Hansen recalls AB stars
22 Nov 2012
Captain Richie McCaw and flyhalf Dan Carter will start in a full strength All Blacks line-up this Saturday in Cardiff.
McCaw resumes the captaincy and Carter displaces Aaron Cruden in the all-important pivot position. Coach Steve Hansen has also reinstated key players like fullback Israel Dagg, the centre combination of Ma’a Nonu and Conrad Smith, hooker Andrew Hore, and prop Owen Franks for this clash against Wales.
Liam Messam is retained at blindside flank as Adam Thomson has not been considered. The IRB is currently appealing the ruling that saw Thomson suspended for just one match. The feeling is that Thomson deserved harsher punishment for a stamping offence in the All Blacks’ tour match against Scotland.
Wing Julian Savea will start his third straight Test on this tour. Savea is the only New Zealand player to start in all three matches.
All Blacks – 15 Israel Dagg, 14 Cory Jane, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Ma’a Nonu, 11 Julian Savea, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Aaron Smith, 8 Kieran Read, 7 Richie McCaw (c), 6 Liam Messam, 5 Sam Whitelock, 4 Luke Romano, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Andrew Hore, 1 Tony Woodcock.
Subs: 16 Dane Coles, 17 Wyatt Crockett, 18 Charlie Faumuina, 19 Brodie Retallick, 20 Victor Vito, 21 Piri Weepu, 22 Aaron Cruden, 23 Ben Smith.
84 Comments
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22 Nov 2012, 22:20 pm
@corporal punishment-49:
Maybe Habana
ABs have a ton of great wings
and Bismark
Possibly Flow a few games and Alberts
22 Nov 2012, 22:22 pm
@Hurricane-42:
Piri will be the first non playing touring All Black ever to be chosen solely to lead the Haka.
That’s his biggest strength at the moment
22 Nov 2012, 22:22 pm
@CoachPete-48:
Spot on.
Jane has been the winger on form in the international game of late.
Certainly the bets at the moment
22 Nov 2012, 22:24 pm
@nortierd-52:
wrong.
They have 2 new capped halfbacks in line up already, they could not take three.
Did you watch the Scottish game against the ABs?
Piri played awesome, better than any Bok # 9 this year.
22 Nov 2012, 22:26 pm
@Hurricane-53:
I think for a couple of seasons
He is the complete wing package
22 Nov 2012, 22:28 pm
@Hurricane-54:
It was not meant as an insult to him, he had a good game yes, but Smith is your future and Piri is coming to the end of his career.
He is the best guy to lead the Haka and I love the way he does it, and will miss that aspect more than anything else
22 Nov 2012, 22:28 pm
And Smith is the best 13 in the world by far IMO. Yes Better then SBW
Does everything a center should be doing and defends very well
22 Nov 2012, 22:28 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqY0v-OuhH0
That’s a winger. Not just a finisher, but a creator. And you certainly won’t see Jane pull off try saving tackles like that.
Another fact.
22 Nov 2012, 22:29 pm
@nortierd-52: Ha ha, indeed. He is to them what that big Zulu bloke was to us a few years back.
22 Nov 2012, 22:31 pm
The world 15 would have at least 10 ABs starting maybe more
22 Nov 2012, 22:32 pm
@nortierd-56:
Yep, we all know Piri is lucky to be there this year especially but he is going down with a fight.
He is not the future of AB halfbacks. We have to get out new guys in asap. Piris last tour is this one.
And the Haka, that will be missed from him as a leader. Mealamu just didnt do it for me last game
22 Nov 2012, 22:34 pm
@katman-59:
I actually miss those Johnny Clegg Impi song warrior and also when Claire Johnson sang our blood is green
Good old days when a Bok test excited us
22 Nov 2012, 22:35 pm
@Hurricane-61:
As I have said many time Piri is there just to lead the Haka
Classic and great
22 Nov 2012, 22:36 pm
@katman-58:
So JP would make the ABs cos of 1 tackle?
Ok then
22 Nov 2012, 22:37 pm
@Hurricane-61:
I prefer the Captain to lead the Haka.. Richie in the same mould as the cunning, anything is possible, old chief….Te Rauparaha
22 Nov 2012, 22:37 pm
@Hurricane-61:
How about Liam Messom taking over?
No one really seems to fit the bill, gotten so used to Piri leading it
22 Nov 2012, 22:49 pm
@Hurricane-64: Are you slow? Watch the clip, if your country allows Youtube. Then tell me which of the tackles you’re referring to.
22 Nov 2012, 22:50 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwehyLYSRwE
And once you got your fil of JPP, then watch the Habanero. Jane couldn’t do that in three rugby careers.
22 Nov 2012, 23:37 pm
Saffas are delusional
as if any player from a team that has won 6 games from 11 would make the run on side of a team that has won 11 from 12 games..
our forwards have more skills then your backs for a start, and any SA player would have to be up skilled like Rathbone was before even contemplating making the side..
no wonder your team is meiocre..
