The French Deflection

Stroppy halfback gets it right, but Razor saves the day, PLUS: That 'summer' schedule, bad seeds at Wimbledon, postcards from Le Tour, some John Bracewell magic... and tears in Liverpool.

The All Blacks have kept a lid on preparations for the first test. Getty Images

At least Justin Marshall said the quiet bit out loud: the All Blacks can’t really win this month because France have turned this international window into a three-part turd.

Okay, there might be a bit of licence taken with the phrasing, but that’s the gist of Marshall’s message on The Breakdown.

“To be honest, I’m really disappointed… the side that the French have bought is clearly underpowered; the average age is 25 [and] the average number of caps is 9.3,” Marshall said. “This is a side that has very little experience… forty-nine percent of the players have got no caps at all. So it’s a development team with a few senior players involved.

“It’s complete BS the way that they’re treating this tour, the way that the French always seem to have come up with excuses to not bring their top players. I feel they disrespect the international window.”

There’s always been a bit of the iconoclast about Marshall who 20 years ago thrilled his paymasters at New Zealand Rugby by describing Super Rugby and the then-Tri Nations as boring, but really he’s just stating the obvious.

France’s decision not to pick players involved in last weekend’s Top 14 final, allied to injuries to key players, means that anything less than convincing victories for Scott Robertson’s All Blacks 2.0 will be seen as a disappointment — a failure even.

Of course there will be talk of not taking the opposition lightly and how the Top 14 is so full of wondrous talent France could pick five teams and they’d all be competitive but we also have to be real — if the All Blacks fall to this French team, they will be searching for souls.

Thankfully, even as New Zealand fans wrap their heads around a Les Bleus team chock full of names they don’t recognise and/or can’t pronounce, Robertson has done everyone a solid by naming a 23 that has multiple talking points.

Here are five ranked in order of least to most interesting:

5. Jordie Barrett will wear No12. This was signposted some way out, but nevertheless it will be interesting to see if the younger brother slots seamlessly back after his well-regarded sabbatical at Leinster. According to the aforementioned Marshall, it’s his flaws at second-five that have directly led to number two on this list.

4. Beauden Barrett will wear No10. Honestly, it’s probably the number one talking point in a lot of households, especially Beaudy and D-Mac’s, but don’t worry, there’s going to be plenty more opportunities to reignite this debate until Richie Mo’unga flies back and saves us all from ourselves. Is it too edgy to say this was a pick made not so much based on Barrett’s form, but with the memory of McKenzie’s no-show in the Super Rugby final top of mind? Robertson was at his least charismatic when discussing the rationale: "Both have had good seasons, we just felt Beauden gets the opportunity… Beaudie has led the group really, really well and D-Mac can come on and he can change games, or finish games, so it’s a good combo.”

3. Debutants. It’s always good to see how players respond to the thing they’ve probably always dreamed about — even the ones who grow up in the Netherlands. Step forward Fabian Holland and Christian Lio-Willie, who will start at lock and No8 respectively, and Du’Plessis Kirifi and Ollie Norris who will almost certainly be injected from the bench at some point.

2. Billy Proctor will play centre, ergo Rieko Ioane shifts back to the wing. “Should have happened earlier,” is what you’ll hear those who have watched a lot of the Hurricanes (and the Blues) over the past couple of years say. The reticence to play Proctor last year was puzzling, though Robertson indicated he would have played a part on the end-of-year tour had “bumps” not taken their toll.

Here’s Gregor Paul’s take on it ($):

Head coach Scott Robertson has taken a bold step towards addressing that perennial problem of 2024 by selecting Billy Proctor to start at centre.

It’s a move that says things have to change if the All Blacks are to convert from being flagrant opportunity blowers, to cold, clinical killers. It’s a move that says 2025 will be a year of Robertson actively searching for solutions and not endlessly dwelling on problems.

1. Tupou Vaa’i will play blindside. Count me as intrigued. As someone unconvinced about the international merits of Samipeni Finau, Ethan Blackadder and Luke Jacobson, taking a flyer on someone as tall and dynamic as Vaa’i seems like a risk worth taking. If it’s a fast-fail, so be it, but the potential upside in a problem position could be transformative.

Tupou Vaa’i. Getty Images

Said Robertson: “We set him [Vaa’i] up, we have had 10 days, he has trained all the way through, right from the start there. He’s played for the Chiefs there before, so it’s not totally new. He’s a big man with a great skillset and he’s quick. He can slot in.”

These talking points alone are worth tuning in for on a big-ish Saturday for rugby. The Māori take on the Lions-less Scotland in Northland, while the actual Lions hit Sydney for a clash with the Waratahs.

There’s a part of me that feels guilty for writing this, but I struggle to generate much enthusiasm for the Lions tour matches in Australia. There’s just not the sense that an upset could happen the way there is when they play non-test games here or in South Africa.

NZ v France, 1st test, Dunedin, tomorrow 7.05pm

Waratahs v Lions, Sydney, tomorrow 10pm

NZ Māori v Scotland, Whangārei, tomorrow 3.35pm, all SS1