All Blacks vs Scotland: Why Fabian Holland and Scott Barrett are now first-choice locks
All Blacks v Scotland – 3.10am, Sunday
Gregor Paul in Edinburgh
There is, presumably unbeknown to the All Blacks locking pair chosen to play Scotland, a successful high-street retail chain in the UK called Holland & Barrett.
It’s a health and wellbeing outlet selling the sort of unscientific, overpriced health products that make medical professionals nervous, but which social media influencers can’t get enough of.
It’s all magnesium and zinc tablets, chia seeds, turmeric capsules and psyllium husks – not necessarily the sort of product offering that feels like it needs or could afford the rent and upkeep of high-end real estate across the country, but it has become a much-loved British institution – the iconic and legitimate face of the British middle-classes addiction to pseudo-pharmaceuticals.
New Zealand, of course, has its own emerging Holland and Barrett entity, this one being the All Blacks combination of Fabian and Scott who have been rewarded with another start in Edinburgh after featuring in Sydney.
Lock has become the most congested and competitive position of 2026, and the one in which head coach Dave Rennie has arguably found the hardest to settle on a preferred combination.
There hasn’t been a pairing to date that has won consistency of game time, and the All Blacks have sprung a surprise in each of the nine tests played this year.
Holland. Josh Lord, Tupou Vaa’i, Patrick Tuipulotu, Sam Darry and Barrett have all started at various times, with multiple permutations tried.
This is the first time that Rennie has rolled out the same locking combination in successive tests – a fact that alludes to the intensity of competition, a high injury toll and until now, an uncertainty that the right mix has been unearthed.
But the Holland-Barrett partnership is maybe starting to feel like it is the one with which to persevere. These two don’t necessarily stack as the obvious right choice as there are more similarities than there are differences in the way they play.
Individually they justify their case. Barrett is the most destructive ball carrier of the cohort, the quickest and most skilled. He’s also the one with the darkest temperament. He’s brooding and unpredictable – characteristics which work as well for an international lock as they do the male protagonist in a Jane Austen novel.
Holland is heavier and he’s 6cm taller which makes him a cruise liner to Barrett’s billionaire’s superyacht, but he’s surprisingly mobile and his hands are soft without quite having Barrett’s range of deft touches.
They both offer high work rates, multiple ball carries, big defensive shifts and endless cleanouts. Barrett is quicker, more agile and explosive, but they both like to be in the middle of the field, seeing what they can bend and break with and without the ball.
All of this is bang on brand for what the All Blacks need, but the locking combinations that have been picked prior to Holland and Barrett had greater points of difference.
And maybe three things have happened in the past two tests to change or clarify the way the selectors are now thinking.
Firstly, Barrett has made an exceptional comeback from injury and established himself as the No 1 lock with a nearly perfect range of skills that match the way Rennie wants his team to play.
Secondly, Holland has potentially established that he’s the pick of the rest (while Vaa’i continues to be used as a No 6), leapfrogging Lord.
And thirdly, there may now be agreement among the selection panel that the locking combination doesn’t necessarily need to have pronounced points of difference in athlete shape or style of individual play to be considered the most effective.
On those two last points, the evidence lies in the way things played out during the recent Bledisloe series.
In picking that team for the first test against Australia, Rennie revealed that it had taken three attempts for him, assistant coach Neil Barnes and independent selector Graham Henry to settle on the final 23 names.
He never said what areas specifically had caused the stalemate but the answer perhaps became apparent the following week.
In the first test, which was Barrett’s comeback game from injury, he started with Lord, the two being obviously different body types with distinct skill-sets.
But the taller, spring-heeled Lord, try as he might, couldn’t and hasn’t established that his lighter frame and natural athleticism can deliver the sort of lineout dominance the All Blacks are looking for.
The lineout didn’t function well in Auckland and the All Blacks ended up only really being able to secure their ball when they threw to the front – limiting their attacking options.
Lord paid the price when he was moved out of the 23 and in came Holland, signalling that lock had been the position of contention that had split the selectors.
It has been the equally tall but heavier Holland who has given the All Blacks lineout more certainty this year and better bang for buck when competing for opposition ball, and having seen how he combined with Barrett in Sydney, there is no longer – if there ever was – any lingering concern that the partnership didn’t have the breadth of skills and contributions the All Blacks need.
Holland and Barrett is proving to be as unlikely an iconic name in New Zealand as it has become in the UK.
Gregor Paul is one of New Zealand’s most respected rugby writers and columnists. He has won multiple awards for journalism and written several books about sport.
Listen to Elliott Smith’s live commentary on Newstalk ZB Sport and iHeartRadio, or join the Alternative Commentary Collective on iHeartRadio and Radio Hauraki.