{"id":114632,"date":"2025-05-19T15:14:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T15:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/114632\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T15:14:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T15:14:11","slug":"justin-marshall-urges-robertson-to-make-obvious-call-with-ardie-savea-planet-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/114632\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Marshall urges Robertson to make ‘obvious’ call with Ardie Savea : Planet Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Justin Marshall insists that Ardie Savea\u2019s form in Super Rugby Pacific this season shows that the All Blacks must now move him to openside flanker.<\/b><\/p>\n

The versatile back-rower has been New Zealand\u2019s first choice number eight for the past few years and became the 2023 World Rugby Player of the Year for his performances in that position.<\/p>\n

However, there have been calls to shift him to number seven, particularly due to Sam Cane\u2019s retirement and the emergence of Wallace Sititi.<\/p>\n

Savea<\/a> has only started once in that slot since 2021 with Ian Foster consistently selecting him at the base of the scrum during his tenure.<\/p>\n

Reluctant All Blacks head coaches<\/p>\n

Marshall claims that he has often urged All Blacks<\/a> head coaches to make the positional switch, but Foster \u2013 and more recently recently Robertson<\/a> \u2013 have been reluctant to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to be a smartarse but I can\u2019t help myself. I\u2019ve been saying for three years that Ardie Savea is an openside flanker and nobody wanted to seem to listen, particularly All Black coaches,\u201d the ex-scrum-half told Sport Nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more I see him on the side of the scrum and how the rest of the loose forward trio balances out, and the player that he is in that jersey, the more it\u2019s glaringly obvious that Scott Robertson needs to pick him in that shirt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Unassailable\u2019 Ardie Savea clinches Super Rugby Pacific Player of the Year award with two rounds to spare<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Since moving to Moana Pasifika, Savea has played mostly at openside flanker, producing a number of inspirational performances to help them to their best-ever Super Rugby Pacific season.<\/p>\n

They are not a one-man team, but the back-rower\u2019s displays have been absolutely vital in giving them a shot at making the 2025 play-offs.<\/p>\n

\u2018Perfectly suited\u2019 to openside<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a unique player. What he does do really well is have the ability to slightly change the picture in the way he\u2019s playing. His natural instinct is to gravitate to the ball because that\u2019s where he\u2019s strong,\u201d Marshall added.<\/p>\n

\u201cEither offensively or defensively, that\u2019s where he is at his most destructive. Openside flankers gravitate to the ball, they want to be first or second arriving player the majority of the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Ardie\u2019s going to that zone and he\u2019s picking and going, and carrying with his leg drive, that\u2019s where he\u2019s devastating \u2013 he\u2019s hard to get to ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he\u2019s there as a defender, how good is he over the ball and how hard is he to move? We saw that on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the majority of the game, that\u2019s where he\u2019s at, which suits the jersey number. He then has the ability, when he sees others going to that zone and getting over the ball or cleaning the ruck \u2013 and he\u2019s outside of that pattern \u2013 to play second or third receiver and do things that he\u2019s been doing for Moana Pasifika.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis ability to be able to do that and balance his game out is perfectly suited to that shirt.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Ardie Savea dubbed \u2018best player in the world\u2019 by ex-All Black after \u2018OUT OF THIS WORLD\u2019 performance<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justin Marshall insists that Ardie Savea\u2019s form in Super Rugby Pacific this season shows that the All Blacks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[18129,225,45743,522,45541,51801,704,12,4151,18132,79,10264,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-114632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-ardie-savea","9":"tag-home-page","10":"tag-ian-foster","11":"tag-international","12":"tag-justin-marshall","13":"tag-moana-pasifika","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-rugby","17":"tag-scott-robertson","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-super-rugby","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114535154675230426","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}