All Blacks squad for upcoming series

The All Blacks squad:

Forwards:

Anthony Boric North Harbour (13)
Aled de Malmanche Waikato (2)
Tom Donnelly Otago (6)
Ben Franks Tasman (uncapped)
Owen Franks Canterbury (9)
Jerome Kaino Auckland (25)
Richie McCaw (capt) Canterbury (80)
Keven Mealamu Auckland (71)
Kieran Read Canterbury (16)
Adam Thomson Otago (15)
Brad Thorn Canterbury (37)
Neemia Tialata Wellington (41)
Victor Vito * Wellington
Tony Woodcock North Harbour (61)

Backs:

Daniel Carter Canterbury (66)
Jimmy Cowan Southland (33)
Aaron Cruden * Manawatu
Israel Dagg * Hawke's Bay
Zac Guildford Hawke's Bay (2)
Cory Jane Wellington (12)
Richard Kahui Waikato (
Mils Muliaina Waikato (82)
Josevata Rokocoko Auckland (60)
Conrad Smith Wellington (33)
Benson Stanley * Auckland
Piri Weepu Wellington (35)

* Denotes new cap


Fuck yes to Benson! Stoked for him.

On the other note, where the fuck is Gear? And what on earth pimple face Cruden is doing in this side? WTF Henry?

I wouldn't have Cruden, Vito, Weepu or Tialata. Hissycanes all of them, and they need some decent coaching before they take the step to the next level (for the first two), Weepu has a bad attitude and Tialata has done nothing.

I would have picked Slade, Lowe, the Crusader's guy whose name I forget and Afoa.

ONE TIME CAUSE AN ENORMOUS STIR AND SELECT SONNY BILL!! ....ONE TIME!@!!

I mean maybe Im being naive about selection matters, but to me the NZRU is missing a trick not selecting Sonny Bill now or very soon. The immediate fuss would be huge ....and when he played, not only would rugby audience be at a capacity, the entire league fraternity and half of Europe would be eagerly tuning in. Sell that to your sponsors. And its not as if he isnt good enough because he clearly would be. They select Cruden..... who obviously doesnt deserve his place

They can't select SBW yet Maestro. Rules state that he needs to play for a province, before he can represent the country. Hence why they're trying to fasttrack him into the provincial comp coming in couple months time.

If they have any sense they'll send him to Canterbury (assuming he doesn't break their darkie quota).

The team for the weekend:

NEW ZEALAND: 15 Israel Dagg, 14 Cory Jane, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Benson Stanley, 11 Joe Rokocoko, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Jimmy Cowan; 8 Kieran Read, 7 Richie McCaw (captain), 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Anthony Boric, 4 Brad Thorn, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Ben Franks. Reserves: 16 Aled de Malmanche, 17 Neemia Tialata, 18 Sam Whitelock, 19 Victor Vito, 20 Piri Weepu, 21 Aaron Cruden, 22 Zac Guildford.

No suprises really.

PONSONBY REPRESENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh and Irish team looks pretty strong:

Test team: Robert Kearney, Tommy Bowe, Brian O'Driscoll (captain), Gordon D'Arcy, Andrew Trimble, Ronan O'Gara, Tomas O'Leary, Jamie Heaslip, David Wallace, John Muldoon, Mick O'Driscoll, Donncha O'Callaghan, John Hayes, Sean Cronin, Cian Healy. Replacements: John Fogarty, Tony Buckley, Dan Tuohy, Shane Jennings, Eoin Reddan, Jonathan Sexton, Geordan Murphy.

ABs kinda sucked after they made a bunch of substitutions.

When was the last time there were two Hawke's Bay players on the field at the same time for the All Blacks in a test? You'd have to back to 1969-70?

The game was over after 30 minutes and the whilst the Irish improved (which wasn't hard) the All Blacks dropped away.

Yeah, its pretty sweet to see young players on this level. I also agree with harvey.

But in all honestly, these types of test are made exactly for the purpose of filtering average players from those who deserved to be on that level.

