Head coach Scott Robertson has left star All Blacks playmaker Beauden Barrett on the bench for Saturday’s clash against England in Dunedin.
Damian McKenzie was preferred at flyhalf for the first of the two Tests against the English in New Zealand after Barrett spent most of 2024 playing in Japan.
Robertson opted for Stephen Perofeta to win his fourth cap at fullback after he was part of the Blues Super Rugby-winning side last month.
The side will be captained for the first time by Beauden’s younger brother, lock Scott Barrett, who hasn’t played a game for two months because of a back injury.
Robertson named eight starting players who took the field for New Zealand’s most recent Test, the World Cup final defeat to the Springboks in October. Beauden Barrett started at fullback on that occasion.
“He took it like a true pro, whatever’s required for this week,” Robertson said of Barrett’s reaction to being dropped to the replacements.
“Obviously the experience of 123 Test matches counts for a lot, but also there’s a guy [Perofeta] who was in form just two weeks ago in a Test match-level game in a final.
“And Beauden can play his part, covering 10 and 15.”
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McKenzie will partner scrumhalf TJ Perenara, who returns to the All Blacks for the first time since rupturing his Achilles tendon in late 2022 in the drawn Test against England at Twickenham, the last time the teams met.
Perenara and Perofeta are among four starting players who did not play a Test last year, along with winger Sevu Reece and lock Patrick Tuipulotu.
Chiefs flanker Samipeni Finau won a contentious battle for the blindside flanker berth. The hard-hitting loose forward joins Ardie Savea and Dalton Papali’i in the back row.
Robertson left out all of the squad’s five uncapped players from the matchday 23.
The All Blacks are without Sam Whitelock, Brodie Retallick and Aaron Smith, 100-plus Test veterans who retired after the World Cup.
New Zealand supporters are hoping Robertson can rejuvenate an All Blacks side whose form wavered for four years under his predecessor Ian Foster.
Robertson said he had received a text message from former All Blacks coach Graham Henry.
“He said ’all the best’. That was a nice little touch from him and he had a hell of a career didn’t he?” Robertson said of Henry, whose tenure ended with a Rugby World Cup triumph on home soil in 2011.
New Zealand – 15 Stephen Perofeta, 14 Sevu Reece, 13 Rieko Ioane, 12 Jordie Barrett, 11 Mark Tele’a, 10 Damian McKenzie, 9 TJ Perenara, 8 Ardie Savea, 7 Dalton Papali’i, 6 Samipeni Finau, 5 Patrick Tuipulotu, 4 Scott Barrett (c), 3 Tyrel Lomax, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Ethan De Groot.
Subs: 16 Asafo Aumua, 17 Ofa Tu’ungafasi, 18 Fletcher Newell, 19 Tupou Vaa’i, 20 Luke Jacobson, 21 Finlay Christie, 22 Anton Lienert-Brown, 23 Beauden Barrett.
© Agence France-Press
Photo: Xavier Laine/Getty Images
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Src: sarugbymag.co.za
