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[File Photo]: New Zealand’s All Blacks player
A sold-out crowd in Dunedin will ensure noisy support for the All Blacks in their season-opening test against France on Saturday but there will also be cheers in the Netherlands when Fabian Holland takes the field.
The Dutch-born lock will line up for his test debut alongside captain Scott Barrett in the second row, possibly the biggest surprise among the four uncapped players included in Scott Robertson’s match-day squad.
Standing 2.04m and weighing in at 124 kg (273.37 pounds), 22-year-old Holland is well-known to the Otago faithful in Dunedin, having become a cult hero at the Highlanders in Super Rugby.
But his selection is the realisation of an improbable childhood dream and a rugby obsession that started in the seaside village of Castricum, outside Amsterdam.
Holland was smitten by rugby at the age of five after watching the All Blacks on YouTube and soon had his dad downloading Super Rugby matches to watch every night.
At the age of 16, he packed his bags and flew to New Zealand’s South Island to board at Christchurch Boys High School, the rugby nursery of All Blacks greats Dan Carter and Brodie Retallick.
A planned six-month stint to develop his game ended up stretching to two years before he headed south to Dunedin to have a crack at a professional career.
Holland has not looked back, signing a three-year deal with the Highlanders in 2022 after a season with the provincial Otago side.
Robertson beamed when asked about giving Holland his first cap, a move made possible by switching lock Tupou Vaa’i to the back row against France.
“He’s pretty excited. From Zeeland to New Zealand,” Robertson told reporters on Thursday.
“He’s come a long way. It’s a great story. Pretty single-minded from a 14-year-old to make that call to come over and represent another country in a game he loves — and he saw the All Blacks as the ultimate.
“It’s movie sort of stuff, isn’t it?”
Holland will have Otago company to help with the match-day nerves when he marches out under the roof at Forsyth-Barr stadium on Saturday.
Former Otago and Highlanders teammate Christian Lio-Willie is among the uncapped players, along with Waikato Chiefs’ prop Ollie Norris and Wellington Hurricanes’ loose forward Du’Plessis Kirifi.
Lio-Willie was brought in to the squad as injury cover but now finds himself set to start at number eight alongside enforcer Ardie Savea and Vaa’i in the back row.
“When I saw my name on that screen, I just sort of numbed out — didn’t even know who the second half of the team was,” 26-year-old Lio-Willie said of his inclusion.
He was thrilled to have Holland share a test debut.
“It’s awesome. (We) actually had our first starting debut together in Forsyth-Barr.
“It’s sort of a full-circle moment being able to debut together for the All Blacks in Dunedin again.”
