{"id":84248,"date":"2025-08-22T05:03:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T05:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/84248\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T05:03:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T05:03:08","slug":"debutant-to-start-taylor-to-become-test-centurion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/84248\/","title":{"rendered":"Debutant to start, Taylor to become Test centurion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Saturday evening in Buenos Aires will see some significant milestones for All Blacks<\/a> team members, with a rookie named to earn his first cap alongside a team icon who is set to join the centurion\u2019s club.<\/p>\n

Uncapped Chiefs<\/a> bruiser Simon Parker<\/a> will start at No. 8 in the round two Rugby Championship<\/a> contest between New Zealand<\/a> and Argentina, replacing Du\u2019Plessis Kirifi<\/a> in the loose forward trio. There\u2019s also no room for Kirifi on the bench this week, with the return of 2024\u2019s Breakthrough Player of the Year, Wallace Sititi<\/a>, offering fans their first look at the youngster in the black jersey in 2025.<\/p>\n

Tamaiti Williams can also make his first All Blacks appearance of 2025 from the bench, having recovered from knee surgery. The prop joins Pasilio Tosi and Samisoni Taukei\u2019aho<\/a> in forming a near 400 kg reserve front row.<\/p>\n

Williams\u2019 fellow Crusaders<\/a> front-rower Codie Taylor<\/a> will celebrate his 100th Test cap in the contest, 10 years after he debuted against Argentina<\/a> in 2015. Taylor will become the 14th player to earn 100 caps for the All Blacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cCodie is a great All Black,\u201d All Blacks coach Scott Robertson<\/a> said of his hooker. \u201cHe carries a huge amount of mana in our group, and it\u2019s important we put out a performance that makes him and his whanau proud in his 100th Test.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way he carries himself and the example he sets are a testament to him as a person, and he will front this week in the same way he has for the past 99 Tests.<\/p>\n

\u201cEqually, it\u2019s a special day for Simon and his family.\u00a0 He\u2019s earned his selection through performance and consistency. He\u2019s a big, physical man, and he\u2019s ready to make an impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

The coach added, \u201cAll of the players who have come into the squad have worked really hard and earned their place at training, and it\u2019s great to have Tamaiti and Wallace back in the mix. Our bench will bring energy and impact to the battle.\u201d<\/p>\n

All Blacks team to plat Los Pumas<\/p>\n

Ethan de Groot (33)Codie Taylor (99)Fletcher Newell (26)Scott Barrett (82) (Captain)Fabian Holland (4)Tupou Vaa\u2019i (41)Ardie Savea (98) (Vice-Captain)Simon Parker *Cortez Ratima (15)Beauden Barrett (137)Rieko Ioane (84)Jordie Barrett (72) (Vice-Captain)Billy Proctor (5)Sevu Reece (35)Will Jordan (45)<\/p>\n

Reserves<\/p>\n

16. Samisoni Taukei\u2019aho (34)
17. Tamaiti Williams<\/a> (18)
18. Pasilio Tosi (10)
19. Josh Lord<\/a> (7)
20. Wallace Sititi<\/a> (10)
21. Finlay Christie<\/a> (24)
22. Quinn Tupaea<\/a> (16)
23. Damian McKenzie<\/a> (65)<\/p>\n

Unavailable for selection: Patrick Tuipulotu<\/a> (minor facial fracture), Anton Lienert-Brown<\/a> (concussion).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saturday evening in Buenos Aires will see some significant milestones for All Blacks team members, with a rookie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-84248","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\/84248","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=84248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}