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Scott Robertson set to unleash ‘world-class’ winger against Springboks

Sevu Reece of the New Zealand All Blacks makes a break during the International Test Match between New Zealand All Blacks and England at Eden Park on July 13, 2024 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

With the Freedom Cup on the line, the All Blacks will unleash “world-class” winger Sevu Reece against the Springboks this weekend in Cape Town. Reece returns as one of five changes to New Zealand’s starting side ahead of Saturday’s Test at DHL Stadium.

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Reece is set to end a more than 1060-day wait by playing the Springboks in a crucial Rugby Championship fixture. South Africa recorded a thrilling 31-29 win over the All Blacks when Reece was last involved in a Test between the two sides on October 2, 2021.

Years later, the All Blacks have a new coach at the helm. With Scott Robertson now leading the way, the New Zealanders are looking to keep their Rugby Championship hopes alive after falling to South Africa 31-27 in Johannesburg last weekend.

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‘Razor’ Robertson has made mass changes to the starting side, with one-third of the First XV undergoing an overhaul. Wallace Sititi has been named in the run-on side for the first time, Cortez Ratima has got the nod at halfback, and there are some significant changes out back.

In the outside backs, Mark Tele’a returns and Will Jordan has been given the go-ahead to start at fullback. Reece is the other flyer hoping to terrorise the Springboks’ defence this weekend. The winger started the first four Tests of the year before falling down the depth chart.

“We wanted to look at Cortez starting at it just worked out this way this week for us in that regard,” Robertson told reporters on Thursday morning.

“The opportunity to play Will (Jordan) at fullback and give Sevu (Reece), who’s a world-class winger, with Mark Tele’a who goes pretty well as well.

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“We’re fortunate we’ve got some quality players. This week, it’s that mix for us.”

Reece started both Tests against England in New Zealand, retained that spot against the Flying Fijians in San Diego, and he was once again called upon against Argentina in Wellington. But with Jordan returning from injury off the bench in the capital, a selection dilemma loomed.

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Robertson stuck with Beauden Barrett at fullback, with the coaching staff picking Jordan in the familiar role of right winger. Jordan was solid in two Tests, but the 26-year-old will shift into a new position for the upcoming clash in Cape Town.

For just the second time in his 30+ Test career, Jordan has been named at fullback. Former coach Ian Foster selected the Tasman Mako and Crusaders outside back in that position on one occasion, and that was against the Wallabies in Dunedin last year.

But, Robertson has no doubts that Jordan will do a job at No. 15.

“He’s fit, he’s able, he’s trained really well,” Robertson explained.

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“He covers fullback and wing anyway in the game with the structure that we do play.

“He’ll slot straight in. He’s been around a while.

“He’s played a lot of rugby with Sevu and Mark before,” he added. “It depends on what kick cycles we get into or counter-attack opportunities he gets.

“He’ll slot straight in. He knows our game well.”

On the bench, Beauden Barrett has dropped out of the starting side to make way for Jordan. Barrett joins halfback TJ Perenara on the pine, with the pair looking to add experience and impact when their names are called upon.

“We’ve looked at it and realised it’s really important to have experience at the end of games. It’s a great, great couple of names to put on there with a lot of Tests and a lot of experience,” he added.

“They’ll come on and finish the job for us.”

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Comments

4 Comments
H
Hellhound 209 days ago

No not everyone. Playing for your country only makes you an international player. World Class is special players. Club rugby varies between amateur, semi professional, and professional. You can't equate the Boks players same as Portugal, or the AB's and Tonga, or France and Russia etc etc etc. there is a distinction. Most players would range between semi professional and professional even when playing for their countries.

s
snr.star 209 days ago

Agree entirely...both these wingers are good, but way behind the pace of Will Jordan or Riko Ioane who is totally wasted trying to run thru people in the midfield

b
by 210 days ago

Surely at this level all players are ‘world class’

H
Hellhound 208 days ago

Nope. World Class means doing special things, having abilities others don't have. Dangerous players who can run around or over you. Players who reads the game extremely well etc etc etc. I could name many differences. The only reason those players play for their teams, is because it's the best they have. The best they have could equate to a pub rugby player. Think about Zimbabwe or Kenya or Russia or Brazil etc etc. there is many international players that is extremely good, but not World Class.

B
Bull Shark 210 days ago

Think England.

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I initially wanted to keep this experience private, but I realized that there may be others out there who have suffered similar losses. If you're a victim of crypto theft, I urge you to reach out to Morphohack Cyber Service. They can be contacted through their website or email. (Morphohack@cyberservices . com, Info@morphohackcyber . com) Don't give up hope, there is a way to recover your stolen crypto assets.

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JW 2 hours ago
The raw data that proves Super Rugby Pacific is currently a cut above

Your links are private if you were intending them to be shared.


URC us doing very well with it’s competitiveness given that each group has it’s own salary caps and entirely different makeups, from clubs, to provinces, to franchises and regions. One group might be teams from the most populace country with the biggest rugby base while another the smallest, with the least amount of rugby players to chose from.

On average, just about one SRP game every weekend has been decided in the last five minutes!

I would also be interested in a average clock length (don’t need to go into the whole BIP hole) showing how long the last phases are taking (because one team is trying to still alter the match points outcome in some way) to complete before the game finally ends. I don’t know if its more common this year but in general I wonder if its a stat that can show how good games are/were?

17.7%

You really had the same reversed 10 points lead % as you had lead changes after the 75th?


Some of these values while standing out numerically against each other have a much less correlative impact than some that tighter differences which might only stick out a small amount. While SRP’s ones might not necessarily be such examples (and here I’m still going off the basic principle that everyone knew this was happening, even though I was challenged about that assumption) they have had the advantage of the fixtures being were doctored even more than normal. In this instance its irrelevant whether they were doctored or not of course, but I think it’s pretty safe to say that there hasn’t been a lot of cross over of worst v best yet. Maybe it just feels like that because the worst are so much better this year? I definitely think that it is undeniable that all the bottom teams (that remain) have gotten better.


So I would be very interested in another weight graph of the games still, but regardless I don’t think it’s fair for SRP to claim anything over the other leagues yet. Certainly as I have said numerous times about the Top 14, it’s sub par compared to what it’s billed up to be, but that is the only league in this group that has promotion and relegation, which is the antitheses of a competitive league, so a trade off there.


Thank you very much for sharing your research though Dmitri, I hope you find another topic to get interested about!

31 Go to comments
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