Rookies provide bright spot for rusty All Blacks / Photo: Sanka Vidanagama - AFP
Rookies provide bright spot for rusty All Blacks
The biggest smile on All Blacks coach Scott Robertson's face after a lacklustre season-opening victory over France came when he recalled the performance of his four rookies.
Dutch giant Fabian Holland and No 8 Christian Lio-Willie started the match, with 22-year-old lock Holland playing the full 80 minutes.
"He could have played 100 minutes," Robertson said, celebrating Holland's "huge engine".
Prop Ollie Norris and flanker Du'Plessis Kirifi joined from the bench, providing a spark which helped the team home.
The quartet were the undoubted bright spots in a rusty New Zealand performance against a France side boasting eight rookies -- and written off as a supposed "B-team".
Holland grew up in the Dutch town of Castricum, near Amsterdam, where his old friends gathered at a rugby club to celebrate his New Zealand debut.
"My best mates that I grew up with organised a morning brunch there," Holland said.
"A Dutch morning brunch, with a few pints of course.
"I haven't checked my phone yet, but I'll probably end up calling my best mates from back home and just have a yarn with them.
"They always try and watch every game at my grassroots club, Castricumse Rugby Club, so to have them in my corner is pretty special."
- 'Unwashed' jersey -
Holland was solid if unspectacular in his All Black debut.
The 204-centimetre (6ft7) lock towered over his teammates during the national anthems.
He smiled warmly as he remembered the home he left at 14, pursuing an unlikely path to the coveted black jersey.
"They have a New Zealand under-20s jersey (in the clubrooms), so I try to give back to the club there," Holland said.
"They shaped me into the person that I am today, into the rugby player, helped me find my passion for rugby, so I owe them a lot.
"Whenever I'm back home I just try to get around the kids, help out with a few training drills and be as approachable as I can.
"I don't know, (an under-20s jersey is) probably not enough for what they've done for me, but hopefully they know how much the club means to me."
Holland said his first All Blacks jersey would take pride of place at his family home.
Fellow rookie Kirifi fronted media after the match with blood staining his forehead, ears, chin and the white collar of his jersey.
"It's going to get framed and that's probably going to go to my dad," Kirifi said, in reference to his first Test jersey.
"Unwashed."
Kirifi said Test match rugby had been a huge step up.
"Yeah, it was very tough," he said.
"I'm not sure if there was a gap there for me, because I got smoked by a couple of big French boys at one stage there.
"But sometimes you're going to be running into a brick wall.
"But you expect absolutely nothing less. That's international rugby."
M.Fierro--IM
