Carter’s back in business
28 Oct 2010
Dan Carter has returned to the All Blacks’ starting XV for Saturday’s Test against the Wallabies in Hong Kong but there’s no room for Sonny Bill Williams.
Carter missed the third Bledisloe Cup match in Sydney with an ankle injury, but has recovered from surgery to reclaim the No 10 jersey from the axed Aaron Cruden.
But Williams, a rugby league recruit who has played for Canterbury in the national provincial championship, has been overlooked by coach Graham Henry and may have to wait until the Scotland match in two weeks’ time to make his All Blacks debut.
‘We didn’t want to fire Sonny Bill into the deep end,’ Henry said. ‘We think he needs a bit of time to get accustomed to what we are trying to do out there and I think he needs clarity of what this All Blacks team are trying to do. It would have been a big ask to throw him out there in a big Test match like this without having time to get his feet under the table.’
Henry has made three other changes to the side that beat the Wallabies 23-22 with Joe Rokocoko returning to the left wing for Israel Dagg (injured), Jimmy Cowan at halfback for Piri Weepu (injured), and Jerome Kaino at blindside flanker for Victor Vito (not on tour).
New Zealand – 15 Mils Muliaina, 14 Cory Jane, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Ma’a Nonu, 11 Joe Rokocoko, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Jimmy Cowan, 8 Kieran Read, 7 Richie McCaw (c), 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Tom Donnelly, 4 Brad Thorn, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Tony Woodcock.
Subs: 16 Hikawera Elliot, 17 John Afoa, 18 Samuel Whitelock, 19 Daniel Braid, 20 Alby Mathewson, 21 Stephen Donald, 22 Isaia Toeava.
88 Comments
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28 Oct 2010, 07:35 am
Sonny Bill Williams will be the all black midfields downfall….please play him asap. the rate at which he has been accelerated to the team is not proportional to his skill level at rugby union
28 Oct 2010, 07:36 am
otherwise it seems like graham henry finally has a settled all black line-up after half a decade of chopping and changing
28 Oct 2010, 07:48 am
Saturday is working out to be a good rugby day thanks to our friends at Supersport:
08:15 – 10:40 – Auckland vs Waikato
10:25 – 12:40 – Bledisloe Cup
12:15 – 14:00 – U19 Finals
14:00 – 16:30 – U21 Finals
17:00 – 19:00 – CC Final.
According to my calcs, that is a solid 11 hours on the couch.
The missus is going to LOVE me on Saturday.
28 Oct 2010, 07:51 am
Oooooh, I forgot:
19:00 – 21:00 – Gloucester Rugby v Leicester Tigers
21:00 – 23:00 – Clermont Auvergne v Stade Francais
It is official, rugby will end my marriage
28 Oct 2010, 08:06 am
4. He he he. My gf usually folds her arms, stands in front of me and says: “Its ok baby, you can watch rugby all day”. I then proceed to get off the couch and do whatever she desires from me.
28 Oct 2010, 08:18 am
january will cost province the game …. Sharks by 8
28 Oct 2010, 08:19 am
come on father ted, Big Hit says SBW is the “real deal” what do you mean you don’t want to fire him into the deep end?!
28 Oct 2010, 08:31 am
He’s one hell of an athlete, and doesn;t shy away from contact. Not dissimilar to Nonu, who isn;t exactly the most subtle of players either. I prefer SBW athletically, but Nonu and Smith are a great partnership.
Nice to have a situration like that. Sounds familiar. JDV/JDJ anyone?
28 Oct 2010, 08:45 am
Weepu and the Bokke tormentor Dagg aren’t there unfortunately otherwise a very good team attempting a 16th win on the trot an outstanding effort.Every SAFFA will be praying we lose so we don’t break the record for top tier nations of consecutive wins which from memory is 17 held jointly by us and SA.
28 Oct 2010, 08:51 am
@9. NZINCHINA(NZINCHINA): Didn;t Clive Woodawrd’s WC winning team break that record? I seem to remember something like that….
28 Oct 2010, 08:58 am
10 Don’t think so wait for Big t it he’ll have his rugby almanac strapped to his a*rse
28 Oct 2010, 09:01 am
These successes would also ensure the New Zealanders overshadow the efforts of the 1965-69 All Blacks and the 1997-98 Springboks, who won 17 matches straight.
