{"id":605436,"date":"2026-09-19T16:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T16:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/605436\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T16:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T16:06:10","slug":"murray-mexted-some-all-blacks-out-of-their-depth-against-the-springboks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/605436\/","title":{"rendered":"Murray Mexted: Some All Blacks ‘out of their depth’ against the Springboks"},"content":{"rendered":"

All Blacks great Murray Mexted has criticised the quality of Super Rugby, claiming that some of the players who went to South Africa<\/a> were not up to Test standard.<\/p>\n

New Zealand won the first five games of their tour, defeating all four franchises and triumphing in the opening international against the Springboks at Ellis Park, but then succumbed to three successive losses to Rassie Erasmus\u2019 men.<\/p>\n

They were competitive in all of those matches but ultimately the back-to-back world champions proved too strong for the All Blacks<\/a> in the fundamentals, and Mexted<\/a> felt it highlighted the jump up in quality from Super Rugby<\/a> to the highest level.<\/p>\n

\u2018The gap is too big\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt appears to me that the difference between Super Rugby and Test match rugby against the Springboks<\/a> in South Africa is significant,\u201d he told the DSPN Rugby<\/a> podcast with Martin Devlin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe level of Super Rugby has dropped considerably since the omission of the South African teams. It\u2019s too easy, the level is too easy. There are people that stand out at Super Rugby level that are completely inconspicuous when it comes to the next level.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody learnt that. Dave Rennie learnt that. Dave Rennie\u2019s got great judgement, but he learnt that too; there are different levels between Super Rugby [and Test rugby].<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to think very carefully about that in New Zealand and we can\u2019t carry on at the level we are because the gap is too big.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ex-All Black claims Springboks superiority in one area is \u2018frightening\u2019 as they expose \u2018two\u2019 significant New Zealand weaknesses<\/a><\/p>\n

Super Rugby was once the standard-bearer in club rugby around the world but it has been a very different story over the past few years, particularly with South Africa exiting the competition in 2020.<\/p>\n

Devlin suggested that they should maybe follow the Springboks example by allowing their best players to feature in the biggest leagues in Europe, but Mexted disagreed with that view. \u201cI haven\u2019t [changed my position] to be honest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to keep the All Blacks close and playing in a really strong brand of rugby, otherwise there\u2019s no grounds for selection. You can\u2019t make any comparison between a guy playing in New Zealand or a guy playing in England or Japan or wherever he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabbaticals and overseas policy<\/p>\n

Mexted is a fan of the sabbatical, however, which is often written in top All Blacks\u2019 contracts. It allows them to miss Super Rugby for a season and either sign a short-term contract abroad or take a break from rugby altogether.<\/p>\n

Jordie Barrett and Rieko Ioane both agreed a six-month stay at Leinster in Ireland but most opt to head to Japan before heading back to New Zealand ahead of the All Blacks\u2019 Test season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an absolute believer in the sabbatical, that is a fantastic initiative. It gives an opportunity for some of our great players who have been in the All Black team for a long time to have an actual sabbatical in rugby terms,\u201d the former New Zealand number eight said.<\/p>\n

New Zealand coach\u2019s Super Rugby theory for scrum struggles \u2018hit nail on the head\u2019 as ex-All Black offers \u2018no argument\u2019 response for possible solution<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThey can improve their freshness, their fitness levels and play a lighter form of the game because it\u2019s quite different playing club rugby in Japan to playing Test match rugby in Johannesburg.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of changing the overseas policy, Mexted believes that it is about improving the standard of rugby domestically in order to create a competition which is closer in standard to Test rugby. \u201cI\u2019m no different, we\u2019ve got to keep the players close and we\u2019ve got to get the players in a competition that\u2019s as high as possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuper Rugby isn\u2019t that competition any longer and we have to look at the composition of those teams. There might only be half the number of teams in the Super Rugby competition that are good enough, the other half might not be good enough. At the moment, it\u2019s clear when you compare Super Rugby to Test match rugby, it\u2019s a big jump and some people can\u2019t make it.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn New Zealand, we\u2019ve got to look at our own game and say: \u2018Do we want the All Black team to be ranked one or two in the world or not?\u2019 If we do want to retain that, we have to make sure our domestic competition is extremely strong and there\u2019s been a lack of emphasis on that and we need to concentrate big time on it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 73-year-old added: \u201cOur trip to South Africa exposed that \u2013 the level that we\u2019re playing isn\u2019t good enough. You need a very astute selector to say: \u2018That guy is doing it at Super Rugby level but I know he\u2019s not going to do it when he plays the Springboks in South Africa\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I could see. You could see players that were absolutely out of their depth, that we weren\u2019t good enough in certain areas. I hate saying that, I hate saying that the All Black team wasn\u2019t good enough in certain areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Dan Biggar: \u2018I just can\u2019t see how you can get a foothold against the Springboks\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Blacks great Murray Mexted has criticised the quality of Super Rugby, claiming that some of the players…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1463,1464,111,43,139,69,6327,213],"class_list":["post-605436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605436","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=605436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}