There are a lot of CBs playing at very high levels at the age of 33 or older. To me, right now is too early for 2026 to be the primary consideration. I think we need to be playing a back 4 and I don't trust Tuiloma or Pijnaker to be solid enough defensively in a CB pairing. A back 3 hides their defensive weaknesses while allowing their other strengths to be more useful, but the problem is every NZ team that plays a back 5 looks much worse and gets worse results than the same team playing with a back 4. So for me it is smith and Boxall for now and it is up to the chasing pack to earn that starting spot or for Smith and Boxall to lose theirs. Heck it might encourage nando to try to play at a decent level. We shouldn't be rewarding league of Ireland players with a guaranteed spot in the all whites starting xi.
There are a lot of CBs playing at very high levels at the age of 33 or older. To me, right now is too early for 2026 to be the primary consideration. I think we need to be playing a back 4 and I don't trust Tuiloma or Pijnaker to be solid enough defensively in a CB pairing. A back 3 hides their defensive weaknesses while allowing their ball other abilities to be more useful, but the problem is every NZ team that plays a back 5 looks much worse and gets worse results than the same team playing with a back 4. So for me it is smith and Boxall for now and it is up to the chasing pack to earn that starting spot or for Smith and Boxall to lose theirs. Heck it might encourage nando to try to play at a decent level. We shouldn't be rewarding league of Ireland players with a guaranteed spot in the all whites starting xi.