'Let him have a summer': Ex-All Black doubts call-up for veteran

Scott Robertson’s 36-man squad named for the end-of-year grand slam tour featured very few surprises, keeping the majority of the group that finished second in this year’s Rugby Championship.

The All Blacks head to Chicago in two weeks before preparing for their rematch against Ireland in Chicago, before travelling to the UK to take on Scotland, England, and Wales.

Barring injury forced changes, the only change made by Robertson was to include George Bell instead of Chiefs hooker Brodie McAlister, who made his All Blacks debut at FMG Stadium Waikato in Hamilton.

One of McAlister’s club teammates, Anton Lienert-Brown, has been talked about as one player who might have been playing for his spot over the weekend in the Bunnings NPC, after not featuring too much during the Rugby Championship.

Former All Black halfback Justin Marshall believes that it might have been more beneficial for Lienert-Brown to stay at home and get ready for another campaign, instead of going on the end-of-year tour.

“For me, someone like Anton Lienert-Brown who has had a couple of years of injury plagued seasons, and he’s not really kind of been firing like he should have done,” Marshall told Ian Smith on Sport Nation Mornings.

“It was a perfect opportunity to let him have a summer. You know, have a summer mate. Get yourself ready for Super Rugby. Put some pressure on the other midfielders in the country by coming back fit, healthy, wanting to play because you haven’t played any rugby in about four months, and take some other options in the midfield.

“But again, like I said, that there seems to be this, like you mentioned, the word is a risk, this assurance policy of if we are to be in trouble, we’ll take those players because we just want to have them as backstops.

“Back stops are not going to get you innovation, creation. They’re not going to get you to somewhere that is different to the way that we’ve been playing by not taking players that completely change the picture because of different types of skill set.”

The 81-Test All Black veteran explains that it’s the same for the likes of Finlay Christie and Rieko Ioane, who the All Blacks know what they’re going to get from them, but they continue to get picked.

“And look at the end of the day like the players you’ve just mentioned. We know about Finlay Christie, you know what they’re going to do when they get in there in for the black jersey,” Marshall said.

“You know that they’re going to perform at a certain level, they’ve got history behind them.”

For Hurricanes playmaker Ruben Love, who has only featured a couple of times for the All Blacks, the tour should, hopefully, be an opportunity to spend some much-needed time on the field, something which Marshall believes should happen in the next few games.

“Just like I said, there seems to be a reluctance, and I guess, stubbornness, to persist. So I’d be very, very surprised that Ruben Love gets an opportunity.

“I’d like to see him in the No.10 jersey. I just feel that at the moment, we have completely got all of our eggs in that, in that one basket of Damian McKenzie boat and Beauden Barrett, who’s been out recently injured, and if not, then, then Richie Mo’unga comes back next year.

“So we are really gambling on that, and what we’re not doing it’s giving anybody opportunity to get some minutes in that shirt, which I believe is a risk.

“We need to see what he can do in that No.10 shirt, like you can’t if you don’t play. You don’t put players in the side if you don’t trust them, what’s the point in having them, so it’s like, right, what is his jersey?

“And if that’s his jersey, I trust him to go out there and perform and play, because he’s an All Black, and I’ll put him in the squad because I know he can be a good All Black. But again, they don’t seem to want to do that. They’re very conservative in their selection.”