{"id":36782,"date":"2025-09-22T14:19:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T14:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/36782\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T14:19:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T14:19:13","slug":"stephen-donalds-all-black-team-for-saturdays-bledisloe-cup-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/36782\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Donald’s All Black team for Saturday’s Bledisloe Cup Test"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The time has come for another Test match at Eden Park in this year\u2019s Rugby Championship<\/a> competition, this time Joe Schmidt and the Wallabies will take on the All Blacks<\/a> on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Schmidt\u2019s side are coming off a disappointing defeat last time out against Argentina, but still sit top of the Rugby Championship on 11 points from four games.<\/p>\n

All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson<\/a> will be working hard to ensure his team come out with a response to what happened two weeks ago against the Springboks, after recording their biggest Test defeat ever.<\/p>\n

Former All Black Stephen Donald<\/a> has picked his team for what he would do for the first Bledisloe Cup Test this weekend, making a number of key changes to the side that ran out two weeks ago against the Springboks.<\/p>\n

Some of his personal changes include Damian McKenzie<\/a> at No.10, Du\u2019Plessis Kirifi<\/a> to seven, Rieko Ioane<\/a> to the right wing, and Anton Lienert-Brown<\/a> into the starting No.13 jersey.<\/p>\n

The former World-Cup winner explained that with an afternoon kick off time at Eden Park, he believes the All Blacks need to pick a team suitable for these particular Tests.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, this team was picked on what we\u2019ve got coming up, and I\u2019m picking it on two teams. We\u2019ve got a daytime test coming up Eden Park, and then we go to Perth and play on the hard, fast deck in Perth,\u201d Donald says on The Breakdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I picked the team accordingly, I\u2019ll pick the team that I believe how we\u2019re going to play that game and a bit to nullify of what I expect from the Wallabies at Eden Park.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donald strongly believes that with the Wallabies\u2019 prowess at the breakdown, Kirifi will be able to give the All Blacks that extra edge at Eden Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe starts at seven and that is justified by the fact that they are going to play very quick game, based on their speed ball, they\u2019ve also been outstandingly effective when it comes to playing on the ground themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think that extra feature, that extra man that plays on the ground in Du\u2019Plessis Kirifi<\/a>, is going to be an asset to us. So that\u2019s why he gets in ahead of, say, a bigger body and more robust Parker for this particular Test match.<\/p>\n

On the Lienert-Brown starting selection, Donald explains that with the Wallabies\u2019 attacking weapons, he would want a guy with his sort of experience and defensive expertise in the starting 15.<\/p>\n

\u201cRieko\u2019s not seen as a 13 anymore. Anton Lienert-Brown is our best defensive 13 and they are going to throw plenty at us in and around there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re superstars at 13 and it\u2019s not just him that worries me, It\u2019s what they\u2019ve got outside him. So I\u2019ve gone for, as I said, I think our best defensive experienced centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve gone Rieko on the wing, there\u2019s gonna be some demons that come across the tasman as well so I want as many faces who have been there, done that, to be staring at them, saying, hey, boys, we\u2019re still here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephen Donald\u2019s All Black team for Bledisloe Cup Test at Eden Park<\/p>\n

Ethan de GrootCodie TaylorTyrel LomaxScott BarrettTupou Vaa\u2019iWallace SititiDu\u2019Plessis KirifiArdie SaveaCameron RoigardDamian McKenzieCaleb ClarkeJordie BarrettAnton Lienert-BrownRieko IoaneWill Jordan<\/p>\n

Bench<\/p>\n

16. Asafo Aumua
17. Tamaiti Williams
18. Fletcher Newell
19. Fabian Holland
20. Peter Lakai
21. Cortez Ratima
22. Beauden Barrett
23. Leicester<\/a> Fainga\u2019anuku<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The time has come for another Test match at Eden Park in this year\u2019s Rugby Championship competition, this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-36782","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\/36782","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=36782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}