28 Oct 2010, 09:02 am
Woodward’s team had several good runs, but the best was only 14.
The sequence started against Wales in March 2003 and ended when they lost to France in August 2003.
28 Oct 2010, 09:04 am
10. STORMERSBOY(STORMERSBOY):
Up until the 26th of April 2010 the record
for most consecutive wins by any
international team in Test Rugby was
held by the All-Blacks from New Zealand
and The Springboks from South Africa,
which was 17. This record was eclipsed
on the 26th by Lithuania, when they
recorded their 18th win in a row when
they wrote their name into Rugby’s
history books after beating Serbia 77-5
on Saturday to record an 18th
consecutive Test victory and surpass the
previous record in the men’s Game held
by New Zealand and South Africa.
Lithuania’s run began on May 27, 2006
with a 23-17 away win over Hungary in
Esztergom and has as of this answer
seen them beat 12 different countries
across Europe.
28 Oct 2010, 09:04 am
@13. Brads(Brads): Thanks for that. Kind of glad really.
28 Oct 2010, 09:06 am
14 so the Lithuanians go beaten in their 19th game?
28 Oct 2010, 09:07 am
The effort by the AB’s in the 60′s was far more noteworthy.
Their wins were only against genuine Test playing nations who wanted to win. Not development teams sent South for experience while resting their first choice players.
Plus, the time span is far more impressive.
5 Years is a massive time to hold a streak together.
28 Oct 2010, 09:09 am
My bad on the English sequence I stated in 13. Typo’s are a *****.
They started their run in March 2002.
28 Oct 2010, 09:15 am
Lithuania deserve their current status as World Record holders.
The way of international rugby is to promote teams to stronger competition as they win. The same way they do in most other sports.
On that basis, thay had to beat teams ranked more or less on a par to their status.
Just as the AB’s rate a win against easy beats like Samoa, Tonga and England in their record sequence.
28 Oct 2010, 09:15 am
17 In this run which teams were development sides, were Ireland and Wales not the best sdies they could send?
28 Oct 2010, 09:17 am
19 You’ll get in trouble with the KEO police talking about England like that…
28 Oct 2010, 09:18 am
It’s prudent of Henry to try Williams against Scotland first and not Aus.
I’m waiting for him to be yellow or red carded for tackling with no arms!
And finally Daniel Braid makes the 22!
And so the plan to manage McCaw leading up to RWC begins.
If McCaw goes off in the second half, who will captain the team?
Mealamu, Read, Muliaina?
28 Oct 2010, 09:23 am
20 – I was hinting at Mallet’s team actually.
28 Oct 2010, 09:29 am
22 – Williams hasn’t had a problem adapting to the requirement to use your arms when tackling as far as I am aware. I agree he was definitely a shoulder charge merchant when playing league though, which was is, for some ***** reason, permitted.
28 Oct 2010, 09:35 am
22 – The AB’s Circa 2011 have a look about them of the England 2003 squad.
The number of tests racked up by the likely run on 15 will be huge.
Ask your same question about what England would have done if Johnson had been injured and who would have taken over during the 2003 fianl and whether the result would have been different.
Impossible.
28 Oct 2010, 09:59 am
Record sequence – great. Unbeaten until WC – even greater. A loss to keep feet firmly on the ground – probably priceless. The question is – when and against who.
28 Oct 2010, 10:02 am
@25 Valid question, keeping in mind that Watson did his best to help hosts in the final, despite them being monstered in the scrums all day.
England was fortunate to have all their best players on field when it mattered and deservedly squeezed out a win.
28 Oct 2010, 10:07 am
25. perhaps a similar number of caps (although not sure about that), but how many NZ players would make that England forward pack?
One. Richie McCaw ahead of Neil Back. None of the others would make it.
28 Oct 2010, 10:22 am
@28 I was not trying to compare the two teams to each other, as that would involve endless speculation.
I was comparing the two teams to their “maturity” compared to their respective contemporaries.
SA had it in 2007.
28 Oct 2010, 10:26 am
@29. Only during WC time unlike England who were dominant force for a year before WC.
28 Oct 2010, 10:31 am
@Nils(Nils) : Isn’t that what counts?
28 Oct 2010, 10:46 am
@31 It definitely counts. No doubt.
