{"id":71081,"date":"2025-08-16T11:13:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T11:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/71081\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T11:13:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T11:13:08","slug":"scott-robertson-is-flirting-with-too-much-of-a-good-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/71081\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Robertson is flirting with too much of a good thing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I see the logic in what All Blacks<\/a> coach Scott Robertson<\/a> is trying to do. Depth helps. Just ask Rassie Erasmus.<\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s ability to almost replace whole forward packs from half to half, or even teams from week to week, is enviable.<\/p>\n

We also remember how many first-choice All Blacks fell over during the 2011 Rugby World Cup<\/a> campaign and the mad scramble that caused.<\/p>\n

But, as I look at the way Robertson is picking the All Blacks and see the number of players involved and hear of his desire to have four viable options for each position, the World Cup I think of is 2007.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re at the point of the four-yearly cycle where results aren\u2019t that important. Robertson is going to take the All Blacks to that tournament, and the team is likely to win more games than it loses between now and then.<\/p>\n

Some of us on the outside might express a bit of dissatisfaction along the way, but it\u2019ll all be hot air. Robertson will be judged on the 2027 Rugby World Cup and nothing else.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not how I\u2019d like things to be, necessarily, but that\u2019s how they are.<\/p>\n

No, I\u2019d like the All Blacks to be a select group. I\u2019d like to see the return of incumbency and of guys owning a jersey. Rugby\u2019s not like it was when I was a kid. Back then, you were only replaced if you were injured.<\/p>\n

Now that it\u2019s a true 23-man game, there is the opportunity for people to play their way into the starting XV. That\u2019s good. Guys won\u2019t play the 80 minutes every week, so we can all gauge whether player X deserves to potentially replace player Y.<\/p>\n

Within that framework, though, I believe there should be a clear hierarchy and the building of combinations capable of withstanding World Cup knockout matches.<\/p>\n

And I say that because of 2007 and New Zealand\u2019s ignominious quarterfinal exit.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Head-to-Head <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Last 5 Meetings<\/p>\n

Average Points scored<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

These were the days of rest and rotation, and, my word, didn\u2019t we all marvel at the depth in the team. You could put 108 points on Portugal<\/a> with one team and then beat Romania<\/a> 85-8 with another.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, those results said more about the opponents than the All Blacks. The team wasn\u2019t especially convincing in these mismatches, but we figured it\u2019d still be all right on the night.<\/p>\n

Yes, the selectors will ensconce their best XV when it counts, and the World Cup will be won before you know it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m reminded of that at the moment and feel a particular unease about who\u2019s going to drive the team.<\/p>\n

Towards the end of last season, I\u2019d become increasingly comfortable with the idea that it would be Beauden Barrett. Then Sevu Reece<\/a> got knocked out in the first Test of this season, and we saw what happened when Barrett had to share those duties with Damian McKenzie.<\/p>\n

Two dominant playmakers, but only one ball, wasn\u2019t a particularly effective mix. And now we\u2019re poised to add Richie Mo\u2019unga to the equation next year. Fine in theory, it\u2019s just that it\u2019s not hard to imagine him, Barrett and McKenzie all on the park at the same time.<\/p>\n

That is New Zealand\u2019s method, after all. Throw all the best players out there together, regardless of whether any of the pieces fit.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m on about incumbency and a hard and fast first XV, because without ownership, there\u2019s no responsibility.<\/p>\n

Anyone who\u2019s played rugby knows the relationship between a hooker and his tighthead prop is critical. Then there\u2019s the front row as a whole, the locks and the tight-five as well.<\/p>\n

None of you can function as individuals.<\/p>\n

Same for the loose forwards, the halfback and first-five, the midfield and the back-three. They\u2019re all distinct units in which you cannot succeed without building relationships and combinations.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of the reasons why rugby remains one of the ultimate team games. The All Blacks aren\u2019t looking to build a team, though. No, they\u2019re after a squad. A travelling circus from which people come and go, and caps are thrown around like confetti.<\/p>\n

I see what South Africa<\/a> has done. And I get that, two years out from the World Cup, this is a point where Robertson can expose people to Test rugby without real consequences.<\/p>\n

But I go back to 2007 \u2013 and the season or two that preceded it \u2013 and the idea that the team was interchangeable; that guys need rest, that positions need to be contestable, that it takes depth to win a World Cup.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just that, on that fateful day against France<\/a> in Cardiff \u2013 against an opponent that wasn\u2019t going to roll over and play dead like Romania or Portugal \u2013 the All Blacks were bereft.<\/p>\n

They had no combinations, and they had no idea of how to beat a team that was prepared to tackle. There was no Plan B, because these players hadn\u2019t spent enough time playing together to properly suss out Plan A.<\/p>\n

New Zealand has enough talent to win the next World Cup. My fear is that they\u2019re determined to use too much of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I see the logic in what All Blacks coach Scott Robertson is trying to do. Depth helps. Just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-71081","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\/71081","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=71081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}