Scott Robertson explains his choice to move Tupou Vaa'i to blindside

In the past, the first 23-man All Blacks squad of the year has been a conservative one, picking players who have served the jersey well in the past, but under current All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson, this isn’t the case.

Roberston and his coaching staff have named a strong, and tall forwards group, including a debutant at lock in Highlanders giant Fabian Holland.

Holland is joined by All Blacks captain Scott Barrett at lock, but probably more suprisingly, Chiefs lock Tupou Vaa’i has been moved to blindside flanker to play against France in Dunedin this weekend.

Vaa’i has played there before for the Chiefs, but it’s not his favoured position, so Robertson is clearly keen on another tall lineout target, with Holland and Barrett part of that group as well.

When speaking to reporters in Dunedin, Robertson explained that Vaa’i compliments the other loose forwards well.

“Yeah well we’re looking at options and the ability for guys to play in two positions, he’s got the skill set, he’s quick enough, as he keeps telling us, and he can play on the edge as well,” Robertson said.

“So it just compliments us and Test footy is a big man’s game and he can start there and finish there, so this week he starts.”

Throwing Holland into the starting mix was definitely a bold decision made by Robertson, but one that he believes  was earned through many years of hard work.

“He’s (Holland) pretty excited, from Netherlands to New Zealand, he’s come a long way. It’s a great story, pretty bold call from a 14 year old to make the call to come over and represent another country in a game he loves, but he saw the All Blacks as the ultimate.

“There was an opportunity down here under the roof so it’s movie sort of stuff.”

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Robertson explains to the media that the debutant’s have all done their homework ahead of the first Test.

“Yeah they’re excited, their into their homework, connecting with the group. You have to pull them off the computers a little bit, they’re pretty keen to do all the right stuff and they’ve had a good training week so far.”