22 Nov 2012, 23:51 pm
@nortierd-66: Liam Messam or even Gear I think would do a great job..
23 Nov 2012, 00:14 am
@katman-68:
You dont watch rugby then.
Habana is not what he use to be, you are living of memories.
Jane is the now. Leave the past be
23 Nov 2012, 00:21 am
@katman-68:
I see your two and raise you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dsSp1j9kyg
23 Nov 2012, 00:25 am
@Hurricane-71: Habs has always been over rated, an intercept merchant that cheats more then Ritchie ever has…
as for JPP, his strike rate would indeed dispute his current “man love” standing with our Saffa brethren..
not one SA player is worthy of playing for the ABs, they would be as useful as Rawlinson was..
which was not at all..
SA rugby is a dinosaur, and should be put out of its misery,..
23 Nov 2012, 00:31 am
@poppa69-73:
JPP is kinda like Christmas….one day in the year he gets the best in the world tag…usually when Jane is off duty
23 Nov 2012, 01:03 am
@katman-67: if our country allows youtube? hahaha says one of the priviledged 20% of SA’s who have access to the internet..
eish..you really are stupid..
23 Nov 2012, 01:04 am
@corporal punishment-49: I think a combined AB-Bok side could well see a 50/50 split in personnel.
It is a close call between the 8 or so players I listed and their AB counterparts for a spot in the combined team.
However, here is the crux – the main difference between the two teams at the moment, player wise, is that the ABs have far greater players in some positions (eg McCaw, Read, Carter and Dagg) than anything the Boks have.
We have the players, but we don’t have the legends.
23 Nov 2012, 01:06 am
Anyways, enough All Black bashing for one day.
Nite all
23 Nov 2012, 01:44 am
@CoachPete-51: Flow has the skillset and allround game to be a regular AB. Only query is whether he is fast enough. Bismark is a fearsome player. I think the AB’s would try to find room for him, and upskill his ball handling and tone back some of the penalty earning aggression..
23 Nov 2012, 01:47 am
@willievz-76: Willie, I think it depends on the style of play the coach of the team wants to play. If it was the current AB coaches, I think it would be more like 75/25 in favour of the AB’s, because they are determined to play a very high tempo and somewhat risky game plan.
I think most other international coaches would be very happy to go for the most muscular hard assed pack they could get, to play more of a possession and territory game.
Either team would be pretty formidable, that’s for real.
23 Nov 2012, 01:51 am
@Hurricane-72: Jane is an incredible winger. He plays the game differently to most other wings, but is so influential in both attack and defence I think he would be a first choice winger in any world xv.
His handling and footwork in tight situations are sublime and create many tries for himself and others. He has incredible reactions and his speed fo thought and the accuracy of his decision making are game breakers.
He just creates opportunities and scores tries that no-one else would.
23 Nov 2012, 02:07 am
@katman-67:
I am referring to what tackles you were talking about in post #58
So i said it takes more than tackles to become an AB. To become an AB is something you have no clues about so do not even try.
Now that there boy is a fact.
23 Nov 2012, 07:14 am
@poppa69-73:
No one is disputing that the AB’s are currently setting the bar, then if one looks at the last 2 weeks as a yardstick, France are playing a similar game.
Yet in last year’s final when they met they both played a game similar to our so called dinosaur rugby.
There is a place to play less entertaining games, and I also wish we would cut loose, so to speak, but it is not for us to decide when and where.
I would rather watch the Blacks play if they were on at the same time as the Boks, purely for the entertainment and skill, but once our players have settled and built up some confidence, who knows what will happen when we meet in a crunch game where the stakes are more than just another Championship match that has no bearing on the outcome of a competition?
23 Nov 2012, 09:13 am
Have to agree with the nz’s here in that very few of our current bok forwards have to skill set to fit into their game plan. Our loosies that fit into that mould would be Keegan and kanko … May be wrong or underthinking it but those to would shine in the blacks game plan, much like they do at the sharks year in and out but not with the boks..
I do get annoyed when okes write ‘SA rugby is a dinosaur’ need to distinguish a difference between SA rugby and current bok rugby.
Every saffa will admit that bok rugby at the moment is terrible and frustrating to watch. But our super teams have been great!
So selecting all blacks from our bok team, yup I’d say only Jpp would make it, but selecting a all black team/ best team from a pool of all form super15 players, I think more saffas would be in contention .. Jane most certainly doesn’t set the supper15 alight. Honestly, any decent wind would look amazing winging it for the all blacks, because opportunities will always be created. Poor Jpp and Hab have to run around our team desperately look for a rare touch and to try create stuff…
Just thinking allowed;) but I reckon I’m right, ha
23 Nov 2012, 09:15 am
^Wing not wind
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