'What the hell did that achieve?': Justin Marshall shreds All Blacks selections

The conclusion of the Bledisloe Cup leaves the All Blacks with just one match before the Rugby World Cup and five Tests before the knockout stages commence. Former All Black Justin Marshall is hoping coach Ian Foster manages selections for those five games better than he did in the Bledisloe Cup.

The World Cup brings nations of varying rugby pedigrees together, inevitably leading to some skewed results in the pool stages before the eventual heavy-hitting centrepiece.

Typically, tier-one nations in strong from heading into the tournament have the luxury of resting players against lesser tier-two or three opposition, with a win considered a given regardless.

The All Blacks open their World Cup campaign against the tournament hosts, France. After that, they play Namibia, Italy and finally Uruguay.

Namibia and Uruguay both fall outside the tier-one nations list and historically have been the kind of opposition the All Blacks would rest their top talent against, but Marshall says that may not be in New Zealand’s best interests.

“I do feel that we need to continue to keep trucking these players out there that are going to be the team that play that quarterfinal,” Marshall told The Platform.

“You know that side just need to, again they just need to galvanize, they need to be really assured of the game plan. They need to be confident and chopping and changing, I don’t think helps that at all.

“Honestly, they gave Shaun Stevenson a Test match and they gave Samipeni Finau a Test match and they are now All Blacks but they’re not even the Rugby World Cup squad. What the hell did that achieve? Honestly.

“So, I’m a bit lost as to why they did what they did at the weekend.

“I still feel very adamant, if they’re still going to give players game time they feel that they need it, they should know enough about them now if they’re in a World Cup squad.

“Give them the time off the bench, but let that team create its own rhythm and synergy and let them go through. Look at the end of the day it’s seven Test matches to win a Rugby World Cup. Now that’s not a hard ask for the modern player. Super Rugby teams do it, the second half of the season. They just truck the players out there.

“So my mindset is no, I wouldn’t like to see them completely change the team during the course of Rugby World Cup just to give players a run. Run them off the beach.”

Opportunity vs continuity has been a chunky talking point over the past year for Ian Foster, the coach expressed his intent to name the same unit as much as injury would allow during the 2022 Rugby Championship and maintained a similar philosophy during the 2023 tournament.

Although, the preferred XV has changed a fair amount in that time. Aaron Smith and Rieko Ioane are the only players who have retained their position in the backline since last year’s Ireland series while in the forwards, the preferred props have changed, Scott Barrett looks to have taken Sam Whitelock’s place at lock and Shannon Frizell has locked up the vacated No 6 jersey.

As Marshall would go on to point out, that amount of change is a far cry from the recipe for success that Sir Steve Hansen and Sir Graham Henry enjoyed in their 2011 and 2015 World Cup-winning campaigns, when iconic combinations created a foundation for bolters to feed off.