{"id":53981,"date":"2025-10-01T11:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T11:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/53981\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T11:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T11:02:08","slug":"marshall-wants-mckenzie-benched-as-all-blacks-lack-courage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/53981\/","title":{"rendered":"Marshall wants McKenzie benched as All Blacks lack ‘courage’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former All Blacks scrum-half Justin Marshall wants Scott Robertson to be bold with his selection at fly-half with Beauden Barrett sidelined.<\/p>\n

Barrett sustained a shoulder injury in New Zealand\u2019s victory over the Wallabies at Eden Park last weekend and has not travelled to Australia for the final round of the Rugby Championship.<\/p>\n

Damian McKenzie is the frontrunner to fill the void at number 10, but Marshall wants the Chiefs playmaker to remain on the bench with Ruben Love favoured instead.<\/p>\n

Love or McKenzie at fly-half?<\/p>\n

Love has played a lot of his professional rugby at full-back, but is a fly-half by trade and is yet to get a run in the position for the All Blacks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Marshall<\/a> debated who should fill the number 10 jersey with former Wallabies hooker Jeremy Paul on the Good, Bad and Rugby AUNZ Podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d have him on the bench, Damian McKenzie<\/a> has got to start,\u201d Paul stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to continue with what you\u2019ve started with, but then have a subtle difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marshall disagreed, arguing that the All Blacks know what they have in McKenzie and could use this game as an opportunity to see Love performs in the role.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d go the other way,\u201d he began.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what you\u2019ve got with Damian McKenzie, he is going to give you that every week. If you put Damian on the bench, like they did at the weekend, and he comes on after 30 minutes for Beauden or Ruben Love, every other player can play across the backline \u2013 it will slot in with exactly what you know.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you don\u2019t know is what Ruben Love can bring in terms of how he triggers the backline, how flat he plays, and what he offers the defence in what he offers differently.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt enables us to evolve as a backline, but you\u2019re not changing it majorly because you have got that backstop in McKenzie off the bench.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eddie Jones\u2019 brutal take on one referee who \u2018second-guesses\u2019 every decision<\/a><\/p>\n

Justin Marshall\u2019s \u2018categorical\u2019 verdict on \u2018unique\u2019 Cam Roigard as \u2018massive gulf\u2019 opens up between All Blacks scrum-halves<\/a><\/p>\n

Conservative Razor<\/p>\n

That selection would send the wrong message to the ground, according to Paul, as the hooker believes that Robertson has stuck to a pecking order policy and hasn\u2019t been as brazen in his selections as the likes of Joe Schmidt and Rassie Erasmus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would start DMac because again, it is the other players within the squad in terms of selection policy,\u201d the 48-year-old added.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo other players are going to turn around and go, \u2018What other players are going to be coming in and leapfrog me? I\u2019m going to take this deal in Japan now \u2013 I can see the writing on the wall.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Marshall retorted: \u201cBut you argued that Australia are where they are now because they have had 17 players come in and debut for the team over a period of time, but you don\u2019t want us (All Blacks) to do that, you want us to go back to players that we already know?\u201d<\/p>\n

Defending his position, Paul again argued that Robertson has been more subtle with his new additions to the squad and having been in the position for 18 months already, he is too far along in his tenure to make bold selections like giving Love the starting role.<\/p>\n

\u201cHold on, you guys are in a transition without the selection. You haven\u2019t shown the courageousness that Joe Schmidt showed in playing 17 new players in one season,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that you have gone too far now. Razor started last year, and that\u2019s when he should have made those selections. However, he is now 18 months into it\u2026 But I would make subtle changes, not the 17 in one season. There are a couple there that I would make with existing players, but why isn\u2019t the bench being used better in the professional era?\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Springbok hero touted as \u2018superstar in the making\u2019 by All Blacks legends<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former All Blacks scrum-half Justin Marshall wants Scott Robertson to be bold with his selection at fly-half with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,45883,1463,1464,17731,111,43,139,69,1465,213],"class_list":["post-53981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-australia","tag-damian-mckenzie","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-justin-marshall","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rugby-championship","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53981","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=53981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}