Former All Black Israel Dagg has revealed his ideal back row for the first Bledisloe test against Australia at Melbourne on September 15.
Star No.8 Ardie Savea will miss the away trip, as he awaits the birth of his third child, while regular blindside flanker Shannon Frizell suffered a rib injury in New Zealand's 53-3 win over Argentina at Hamilton.
With the pair ruled out, Waikato flanker Luke Jacobson has been drafted into All Blacks coach Ian Foster's squad for the away trip.
Jacobson, 25, has played 12 tests for New Zealand since making his debut in 2019 and Dagg would like to see him add another cap to his name at Marvel Stadium.
Another candidate for the loose forward mix is lock Scott Barrett, who was so effective off the side of the scrum against Ireland at Eden Park in July, but has had to cover injuries to Sam Whitelock and Brodie Retallick since.
"There is a genuine option there with Barrett, he can either go 6 or you go Akira Ioane ... and then you've got Luke Jacobson," Dagg said on SENZ Breakfast.
"For me, I'm probably going to go... Luke Jacobson's going to go at 6. I'm going to throw him in at 6, because he offers something different.
"He's very good over the ball, he's got concrete shoulders and he is very good with ball in hand."
With All Blacks captain Sam Cane a lock at openside, it remains to be seen who will replace the irreplaceable Savea at the back of the scrum.
But Dagg backs Akira Ioane to fill the void of Savea and Frizell, as he offers a different skillset to both Cane and Jacobson.
"I'm actually going to throw Akira Ioane at 8," Dagg said. "If he can find something that Shannon Frizell was able to find over the last couple of weeks to just bring that edge, that bit of mongrel that he needs…
"He can bring it some days and then some days he can't. If he can find that consistency to bring a bit of an edge… Luke can go to 8 and Akira can go to 6, so there's two options there."
Join us at 9:45pm Thursday, September 15 for live updates of the first All Blacks v Australia Bledisloe Cup test
