LONG READ Can the All Blacks convert Tupou Vaa'i into a destructive back row enforcer?

Having unveiled a Rugby Championship squad that has three hybrid lock-cum-loose forwards in it, All Blacks coach Scott Robertson has shown just how serious he is about upping the size and power of his forward pack.

This is a coach on a mission to give himself a suite of options on how to set up the back two rows of his scrum, and how to give his match day 23 the horsepower he obviously feels it needs to better compete against the like of South Africa and France who so regularly now opt for a 7-1 bench split and chain release oversized forwards throughout the second half.

Clearly, Robertson feels he needs to be able to fight with fire.

In Ardie Savea and Wallace Sititi he has two all-rounders – freakish athletes with the power and pace to play in any of the back-row positions. These two can do it all, and against any opponent. In Peter Lakai and Du’Plessis Kirifi he has got two out and out ball winning sevens, who can carry with more punch than their size suggests.

But he doesn’t yet have that Pieter-Steph du Toit figure sorted yet – that Tadhg Beirne-type athlete with that rare mix of size, speed and agility that enables them to effortlessly flit between lock and loose forward depending on the occasion.

That’s the All Blacks’ missing piece – and it is a piece that Robertson clearly feels he needs if his side are going to pull off their ambitious mix of ultra-fast, high-skilled rugby. He dropped Ethan Blackadder for the July Tests, and now he’s not retained Dalton Papali’i or Christian Lio-Willie.

He wants a bigger-bodied, powerful athlete as his preferred option at No 6 – someone who has the height to add to the lineout, the bulk to bolster the scrum and the explosiveness to make dominant tackles and carry the All Blacks over the advantage line.

New Zealand has arguably been left behind in this arms race and it’s possible to pin-point several tests in the last few years in which the All Blacks’ were hurt by their lack of size and power at No 6.
Last year’s two-test series against the Springboks was maybe when the power deficit was most keenly felt.

Both tests were a titanic struggle for 65 minutes, and then inexorably the South Africans used their phalanx of heavyweights – the likes of du Toit, Elrigh Louw, Jasper Wiese, RG Snyman and Eben Etzebeth – to keep wave after wave of big men coming at the All Blacks until they just couldn’t resist.

I just love it when you see him at 6ft 6ins, and he gets his legs wide and has that wide jackal, hunting for the ball – it just shows his instincts are there to be a loose forward.

Scott Robertson on Tupou Vaa’i

The All Blacks couldn’t stop the Springboks from building momentum – and both New Zealand’s scrum and lineout also went into meltdown mode in the respective final quarters of those two tests.
This is why Simon Parker, all 1.97m and 119kg of him, has been named in the Rugby Championship squad that features his Chiefs team-mates, Tupou Vaa’i (1.98m/118kg) and Samipeni Finau (1.94m/115kg).
Vaa’i, arguably New Zealand’s form lock in 2024 and so far in 2025, was the major talking point of the recent French series as he was unexpectedly picked to start at blindside in the first two tests (and would have played the third there too but for a concussion).

The 25-year-old remains a work in progress, but first in Dunedin and then in Wellington, he took giant strides towards showing he can get around the field with the requisite speed, that he can win turnovers and that he can use his soft skills when positioned as a wide distributor.

“I just love it when you see him at 6ft 6ins, and he gets his legs wide and has that wide jackal, hunting for the ball – it just shows his instincts are there to be a loose forward,” Robertson said after the second test, in which Vaa’i scored a try (as he did in the first) and snaffled a key turnover (as he did in the first).

“He can clearly play there and it is giving us some depth to have flexibility in our squad.”

It wasn’t Vaa’i’s first Test outing at No 6 as he played at blindside in the opening game of the 2023 World Cup. He’d been picked on the bench as lock cover, but a few hours before kick-off, he was told there had been a change of plan.

“It was just before our final walk through before we headed to the stadium,” Vaa’i recounts. “Sam Cane had a sore back and got I called up that afternoon.

“I remember having a meeting with Fozzie [former All Blacks coach Ian Foster] and he said, ‘you will be starting at blindside and Brodie [Retallick] will come onto the bench’.

“It was a bit of a surprise – but that is test footy: one man goes down and you have to be ready to step up. I was grateful to be part of the World Cup opener.

“But I wasn’t picturing being at six.”

When you are not 100 per cent comfortable with the role you start to second guess yourself actions and become passive. But I have come a long way I guess from playing six at the World Cup.

Tupou Vaa’i

Vaa’i was understandably lost at times. His overall impact away from the set-piece was low, and the project of using him at No 6 was shelved, until Robertson, somewhat randomly and unexpectedly re-ignited it this July.

But while it was a surprise to the public and media, it wasn’t a surprise to Vaa’i himself. He says that Robertson told him as soon as the team assembled for the French series that he was going to be playing blindside and having had 10 days to acclimatise as it were, he felt a much higher degree of confidence about his assignment.

“I guess heading into the game I wasn’t 100 per cent with the role I was playing,” Vaa’i said of the 2023 experience.

“When you are not 100 per cent comfortable with the role you start to second guess yourself actions and become passive.

“But I have come a long way I guess from playing six at the World Cup. That was two years ago. I got a heads up from Razor about playing six and I have had days to prepare myself.

“The coaches have trust in me. They have seen what I can do with the ball in hand and without it and it is about me bringing me that over to test footy and showing that I can play this role.”

Everyone is assuming that Vaa’i will be returned to the second-row in the Rugby Championship, but Robertson clearly has a long-term plan in mind – one that will see the 25-year-old likely start the higher profile tests at blindside, at least for the remainder of this year.

Vaa’i made 10 tackles in Wellington – not a crazy number, but the quality was high and the way he covered the ground to score under the posts to finish what was a flowing move, illustrated his anticipation as well as his raw speed and work-rate.

“He plays a little bit more on the edge, but he’s got the skills to do it,” is Robertson’s assessment of Vaa’i as a No 6.

“He’s quick enough. He has great footwork at the line; he can tip out the back and he has good running lines.

What Robertson is no doubt thinking, is that he may be able to start Tests this year with Fabian Holland and Scott Barrett at lock, Vaa’i at blindside, and Parker and Patrick Tuipulotu (1.98m/125kg) on the bench.

“It’s just doing it over and over again. He’s a good defender too and he’s a little bit further out there. He understands and anticipates the game so it’s just reps for him. It’s a change of number on his back but a lot of the core role stays the same.”

The uncapped Parker, whose preference is to play at blindside or No 8, but who can cover lock, is likely to be used mainly off the bench to gently build his exposure to Test rugby.

He was impossible to miss during Super Rugby because of his work-rate, power on both sides of the ball and unfailing accuracy.

“[We] like his accuracy, he’s a big man that’s physical, but he’s really accurate and he’s intimidating,” is Robertson’s assessment of Parker.

But what Robertson is no doubt thinking, is that he may be able to start Tests this year with Fabian Holland and Scott Barrett at lock, Vaa’i at blindside, and Parker and Patrick Tuipulotu (1.98m/125kg) on the bench.

That will give him a suite of big men to prevent the All Blacks being overpowered in the final quarter, and a means to keep the set-piece functioning and competitive for the full 80 minutes without losing that ability to play at pace.

Finau’s explosive, but he is a different body shape to Parker and Vaa’i – leaner and not as tall – and it may be that when the squad has to be cut to 33 for the 2027 World Cup, there is no room for him.
But he’s another power athlete with the ability to play both lock and loose forward, and for now he will remain in the mix in case the experiment with Vaa’i doesn’t ultimately work out, or Parker can’t reproduce his Super Rugby form for the All Blacks.