Scott Robertson plans to accelerate Project 4-4-4, aiming for depth with four options per position.
Robertson intends to use upcoming tests against France to experiment and integrate new players.
Billy Proctor and Fabian Holland are expected to debut, with Timoci Tavatavanawai likely featuring off the bench.
Project 4-4-4 endured something of a false start last year, with even its architect, Scott Robertson, hinting recently that he could have made a few more bold selections than he did.
No one was expecting the new coach to come into the role and toss out the establishedcore of experienced players he had inherited, but there was a surprising lack of appetite to reinvent the All Blacks to any degree.
For much of 2024, it felt like Robertson was giving the country the All Blacks of 2023 and that he was inhibited by a reticence to start a voyage of discovery about the next generation.
A few new faces were given a bit of game time here and there, but it never seemed there was a concerted or committed attempt to find a third halfback and a third first five-eighths, develop the options in midfield or cast the net wider than just Wallace Sititi in the hope of landing a big catch at loose forward.
And nowhere was that reticence to be a little bolder, or experimental even, more sharply realised than the final test of the year, when the selectors opted to throw the kitchen sink at an Italian team that really were nowhere near the calibre Robertson was trying to suggest they were.
In a commercially driven world where the All Blacks rarely get served up a gimme, this was a missed opportunity on a similar scale to those publishers who said to J.K. Rowling that they didn’t think kids would go for her world of wizards, Quidditch and magical boarding schools.
Robertson spent much of the week leading into that test talking about his desire to build the depth of his squad and yet, instead of taking the chance to learn a bit more about the likes of Josh Lord, Peter Lakai, Stephen Perofeta and Ruben Love, it was all the same, highly familiar names asked to go around one more time and play a fourth test in succession.
Its clear now, that having had months to review the 2024 season and reconsider what he may have done differently, Robertson is of the view he needs to accelerate his 4-4-4 project – his plan to take four years to win a fourth World Cup with four options in each position.
Or at least, he needs to better align his selections with the strategy, and for all that he has said the appropriately respectful things about the underpowered French team that have turned up in New Zealand, he knows the weakness of the visitors has handed him a not-to-be-missed opportunity to get a few answers to a few questions.
Billy Proctor could get a call-up for the opening test against France. Photo / Photosport
If he wants depth, he has to give players a chance to play and Project 4-4-4 can’t be abstract and theoretical. It has to be a practically managed concept where throughout this year, Robertson reads when to weight his selections more heavily towards the experienced core, and when to dabble in a bit of fact-finding and experimentation.
The French, as something of an unknown quantity, are likely to provide three tests in which Robertson will feel he has a hitherto ungranted degree of latitude to mix and match: to sprinkle some new faces into the team each week without making change on a scale that could be considered dramatic and potentially dangerous to landing the victories.
In the first stage of this mission to properly ignite Project 4-4-4, it would be no surprise to see Billy Proctor start at centre in Dunedin, with Rieko Ioane on the left wing to answer the question of whether the former can deliver the sort of calm and accurate distribution and the latter the power running and sharp finishing the All Blacks’ attack needs.
There may also be a desire to get Timoci Tavatavanawai into action this Saturday – possibly starting him on the right wing – but more likely off the bench, where he can be injected into the midfield.
He’s got power and an extraordinary gift for stealing turnovers, but there will be some interest in using the July tests to determine whether he has the top-end pace to be effective at this higher level.
In the forwards, it is apparent Robertson has been keen on Fabian Holland for some time and that the interest has only intensified since the big lock impressed as training cover late last year – and then delivered an impressive Super Rugby Pacific campaign this year.
Potentially, Holland could start alongside captain Scott Barrett as Tupou Vai’i clocked up a lot of Super Rugby minutes and will have a big role to play throughout the season, but regardless of which way around they take the field, the man born in the Netherlands is most likely going to make his debut in Dunedin.
Injury to prop Tamaiti Williams has presumably elevated the uncapped Ollie Norris to a bench spot, and both Christian Lio-Willie and Du Plessis Kirifi look set to feature in the loose forwards because Sititi has been forced to have surgery and Luke Jacobson has been ruled out.
