'Take some risk and change five or six': Ex-All Black calls for mass changes

With the All Blacks securing the Bledisloe Cup and Rugby Championship trophies with the 38-7 win in Melbourne over the Wallabies, the team has a unique opportunity to experiment with selection in Dunedin.

Changes to the starting side have been used sparingly across the first three Tests, with just one rookie starter in Emoni Narawa in Mendoza. The other two newly capped All Blacks, Tamiati Williams and Cam Roigard, were introduced off the bench against South Africa and Australia.

No rookie has managed to play twice in a row yet, with Narawa missing out on both subsequent Tests through injury while Williams sat out in Melbourne as the selectors opted to go with veteran Ofa Tu’ungafasi.

Ex-All Black John Kirwan has called on the selectors to ‘got for it’ in the second Bledisloe Test with a number of players not yet seen in order to find some answers with just two games left until the Rugby World Cup.

“I think you have to, sorry but I think you have to. Mission accomplished,” Kirwan told Sky Sport’s The Breakdown panel.

“So Fainga’anuku, Caleb Clarke. Is Fainga’anuku going to be covering centre? You know, who is the other loose forward?

“What are we going to do with the back three? I think you’ve just got to here’s the group opportunity.

“The Australian side last night, for periods, I think Eddie will be happy. The first 20, the second half first 15 minutes.

“But now is the opportunity for the country to go ‘okay Fozzy, if you want to take some risk and change five or six’ because we want to know who is going to the World Cup. Go for it.”

Crusaders wing Leicester Fainga’anuku has not been seen in the gameday 23 yet after joining the squad in Auckland following the trip to Argentina.

Chiefs fullback Shaun Stevenson has also been training with the squad for the entire three weeks but hasn’t yet been handed a playing opportunity, and neither has club teammate Samipeni Finau.

The newly capped players Roigard, Williams and Narawa will also be eager to get more game time to impress ahead of the World Cup squad selection, which Sky Sport Commentator Tony Johnson said was probably ‘pretty close’ to being finalised.

“I’d say now he has a pretty good idea about what his best 23 is. He’s getting close to that,” Johnson said.

“He’s got a few five-into-four or four-into-three situations he’s got to decide. It’s not a bad place to be in.”

Although the opportunity to experiment is available there are other considerations, such as a final game in New Zealand for many departing All Blacks.

It will be the last time that centurions Aaron Smith, Beauden Barrett, Brodie Retallick, Sam Whitelock will have the chance to play on home soil. Nepo Laulala and Richie Mo’unga are also set to depart.

Ian Foster stated in his post-match press conference that he is undecided about what to do, but hinted that perhaps change is not on the cards.

He said they will assess what the game ‘means’ and expressed his desire for the All Blacks to finish strong.

“I kind of knew I’d be asked that question and I’m not sure I know the answer yet,” Foster told reporters after the Bledisloe win

“We will go away and have a think about next week, what it means.

“We’ve got a balance here, we are about growing our game, building and taking big strong steps forward. Treasuring each week.

“How we balance that with change is going to be key for us.

“But the message will be clear, we don’t want to compromise on performance.

“In the past we’ve often gone into that game, people have talked about dead rubbers, we don’t believe a Test match is ever a dead rubber.

“We want to make sure we finished in this part of the world in a very, very strong space.”