Young pair of locks step up as All Blacks sweat on captain Barrett

Might be time to use this tour as an opportunity to properly see how the team could go without Scooter. There is a decent chunk of the country that doesn’t even see him as a starting lock at the moment let alone captain of the squad, especially with the way that the other locks like Holland, Vaa’i and Tuipulotu played this year. Even though 2 of those 3 names are now out, the way Lord and Holland played in his stead and the form that Darry had during NPC (and in his All Blacks stints last year) has really raised questions about if Scooter, weighed down by captaincy, is getting in the way of someone else getting more starting minutes. At the same time, the way Ardie plays whenever he’s captain is also worth testing out over more than just the occasional game when Scooter gets injured. Feels like the only way to really silence the critics of Razor’s continued reliance on him unless he returns to the standout form that he had before becoming captain.

Scooter’s injury was below the knee & I would question if the injury was caused by a stud. I presumed they are still checked before a match to not allow any ‘tampering’ before going onto the field.

The injury appeared to happen at game time 2:26 when Scooter took the ball into contact being double tackled by Tadhg Furlong & Josh van der Flier. Scooter immediately grabbed his lower leg. The only thing close to Scooter’s right shin was Furlong’s hand so I can only assume that the injury may have been caused by a Sprinkler Head.

All Blacks vs Scotland:

1 DeGroot, 2 Taylor, 3 Newell, 4 Lord, 5 Holland, 6 Parker, 7 Savea, 8 Sititi, 9 Roigard, 10 McKenzie, 11 Clarke, 12 Tupaea, 13 Fainga’anuka, 14 Carter, 15 Jordan

16 Taukeo’aho, 17 Williams, 18 Tosi, 19 Darry, 20 Lakai, 21 Ratima, 22 Ioane, 23 Love

Its not hard to figure out who selects the players that are worthy to be in the AB’s forward pack…and it ain't Scott Robertson..

Take a bow JR for coaching these men to realise their skill sets… and they are definitely starting to showcase some steady progress…

It looks like “injury” has become Robertson’s most helpful assistant coach this tour.

It would have been hard for Robertson to drop his captain and play those two together but injury has presented an opportunity and they have taken it with both hands and shown they deserve a continued run.

Same for LF & QT - probably wouldn’t have happened without the injury to Jordie but it certainly gave them a carrying platform they have been missing and I think will be retained as the tour goes on.

Back 3 looked exciting, it’s now a case of learning how to use them more off the secondary plays and get the ball in their hands more often. CCC looked exceptional on his return and it was Jordan’s best game at full back to date.

Loving the efforts from the big boys, still hopeful Scooter can be thrust into the blindside as a result (have given up on Love and going all in here).

With the amount of injuries the ABs have been carrying its great to see some squad depth. These two young locks did well, they certainly both have the height at over 2ms. I think the lineout calling was a bit of a challenge without Scooter, who took it over from the injured Vaii. We are also seeing two key players getting back to match fitness after long injury breaks - Sititi and Williams, as well as Lakai starting to show how good he is. These three and the 2 locks are all young guys so the future looks good.