The only difference is the path to the comp. English way was a very impressive one, keeping in mind that they are an average team most of the time – they trounced all before them, be it 6 Nations, Australia or New Zealand (with 13 men!). You cannot say anything like that for much more fancied South Africans, they were poor in that year overall and fortune really helped them when it mattered.
28 Oct 2010, 10:51 am
@Nils(Nils) :
Okay, you convinced me, SA didn’t deserve to win RWC07!
28 Oct 2010, 10:53 am
@flanka(flanka) : i cannot agree more. i’ve watched him in the ITM cup games and he is as lost as Lassie in a greyhound race.
28 Oct 2010, 10:53 am
@33. Hey, that was uncalled for. Why twist my words?
28 Oct 2010, 10:57 am
Henry messed around with the AB midfield just before and during the 07 world cup as well. Played Leon Macdonald instead of Mauger. He’s making the same mistake…..so much for learning from your mistakes. History tends to repeat itself to the T when it comes to ALL BLACK WORLD CUPS.
28 Oct 2010, 11:14 am
Brad @ 33
it’s taken you a bit longer than the rest of us but atleast we can now agree on the blindingly obvious.
28 Oct 2010, 11:27 am
Logie @ 36
so please enlighten us. How is Henry “messing around with midfield combinations” ?
Don’t confuse the medias obsession with SBW with Nonu & Conrad being selected together on every occasion when both are fit. As in Hong Kong.
28 Oct 2010, 11:43 am
i recently watched a few “highlights” of SBW’s league career on youtube – i for one cannot wait until he unleashes his “big hits” on the rugby world and spends half his career in the sin bin.
28 Oct 2010, 11:48 am
@fantasticbarnsmell(fantasticbarnsmell) : How many of those hits involved the use of arms?
(as required by the IRB)
28 Oct 2010, 11:50 am
@logie_Jumpbuck(logie_Jumpbuck) is that like the history of the 3ns that continually sees SA add another one to the burgeoning cutlery set of wooden spoons..
still, have to feed the clowns I spose..
28 Oct 2010, 11:52 am
@fantasticbarnsmell(fantasticbarnsmell) : hope Bakkies keeps the seat warm for SBW, surely he’d still get the first card…
cant help himself..
28 Oct 2010, 11:57 am
@fantasticbarnsmell(fantasticbarnsmell) :
You seem to have forgotten that the Anzac Cartel now controls the IRB Referees Panel.
Sonny Bill will be just fine.
8)
28 Oct 2010, 11:58 am
@Black Panther(Black Panther) : Mate, do you really think NZRU would have paid over $1m for SBW only for Henry not to pick him? Seriously? The writing is on the wall i’m afraid.
28 Oct 2010, 12:03 pm
@Panzer Chief(cane) : @poppa69(poppa69) : @Black Panther(Black Panther) : @Nils(Nils) : to all the Kiwi’s on the blog. Mark my words, SBW will be another Andy Farrel. With rush defence or defending inwards teams will shut him down quickly on phase ball. Loose play might see him flurish, but World cups are not played that way…..as we all know.
28 Oct 2010, 12:10 pm
This is a very strong AB Team.
Backs: Very experienced and will be very difficult to contain.
Loose forwards: Our strongest possible combination. And the equal of any in World Rugby.
2nd row: Workman like, but have been doing the business.
Front Row: All in good form.
Bench: Solid if not star laden.
NZ by 11.
28 Oct 2010, 12:15 pm
@Panzer Chief(cane) : You mind telling us who those “stars” on your bench may be?…
28 Oct 2010, 12:17 pm
@Frankly speaking(Frankly speaking) : approximately 0
@poppa69(poppa69) : too true, i could not agree with you more.
@Panzer Chief(cane) : haha
28 Oct 2010, 12:18 pm
@logie_Jumpbuck(logie_Jumpbuck) :
I agree logie, the moment Sonny Bill signed to come home. He was in the AB’s.
Not sure we need him anyway…………………………but we may as well see him at the highest level after dishing out a mil.
In Nonu, Toeava, Fruen, Smith, MacAlister and Kahui we have plenty of mid field options.
28 Oct 2010, 12:21 pm
@Frankly speaking(Frankly speaking) :
Read my Lips……………”Solid IF NOT star laden”.
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