D'Arcy Waldegrave: Sportstalk host on Scott Robertson's picks for the All Blacks' clash against Fiji

The All Blacks have named six debutants in their 23 to face Fiji at San Diego on the weekend.

Billy Proctor starts at centre with five more uncapped players on the bench - George Bell, Pasilio Tosi, Sam Darry, Wallace Sititi and Noah Hotham.

Only captain Scott Barrett, number eight Ardie Savea, first-five Damian McKenzie and right wing Sevu Reece start in the same jerseys from last week.

Sportstalk host D'Arcy Waldegrave explains further.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Darcy Waldgrave is on Sports Talk this evening and by goodness,
State of Origin was a violent affair.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Violent, it's one way of putting it.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Which is an incredibly bad spiritus.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
It was a testoster zone, that's what it was, and
it spewed out of every pore of all the players
on there. Right from the get go. It just started
on fire and it didn't stop relentless. The physicality of
that game, the intent of the athletes is they basically
try and run right through you, not around you or

(00:32):
into you, but through over and they carry on. I
could not get over at the first forty minutes was exceptional,
and of course it was very, very tight. What makes
it even better? I used to be a Maroons fan.
I lived over there for a while. But the longer
it goes on, the less I care about who wins.
I just want to see in exchange it doesn't actually
bother me. Who comes up with the lollies at the

(00:53):
end of I want to see good rugby league, want
to see hard rugby league. I don't think it needs
to be too aggressive. And the handbags at fifty paces
it's a little bit funny, really.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Really yeah, it's kind of like an ice hockey, right.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
They throw their gloves off and yeah, yeah, but the
display and toward the end of it, look for New
South Wales to do that at some corpus is something
else there. The heat in that stadium is extraordinary and
we know what the thought processes were around. Michael McGuire
coached that New South Welsh team and round me written
off and then they came back and absolutely bulldozed Queensland

(01:30):
and that second match, so that's okay, we're back, came
for the last We've got it, No you haven't. And
the brilliantly named Bradman best player of the day. I
think in the park that he looked exceptional.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Six debutants named in the all Black side to play
and black Adder back as well.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah he's back on the open side flank and we
have got Ardie Savilla up the boots. But you go
back to the debutants, six of them, five of them
on the bench. There's three guys on the bench not
Nowa has had one test, then the other two De

(02:09):
Groot and Jordi Barrett have had quite a few. But
you get to the stage at the game when the
Fijians are playing. I don't know what the weather's going
to be like in San Diego, hopefully like this for
Mica desk, So like this Marble desk we all broadcast on.
It'll be a wonderful tight land for them to hard land,
for them to run on. The Fijians might get up

(02:30):
and start going. The All Blacks will try and keep
them right in the middle, keep them down and try
and grind their way through. But the Fijians start running
away and we get to twenty minutes to go, how
likely Scott Robertson going to be too empty? His bench
with five decks on it. That's a lot of pressure
to put onto young guys. Yeah, a lot of pressure.
So we expect what I'd expect that the game will

(02:52):
start off with a hess in a raw, not I'm
like Origin, and the All Blacks will try and get
out well ahead before they need. The substitute of it
is tight Scott Robinson maywell and go, you know what,
you're an All Black, now get out there and in
your stripes. On the other fascinating sides of it, and
Justin Marshall joins us on the show this evening up
after seven o'clock on Sports Talk is and I asked him.

(03:14):
I said, or Ratima and he goes, I don't care
either way. It doesn't bother, so you can tea or
t whatever it is anyway. So courtis one test, it's great.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
The other day amazing.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
I hold them off the bench, no test. So your
half back pairing you All Blacks has a grand total
of one test off the bench to back up. That's
more pressure. But you've got Ardie Savia coming out a eight,
help out, Damien McKenzie settling, and it's on the outside
and yeah there's some interesting course. We'll talk all about
it up after seven o'clock with just marsh.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
It's it's not going to be the test aster zone
that this is right now and who that were before?

Speaker 2 (03:51):
I love it well. I made another one up on
the weekend when things get bad, the stress toss zone,
and that's any All Black match at home because it's
just full of means stressing out, test tosster zone, going
through the roof, sitting in the same space, the stress toster.
The stress tosters are.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
Very good tosters, very good. You can see he's a
learned man. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive listen
live to news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio