{"id":90064,"date":"2025-10-20T13:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T13:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/90064\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T13:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T13:18:09","slug":"the-scott-robertson-verdict-on-dylan-pledgers-all-blacks-xv-omission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/90064\/","title":{"rendered":"The Scott Robertson verdict on Dylan Pledger’s All Blacks XV omission"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New Zealand\u2019s most hyped prospect was not selected for either the All Blacks<\/a> or the All Blacks XV<\/a> development team for the upcoming November Test window, but that omission wasn\u2019t without consideration.<\/p>\n

All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson<\/a> has shared some of the behind-the-scenes selection conversations he had with All Blacks XV counterpart Jamie Joseph<\/a> when picking the development team, and it appears there was some in-depth discussion centring around the budding star in question, Otago<\/a> halfback Dylan Pledger.<\/p>\n

The NPC rookie has impressed in two New Zealand<\/a> U20 campaigns and is set for his rookie Super Rugby season with the Highlanders<\/a> in 2026. The 20-year-old\u2019s potential is evident, but that wasn\u2019t enough for him to crack the national selection picture just yet.<\/p>\n

While New Zealand\u2019s selection policy doesn\u2019t demand Super Rugby experience, Robertson said making the leap to the international stage isn\u2019t something to underestimate.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course there\u2019s going to be a bolter,\u201d Robertson told Sky Sports\u2019 The Breakdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great mark of your environment when players come in and go straight into the highest level, and we\u2019ve had a few this year and over the last couple of years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at someone like Dylan, who\u2019s obviously a prodigious talent, learning his craft, he\u2019s 74 kilos and quite a few games in. He\u2019s going to be better for getting under a bench press this offseason and building his body to get into Super Rugby and play at that level.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, he\u2019s there. He\u2019ll be coming at the right time. I talked to Jamie (Joseph) a lot about him and his timing; when do we give him his opportunity? We\u2019ve got three other really great halfbacks, well, six on tour for us, and his time will come.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Noah Hotham<\/a> injured, Finlay Christie<\/a> has joined Cam Roigard<\/a> and Cortez Ratima<\/a> as the All Blacks\u2019 halfbacks, while Joseph\u2019s All Blacks XV selections consist of Folau Fakatava<\/a>, Kyle Preston<\/a>, and Xavier Roe.<\/p>\n

While Robertson insists his squad selection policy is expansive, he says his matchday selection policy is tailor-made for the opponent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the best team to win that Test match,\u201d he says, with a date with Ireland<\/a> in Chicago approaching. The Test is being dubbed \u2018The Rematch\u2019 in reference to Ireland\u2019s historic win over the All Blacks in the same city in 2016.<\/p>\n

Robertson says his selections for the game are all but locked in, and attention is firmly on \u201cgiving them a crack.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlong the way, you learn that you try to bring the best team for the team that\u2019s in front of you, but also give yourself a chance to get connections and enough training during the week, you have enough experience on there, and then give a young guy a crack.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we know how we\u2019re going to play Ireland, we\u2019ve had a couple of weeks to prepare for that, and we\u2019re pretty clear on what Test team\u2019s going to play in that game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we get together on Wednesday, we\u2019ve got a couple of days in camp in Auckland<\/a> before we fly out to Chicago. So, that team will be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand\u2019s most hyped prospect was not selected for either the All Blacks or the All Blacks XV…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-90064","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\/90064","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=90064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}