{"id":130660,"date":"2025-09-11T20:04:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T20:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/130660\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T20:04:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T20:04:08","slug":"scott-robertsons-18-word-retort-to-rieko-ioanes-all-blacks-axing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/130660\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Robertson’s 18-word retort to Rieko Ioane’s All Blacks axing"},"content":{"rendered":"

All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson kept his answer brief when asked about his decision to drop Rieko Ioane for the Springboks clash in Wellington.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old has been a mainstay since the former Crusaders boss took charge of the national team following the 2023 Rugby World Cup.<\/p>\n

However, Ioane<\/a> has struggled for form under Robertson<\/a>, first at centre and most recently as a wing having been shifted at the start of the 2025 Test season.<\/p>\n

The move out wide has not worked out and he has subsequently been axed for this weekend\u2019s game, with rookie Leroy Carter earning his first cap instead.<\/p>\n

Robertson\u2019s response<\/p>\n

Robertson was questioned about the big call to drop Ioane but his response was blunt, saying: \u201cWe\u2019ve given another player an opportunity. My job\u2019s to build depth in the team and it\u2019s Leroy\u2019s chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was always going to be an alteration in the back three due to Emoni Narawa\u2019s injury but Will Jordan has taken that right wing spot with Damian McKenzie coming in at full-back.<\/p>\n

Robertson could have therefore kept Ioane on the left-hand side but the All Blacks<\/a> boss has decided to give a chance to Carter.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s trained incredibly well. He complements that back three, great at the kick-chase, extremely quick and his work rate is as good as it comes, so we\u2019re excited by it, so he will gives us really good balance,\u201d the head coach said of the All Blacks bolter.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s fast and he\u2019s got some great hops. We just think it\u2019s a great opportunity for him this weekend, he\u2019s been superb for us at training and has had a great year, and now is his time.\u201d<\/p>\n

All Blacks team: Winners and losers as Scott Robertson makes \u2018absolutely the right\u2019 Rieko Ioane call but fellow back receives \u2018brutal\u2019 treatment<\/a><\/p>\n

Carter\u2019s route to Test rugby has come in a roundabout way having initially started his career as a scrum-half before switching to wing while playing for Bay of Plenty in the NPC.<\/p>\n

In 2022, he started playing for the All Blacks Sevens side and featured at the 2024 Paris Olympics before signing for the Chiefs.<\/p>\n

He only made his Super Rugby Pacific debut earlier this year but he will now be making his international bow at the age of 26.<\/p>\n

Sevens route \u2018definitely an avenue\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not uncommon, you look at the French with [Gabin] Villiere and [South Africa\u2019s] Cheslin [Kolbe] and [Kurt-Lee] Arendse, a lot of those sevens players are coming through, even for Australia, so it\u2019s definitely an avenue,\u201d Robertson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a massive amount of kicking in sevens, there\u2019s a lot of passing and running and great defence, and he\u2019s filled the skill set that\u2019s required over this Super season.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Zealand have struggled aerially this year, with Argentina particularly exploiting that weakness in Buenos Aires, but Robertson hopes that the new back three can deal better with the high balls.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives us really good backfield coverage. We know that it\u2019s going to come again, that aerial battle, and it\u2019s a great balance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other tough one (selection call) is the loose forwards, there\u2019s been some really good performances there and we\u2019ve got a couple of guys we could have easily picked for this Test match.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: All Blacks team: Scott Robertson swings the axe as Rieko Ioane dropped for bolter in bold selections for Springboks rematch<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson kept his answer brief when asked about his decision to drop Rieko…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[348,3482,620,50,45239,5903,15394,17846,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-130660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-rieko-ioane","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-championship","tag-scott-robertson","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}