All Blacks great Justin Marshall has explained why he believes Jordie Barrett should have a new centre partner this season.
Ahead of the 2023 Rugby World Cup, previous head coach Ian Foster settled on a midfield axis of Barrett and Rieko Ioane, which proved successful in their run to the final.
Scott Robertson took over following that tournament and unsurprisingly continued with those two at centre, but they struggled to fire in 2024.
Ioane’s struggles in 2025
With Ioane form issues remaining during the Blues’ Super Rugby Pacific campaign, questions are still being asked about that 13 slot.
Part of the All Blacks’ issue, Marshall reckons, is with Barrett and the fact that their skill sets are not complementing each other.
“If there are defenders in your face but there is an opportunity to let rip with a pass, both Jordie and Rieko will seek the contact rather than let rip with that pass,” he told Sport Nation.
“When you’ve got defenders squeezing you for time and space, which is the whole essence around blitz defence – it’s to get defenders in your face, show you space but say that space has to be found with perfect execution.
“If you don’t, there are intercepts, players get knocked over and spilt ball will happen. What you’ve got to do is have players with the confidence to go into that space.
“Equally, you’ve got to find a way to batter your way at times through blitz defence to open them up and get them on the back foot.
“You can’t have like for like players and I certainly feel the combinations that work better are the ones where you’ve got somebody that’s good at contact, that can punch through but equally somebody that’s got the courage to throw a pass should that space be there.”
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Ioane’s replacement
Marshall believes that Barrett should retain his place, despite that perceived flaw, but he has consistently called for a new partner in the midfield due to that lack of balance.
Anton Lienert-Brown has featured at 13 on a number of occasions during his Test career but the former All Blacks scrum-half would like to see Billy Proctor in that slot for the France matches.
Proctor missed the start of the season through injury but produced a series of excellent performances for the Hurricanes when he returned from his troublesome Achilles issue.
“Because you’ve been good enough to create it, you’ve got to then capitalise on it and I just feel that having a distributor along with a player that can punch and kind of do both is important,” Marshall said.
“Jordie at 12 can do that but he can’t do that distribution, whereas Proctor can. All of a sudden, should that space be there, I feel Proctor’s got a good outside break, he’s got a good off-load and he can get the ball into that space should it be there for our wingers.”