All Blacks appoint new captain and omit number 8, who will soon qualify for England

Finally appointed as All Blacks head coach after years of success with the Crusaders, Scott Robertson has announced his first squad, which will face England next week.

Robertson has picked five uncapped players, one of whom is particularly in form, and picked a captain when he still had a strong candidate in the squad.

No Hoskins Sotutu, which will pique England’s interest

Those of you with fond memories of New Zealand’s post-2019 rebuild will remember that Sotutu was the popular name to replace Kieran Read after his retirement. And while Hoskins was given a chance under Ian Foster and won fourteen caps, the All Blacks went in a different direction, with Ardie Savea successfully moving up to eighth.

Sotutu’s last cap was the 25-25 draw with England at Twickenham before being dropped for all of 2023 and missing out on selection for the Rugby World Cup. Sotutu spoke earlier this year about how that snarl “lit a fire” and it undoubtedly led to his best form as he scored 12 tries for the title-winning Blues this year, the most of any forward since 2011 according to Opta.

And yet there is no Test recall for Sotutu, despite that great campaign in which he consistently showed strength and the ability to find the try line. “I don’t know what else he has to do (to get selected), but that’s their selection so they obviously have a game plan in mind,” John Kirwan, the former All Black, told Sky Sports NZ.

His continued absence, now under Robertson, creates the possibility of switching countries next year to either play for England, for whom Sotutu qualifies through his mother, or for Fiji, through his father.

Robertson described leaving Hoskins out as his toughest decision. It will now be interesting to see if Hoskins makes the decision to move abroad after such great form, even though he signed a two-year extension to stay with the Blues in May.

New caps

One reason Sotutu isn’t in the squad is because Robertson has opted to select another talented No. 8: Wallace Sititi of the Chiefs. Sititi, the son of Semo, the former Samoa international who played for Newcastle Falcons, is an athlete, as you can see from this score against the Hurricanes.