{"id":59952,"date":"2025-08-11T20:20:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T20:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/59952\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T20:20:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T20:20:19","slug":"former-all-blacks-pick-their-halfback-for-first-argentina-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/59952\/","title":{"rendered":"Former All Blacks pick their halfback for first Argentina Test"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Injuries can turn into opportunities, and with two key injuries to halfbacks Noah Hotham<\/a> and Cameron Roigard, the All Blacks<\/a>\u2018 haflback stocks are being tested ahead of the Rugby Championship<\/a> starting this weekend.<\/p>\n

All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson<\/a> and selectors picked experienced Blues<\/a> halfback Finlay Christie<\/a>, and possible debutant Kyle Preston<\/a> as their two replacements, but there is only one spot up for grabs on the bench with Cortez Ratima<\/a> likely to be given the first shot at the starting No.9 role.<\/p>\n

Christie, who has now played 23 Tests for the All Blacks over a five year period, will be looking to impress the All Blacks coaches after not being in the frame for over a year.<\/p>\n

Preston on the other hand, has had a rapid rise to the top, winning a Bunnings NPC<\/a> title with Wellington<\/a> last year before being picked up by the Crusaders<\/a> for Super Rugby Pacific<\/a> 2025.<\/p>\n

Three former All Blacks have taken their pick for the two halfbacks for the first Test between the All Blacks and Argentina<\/a> in Cordoba this weekend.<\/p>\n

Former All Black halfback Justin Marshall<\/a> is a big believer in giving Ratima the first go, as they\u2019ve put a lot of effort into Ratima for the past couple of seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, it\u2019s whether or not they want to be brave and and go with a player that the opposition haven\u2019t seen a lot of,\u201d Marshall said on The Breakdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, Cortez will start, he has to start, he\u2019s been in the mix as the second best scrum half even when Hotham was fit in the country. So if he can\u2019t slot him when Roigard\u2019s out, then there\u2019s something wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marshall understands that Christie\u2019s experience is important, but would lean towards giving Ratima that starting spot for Sunday morning\u2019s Test match.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know Finley Christie\u2019s more experienced, but at the end of the day, he\u2019s (Ratima) there to fulfil a role, and that role he will perform at the weekend, I\u2019ve no doubt that he\u2019ll be selected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former All Black Jeff Wilson<\/a> agrees, saying that if Ratima is good enough to start other Test matches, then he should be starting this one.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen he\u2019s your next guy, right? Yeah, then if he was your next guy off the rank and was coming in as number three, surely he should get his chance at number two and I\u2019m comfortable with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he\u2019s good enough to be on the bench and start other Test matches, he should start this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fixture<\/p>\n

Rugby Championship<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Argentina <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

New Zealand <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Former All Black centurion Mils Muliaina<\/a> explains that the All Blacks coaches know what they\u2019re gonna get from Christie and they need to experiment with someone else going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinlay defends well if you need to put him in there, if he needs to come off the bench, that\u2019s kind of where we probably need to, not necessarily call it experiment, but you\u2019ve got to see a different style of halfback.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marshall, who has played 81-Tests for the All Blacks at halfback, sees no future for Christie in a black jersey.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, there\u2019s no future in Finlay Christie<\/a> is there? We know there\u2019s insurance, but we know that you could rely on him, should you need to, but you\u2019ve got to move on at some stage and I feel they will.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Injuries can turn into opportunities, and with two key injuries to halfbacks Noah Hotham and Cameron Roigard, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-59952","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59952","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=59952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}