Elliott Smith: Sportstalk host on Scott Robertson naming first All Blacks team of 2025

Coach Scott Robertson has unveiled his first All Blacks 23 of the year.

Apart from positional changes for Reiko Ioane, Tupou Vaa'i and Ardie Savea, there are four uncapped players in the squad to take on France in Dunedin this Saturday.

Sportstalk host Elliott Smith explains further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Elliot Smith's sports talk hosters with US. Hello Elliott, Hello Heather.

(00:03):
What do you think of the squad?

Speaker 2 (00:04):
I quite like it. I think it's bold. I think
they've made some real changes here the All Blacks. Last year.
Scott Robinson has admitted in a couple of inches that
maybe they're a little bit too conservative in terms of
their selections. Well, this has swung the pendulum big time
to some risk taking four debutantes in the twenty three
that old adage of you know, slowly blooding through the debutantes.

(00:24):
Maybe they get a chance in the third test of
the year. Well they haven't done that. They've put all
four of them out of the six in the squad
in the mix for this weekend, two starting two on
the bench. And I think it's the side of the
times is that they want to really take some risks
with us All Blacks team and push the envelope a
little bit that maybe they did previously did last year.

(00:45):
They feel a little bit more comfortable in this All
Black side. You know, Fabian Holland big body starting in
the second row for the first time, moving to po
Vai to blindside Flanka. You know there is inherent risk
in what they're doing this weekend. But if you don't
do it, you don't know, you know. I quite applaud
that approach from Scott Roberts.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Its risk though, I mean, if you isn't the French team,
absolutely crap it is.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
But still Blakes have traditionally well we don't even't seen
the four twenty three year, but the All Blacks have
traditionally been slow starters to a season. So there is
that little bit of risk that you're putting in new
combinations and you can only play who you're in front of.
And look, this French team have got nothing to lose.
There are a lot of players trying to impress and
trying to crack that top French team, as their head
coach sees it. So there is a little bit of

(01:28):
nothing to lose from the All Blacks perspective, But you know,
you've still got to go out there and do it.
And it would have been easy to put out these
players that have played Test rugby before, not change combinations,
say we'll get to it for week three if we
win the first two tests. But the roll of the dice,
and I think that's it's quite a bold move. Moving
Ricae Juanne back to left wing as another one. Billy
Procter form player in Super Rugby this year. So in

(01:49):
many ways it's what the public has been calling for
and they've embraced it. The all black Selectors.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah, interesting stuff. Now what do you make of Hayden
Padden wanting to put a key we owned team in
the double?

Speaker 2 (01:57):
I really like this in the WRC. I think it's
a great move. It look a bit more like Formula One,
you know, Red Bull Racing and all those other teams
that's been too tied to the manufacturers. The w r
C very very hard to crack, you know, Ford and
Toyota and Hyundai the main one. Citron's been in there
as well, but it's very much a close shop. And
we know Hayden Patten's an absolutely wonderful driver, hasn't been

(02:20):
able to get it. We're cracked with Fynda. But how
good if he was able to put a New Zealand
team together and go we've got one driver here, co
driver here, We're going to put a couple of cars
out and and contest the WRC. I think that's what
the sport's been missing. It's sort of falling off the radar.
You think of col mc cray twenty years ago, and
especially Lobe and a few of those other drivers. Doesn't
really create a ripple anymore. If Hayden Pattin's able to

(02:41):
stack up a KWED team, you know, think of a
one GP what about twenty years ago, which was on
the on the headlines around international representation kind of like
if one I'm all for us. I think it'd be
a great move. The problem here, that of course, is
where's the money coming from and from from New Zealand
trying to fund the WRC team which goes around the globe.
It would not be cheap in the slightest.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Hey, thank you, Elliott, appreciate it. Elliot Smith, sports talk host.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
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