{"id":625077,"date":"2026-10-09T06:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T06:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/625077\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T06:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T06:02:10","slug":"all-blacks-v-wallabies-why-tyrel-lomax-fabian-holland-missed-selection-for-first-bledisloe-cup-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/625077\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks v Wallabies: Why Tyrel Lomax, Fabian Holland missed selection for first Bledisloe Cup test"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYeah, look, we just want more out of him. <\/p>\n

\"TryelTryel Lomax played all four tests against the Springboks, starting three of them. Photo \/ Smartframe<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got a clear message around what we need to see. He\u2019s worked really hard this week and [I\u2019m] sure that we\u2019ll get a response next time he gets an opportunity.\u201d <\/p>\n

The decision sees the All Blacks shift away from a combination that was becoming established. However, it\u2019s now an opportunity for Tosi, who did not play any of the four tests against the Springboks but featured in three of the four tour games. <\/p>\n

In 20 appearances for the All Blacks \u2013 17 tests and three games \u2013 the 28-year-old has primarily been deployed from the bench, with four starts to his name. <\/p>\n

The initial matchday squad, announced internally on Monday, had to be changed after first five-eighths Richie Mo\u2019unga was ruled out of the two-test series with a calf injury. <\/p>\n

After All Blacks management reshuffled the deck, Damian McKenzie was named in the No 10 jersey over Beauden Barrett and Josh Jacomb, with Barrett filling the void at fullback left by McKenzie\u2019s secondment. <\/p>\n

\"DamianDamian McKenzie will start at first five-eighths for the All Blacks against the Wallabies at Eden Park. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

\u201cDamian\u2019s trained a lot there for us. Beauden\u2019s predominantly trained at 15. When we were in Africa, Beauden started against the Lions and the Bulls at 15,\u201d Rennie said. <\/p>\n

\u201cBoth those players are interchangeable. They both spend a lot of time in the backfield and also, the way we play, having a 15 who is a real playmaker suits. <\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, we could have played them the other way around, but they\u2019ll both end up in playmaker roles and will both end up in the backfield.\u201d <\/p>\n

All three Barrett brothers will start in Saturday night\u2019s clash, with Scott Barrett also returning to the starting line-up in his first test appearance of the year. He had been out of action for about 10 months before returning for Taranaki a fortnight ago, playing about 90 minutes across two matches for the amber and blacks. <\/p>\n

He joins Josh Lord in the engine room as Tupou Vaa\u2019i continues to operate at blindside flanker. There was no room for Fabian Holland on the bench, with loose forwards Shannon Frizell and Anton Segner named. <\/p>\n

While Rennie wouldn\u2019t go into detail on the most contentious areas of squad selection, he said it highlighted that there were a lot of tough decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuys who missed out are very close and that\u2019s a positive, we think. We\u2019re starting to grow a bit of depth, so some players were unlucky to miss out.\u201d <\/p>\n

Among those tough decisions, Rennie said, was selection at lock and ultimately the call to leave Holland out of the match day squad. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was one of the tough decisions. [We\u2019re] obviously really happy with how Josh Lord\u2019s gone too. He had limited involvement in South Africa after getting knocked out and had a 12-day stand-down, which took him out of test two and three and coming [in] via the bench. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re lucky there, we\u2019ve got some really good options and so he\u2019s unlucky to miss out.\u201d<\/p>\n

All Blacks v Wallabies line-ups<\/p>\n

All Blacks: 1. Ethan de Groot, 2. Codie Taylor (c), 3. Fletcher Newell, 4. Scott Barrett, 5. Josh Lord, 6. Tupou Vaa\u2019i, 7. Peter Lakai, 8. Wallace Sititi, 9. Cam Roigard, 10. Damian McKenzie, 11. Leroy Carter, 12. Jordie Barrett, 13. Quinn Tupaea, 14. Will Jordan, 15. Beauden Barrett.<\/p>\n

Reserves: 16. Asafo Aumua, 17. George Bower, 18. Pasilio Tosi, 19. Shannon Frizell, 20. Anton Segner, 21. Kyle Preston, 22. Rieko Ioane, 23. Josh Moorby.<\/p>\n

Wallabies: 1. Angus Bell, 2. Brandon Paenga-Amosa, 3. Allan Alaalatoa, 4. Jeremy Williams, 5. Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 6. Rob Valetini, 7. Fraser McReight, 8. Harry Wilson (c), 9. Ryan Lonergan, 10. Ben Donaldson, 11. Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, 12. Len Ikitau, 13. Isaac Henry, 14. Max Jorgensen, 15. Tom Wright.<\/p>\n

Reserves: 16. Josh Nasser, 17. Aidan Ross, 18. Massimo De Lutiis, 19. Lachlan Shaw, 20. Nick Champion de Crespigny, 21. Tate McDermott, 22. Declan Meredith, 23. Harry Potter.<\/p>\n

Christopher Reive<\/a> joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cYeah, look, we just want more out of him. Tryel Lomax played all four tests against the Springboks,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[190,5263,51,1863,8136,26888,29306,1320,10542,9635,83414,1888,2082,71,5809,281430,13457,14771,111,139,11550,69,12253,138234,1534,17879,1240,213,307102,1557,23741,765,165,13983,208,307101,34432,4276],"class_list":["post-625077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-africa","tag-all","tag-auckland","tag-back","tag-blacks","tag-bledisloe","tag-bounce","tag-coach","tag-cup","tag-dave","tag-fabian","tag-first","tag-for","tag-from","tag-holland","tag-lomax","tag-look","tag-missed","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nights","tag-nz","tag-panel","tag-rennie","tag-saturday","tag-selection","tag-south","tag-sports","tag-sprang","tag-squad","tag-surprises","tag-test","tag-their","tag-tough","tag-tour","tag-tyrel","tag-wallabies","tag-why"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625077","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=625077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}