{"id":467374,"date":"2026-03-10T07:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T07:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/467374\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T07:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T07:40:12","slug":"jeff-wilsons-pick-for-a-new-all-blacks-captain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/467374\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Wilson’s pick for a new All Blacks captain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former All Black and current Sky Sports commentator Jeff Wilson<\/a> has shared his thoughts on what may unfold with the All Blacks<\/a> captaincy in 2026, under new head coach Dave Rennie.<\/p>\n

Rennie was appointed as the successor to former head coach Scott Robertson<\/a>, who departed his role on January 15 after two years.<\/p>\n

The former Chiefs<\/a> and Wallabies head coach will now take charge of the All Blacks until the end of the 2027 Rugby World Cup<\/a> in Australia, which is only 18 months away.<\/p>\n

Wilson, who played 60-Tests for the All Blacks, believes that if there is a new captain, Crusaders<\/a> hooker and All Black centurion Codie Taylor<\/a> should be in the conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m on record saying it should be Codie Taylor<\/a>, I think he\u2019s the guy that brings edge and I think he\u2019s well respected within the group,\u201d Wilson said on the Breakdown.<\/p>\n

Former World Cup-winning All Black first-five Stephen Donald<\/a> agrees with Wilson, saying that he\u2019s a \u201cfollow me character\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut for one though, I just keep thinking of maybe, if you think of always going to be picked as something like a Codie Taylor, he always just strikes me as maybe not a big talker, but follow me sort of character,\u201d Donald said.<\/p>\n

The Breakdown\u00a0host and Sky Sport presenter Kirtsie Stanway then posed a question about whether it matters if the All Blacks captain isn\u2019t on the field for the remaining ten minutes, something which Wilson explains as not an issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, you\u2019ve got to trust other leadership around the team. It\u2019s not the first time they would have had that, Sam Cane<\/a> played 60 minutes of Test matches and then came off but you\u2019d ideally like to have your captain on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson\u2019s of the belief that the All Blacks and the public have moved towards just picking someone who\u2019s played a number of Test matches, rather than their specific leadership qualities and experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what I\u2019d say is that to me, and this is the thing, just being experienced doesn\u2019t make you an automatic leader. I think we\u2019ve fallen into a trap of guys who have played Test matches after Test matches and all of a sudden it\u2019s the automatic back of the bus syndrome.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhereas ultimately you need characters and individuals and people who can lead by performance and through the right voice and there\u2019s a balance that has to be here where leadership skills are learnt, and we\u2019ve got to start developing more of those.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s something we\u2019re falling down with right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former All Black and current Sky Sports commentator Jeff Wilson has shared his thoughts on what may unfold…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-467374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467374","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=467374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}