to impact Savea at all, who is currently on a club-season sabbatical with Kobe in Japan<\/a> Rugby League One.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t spoken to him, but on the Zooms we\u2019ve had, he seems alright,\u201d Tuipulotu said. \u201cIt won\u2019t bother him, he\u2019s the type of guy to just carry on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Savea became a Test centurion for the All Blacks in 2025, just one week after teammate Codie Taylor achieved the same feat.<\/p>\n

Taylor said he \u201cone hundred per cent\u201d agreed with Tuipulotu that Savea had been given the scapegoat treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a player review, obviously, but the way the narrative has been put onto Ards is totally unfair. I think when someone of his calibre goes away to a different competition, it\u2019s pretty easy to point fingers, but that\u2019s not the case at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t even know what he said in his review. I don\u2019t want to know. But I know for a fact that he wants the best for this team, and he really respected Razor.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Blacks veterans Patrick Tuipulotu and Codie Taylor say they\u2019re disappointed to see Ardie Savea taking heat in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-267453","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\/267453","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=267453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}