Scott Robertson announced Scott Barrett as All Blacks captain at Coastal Rugby Club, Taranaki.
The choice signals Robertson’s faith in Barrett despite calls for Ardie Savea’s leadership.
Savea’s form and leadership qualities have sparked debate over the captaincy decision.
The timing may be coincidental, but the symbolism is entirely deliberate – All Blacks coach Scott Robertson could hardly be making a more poignant statement about his faith in captain Scott Barrett by choosing to announce his first squad of the year at the Coastal Rugby Clubin Taranaki.
Coastal is the spiritual home of the Barrett family, their equivalent of Scone Palace in Scotland where the ancient kings were crowned.
And in choosing to unveil the 2025 All Blacks at a place synonymous with New Zealand rugby’s royal family, Robertson is letting it be known that it will be Scott Barrett who will be his captain this year and beyond.
All Blacks captain Scott Barrett and Ardie Savea during last year's match against England. Photo / SmartFrame
The event on June 23 has been months in the planning – Coastal has long been destined to host the All Blacks – but the media release announcing where the first squad will be unveiled arrived in media inboxes just as Sonny Bill Williams was saying of Savea: “He’s got all the qualities that make up a great man.
“As a leader and as a sportsman, he’s gifted – and he’s a Polynesian brother leading the way, so all power to him.”
And Williams is far from alone in wondering whether Savea, having already been crowned Super Rugby Pacific Player of the Year by his peers and having so obviously inspired Moana beyond all expectation, should be promoted to the All Blacks captaincy.
Savea has played with an energy, precision and influence that has been scarcely believable. It has changed the dynamic entirely about where he sits in the global pecking order and for the time being at least, most would agree that it is Savea, and not Antoine Dupont, who is the best player in the world.
Form is important certainly as it relates to captaincy. The best All Blacks captains have mostly relied on derring-do as their most effective means to lead the team, and Savea has been pulling off the miraculous in seemingly every other play which is a powerful tool by which to lift those around him.
But there’s something additional about Savea that has been screaming All Blacks captain this season.
He’s so at ease with who he is, so untroubled by pressure or drama and so in tune with what he needs to say, when he needs to say it and in what tone he needs to say it.
He’s managed to look like he’s both one of the lads in the trenches and a general back at HQ, foraging for turnovers with the rest of the troops and then speaking to referees as if he’s part of the high command.
Wherever Savea goes his players follow and when the whole gambit of what is required to be the All Blacks captain is considered, he appears to hold every trump card.
He’s the form player, he’s got rapport with referees, global respect as a former World Player of the Year, he’s also the charismatic figure New Zealand Rugby is looking for to sell the team to offshore fans.
But it’s apparent Robertson is not going to switch horse mid-stream. He’s obviously of the view that the All Blacks can be the beneficiaries of all Savea’s qualities, without making him captain.
Razor is locked into Barrett, who he clearly sees as a four-year project, and in whom he clearly holds inordinate faith.
Scott Barrett is entering his second year as All Blacks captain. Photo / Photosport
Robertson knows his man and is certain Barrett will learn on the job and find a way this year – he endured an injury-ravaged 2024 that hampered his ability to find his best form – to get back to his world-class best.
And the thesis seems to be – and it’s not without basis – that Barrett at his best will be a different leader to the one on show last year.
Barrett is unlikely to ever be compared to Pericles or any of history’s other great orator generals, but his captaincy can nevertheless still be highly effective on the power of his performances which can be compelling and inspirational.
But the issue is not that Robertson is making a bad or ill-advised choice in persevering with Barrett as his captain, it’s that he could make a better one by promoting Savea.
That seems obvious to most observers – Savea is the more natural leader, and the value the All Blacks could extract from him if he were captain is greater than the value Barrett brings in the same role.
Savea is the man to whom every younger All Black is gravitating. He’s the player every young kid wants to sign their jersey, the man every foreign fan knows.
He’s the player every sponsor wants promoting their product and while there is an argument to say that Savea can still be massively inspirational and effective for the All Blacks if he’s not the captain, there is a more compelling one that says it will be significantly higher if he is.
It’s not fair to say Robertson is resistant or blocked off to the possibilities of making a change, it’s more that he’s determined to stick with a plan he was sure was right before he took the job and has not yet seen any reason to be persuaded otherwise.
He can feel the rising temperature around his choice of captain, but he wants to cool it with an unequivocal show of support at the seat of the Barrett dynasty.
It’s bold if nothing else – strong and decisive and sometimes it’s the strength of an action rather than its sense that people sometimes need to see.
And Robertson is no stranger to the art of the double-down. He did that in 2023, when after not landing the All Blacks job midway through 2022 partly on account of New Zealand Rugby not holding enough faith in his proposed wider coaching team, he presented the same people nine months later and said take me or leave me.
It’s not yet clear whether this is proof of the sort of single-minded obstinance possessed of some of history’s greatest leaders, or evidence of a critical flaw that he can’t admit he was wrong.
