Size and physicality seem to be the focus for the All Blacks following the naming of their side for Saturday’s first test against France, and it has received a massive tick of approval from Nigel Yalden.
The longtime rugby broadcaster and commentator - like many of us – was pleasantly surprised to look at the 23 named, and see exactly what the All Black coaches and selectors had said they wanted to do in this series.
"It's a big side. [Fabian] Holland obviously increases the height, the weight, but also you don't lose anything in terms of your work rate,” Yalden told Martin Devlin on the DSPN.
“You take [Tupou] Vaa'i to the six which, let's be honest, still continues to be that one troublesome area. And if he can - no pun intended - lock that position down and become a genuine starting six, I think that is a massive weight off the shoulders of Scott Robertson and the selectors.”
Roberton and Co. said two things when the squad was initially named – they want to have fluidity across lock and loose forward, which is proven by the selection of Vaa’i. They also want to give most of the players minutes in this series. Four likely debutants, as well as the long-awaited return of Quinn Tupaea, shows these selectors are true to their word.
Those four debutants are Holland and Christian Lio-Willie who will start at lock and number eight respectively, and prop Ollie Norris and flanker Du’Plessis Kirifi, both set to come off the bench.
“Nice, isn’t it? Whatever sphere of life you are in, if someone says they're going to do it and they do it, straight away you’re sitting there going ‘cool, I like that, I trust that, I embrace that’,” Yalden said in a vibrant tone.
“You’ve got a guy who loves to work at eight in Christian Lio-Willie. I just went back and looked at the numbers for his last four games of the campaign. Double digits in carries, double digits in tackles.
“The guy just grafts away, similar to what Wallace Sititi does. He will be a relentless ball carrier, he will be a relentless tackler. He's a big physical body, that's a big physical forward pack, backed up by a good physical bench as well.”
The forwards is just one part of the side selected, the other of course being the backline, which relies on the big boys up front to lay the platform. Where that starts is the halves, the 9/10 combination, where Razor has picked Cam Roigard and Beauden Barrett, a pairing Yalden expects to be the go-to in 2025.
“I use the sample size of the semifinal and the final of Super Rugby Pacific again. The Crusaders were bringing plenty of heat to Beauden Barrett, and he handled it better… Damian Mackenzie did not.
“You go back to the first 20 minutes, there were moments - and they weren’t big moments, they weren’t clanging errors - but there were a couple of kicks under duress…. and the kicks just went a little bit too far, and they were easy takes [for the defence].”
Ouch, but probably fair from Yalden. While McKenzie – Barrett’s main rival for the 10 jumper – has been scintillating at times for the Chiefs in 2025, he has been inconsistent as well.
It doesn’t mean McKenzie is done. Far from it. Both Devlin and Yalden believe he will start at first-five in at least one of the French tests.
But back to the current crop of selectors - they seem a bit different. As Devlin says to Yalden, All Black coaches of the past had a habit of promising things and then never really delivering. This crew though is laying out a vision and making calls based on that. It’s refreshing.
Next stop, a young but no doubt dangerous France side who will not care about the quality of their opponent. They’ll bring their typical French flair mixed in with physicality, and as always, a touch of chaos.
But if this All Blacks pack hits as hard as it’s built to, and Beauden Barrett is able to control the game, we might just be embarking on an exciting test season.
Catch new episodes of the Devlin Sports Podcast Network (DSPN) every weekday on rova.