AB's team for the weekend:
Israel Dagg, Cory Jane, Conrad Smith, Benson Stanley, Joe Rokocoko, Dan Carter, Jimmy Cowan, Kieran Read, Richie McCaw, Victor Vito, Anthony Boric, Brad Thorn, Ben Franks, Keven Mealamu, Owen Franks. Reserves: Aled de Malmanche, Tony Woodcock, Sam Whitelock Adam Thomson, Piri Weepu, Aaron Cruden, Richard Kahui.

I'm glad to see Henry making only one change. Also, Welsh will be a lot harder customer. Last week they pushed Saffas. Expect a battle!

Welsh squad for the weekend:

Wales: Lee Byrne, Leigh Halfpenny, Andrew Bishop, Jamie Roberts, Tom Prydie, Stephen Jones, Mike Phillips, Ryan Jones (captain), Gavin Thomas, Jonathan Thomas, Alun Wyn Jones, Bradley Davies, Adam Jones, Matthew Rees, Paul James. Reserves: Huw Bennett, John Yapp, Deiniol Jones, Rob McCusker, Tavis Knoyle, Dan Biggar, Jonathan Davies.

Thought the performance last night was actually pretty good after the first 20 minutes.

Unfortunately Benson Stanley, my favourite current AB, was probably the worst on the field

Heh, yep, he had a mare with his hands. Although, he didn't miss a tackle for the whole game.

I thought Stanley has played well so far, remember he has only played two tests. He gives a good kicking option outside Carter and Conrad Smith is flourishing having a distributor and that one-dimensional cut-back merchant Nonu playing inside him. I like having Jane at the back and Dagg is surely now the number one fullback. Is Rokococo still carrying an injury? He is heavily strapped and seems to have completely lost his speed. I must admit I had written off Kahui, but man has he got gas. What with Muliana and Sivivatu to come back from injury suddenly we've got some decent outside backs getting good ball for a change, because we've actually a rugby union player playing at second five instead of a boff head who should be playing league.

I thought Woodcock shows what happens when you bench a veteran who still has the fire in his belly and Vito put Kaino on notice! Where to Adam Thompson??? The World Cup A-Team locks will be Borich, Thorne and Whitelock, mark my words. Will Ali Williams be able to break back into the team? Reed is getting better every game at number 8 and looks the deal. I suppose we will see how this lot front up to the evil boks, but finally we are seeing some decent young talent emerging instead of relying on aging and injury prone warriors.

I had a bit of a look at the England vs. Aussie game and it was awful. The Wallaby forwards are just hopeless. We'll kill them up front and so will the boks. Quaid Cooper looks all at sea when the pressure goes on and frankly they look worse than last year. They are over-rated because marketing hyoe demands it, but even Robbie Deans can't turn those sow's ears into a silk purse. They will get thrashed in this years tri-nations I reckon.

The sudden bursting into form to indicates to me that at least some of our sluggish Super 14 form was the result of deliberate decisions around player management ahead of next year and the RWC. I guess the top players are going to be brough to a peak just once this year, and most will sit out the ANZC - except for those who need match time after injuries. Expect NZ teams to be much better in he Super 15.

I thought Aussie backs looked very sharp in the first half. In fact it was some nice flowing rugby from them. Forwards, yep, that's a different story and Deans must be on the ropes about that, cause he has exhausted his forwards depth. He doesn't have the luxury of that, like he has with backs.

Rokococo ran 'overall fastest time' out of all ABs in their training fitness test. I doubt he lost speed. I just think he lost confidence. Like that play when Cruden passed him the ball, he stepped in, when clearly he should have gassed it. Shit, I would have scored that try even. His knee has been strapped for the whole of Super 14. The problem with knee injuries, is that you can only maintain them, but not recover properly, when you're playing week in week out. For obvious reason Rokococo did not want to sit out. He wanted to make his mark, which he did. And I bet he even went as far as lie to the medical staff about the degree of pain he's in. The way it's strapped it looks like a MCL injury. That or ACL. Not a break, but strain. But problem with MCL injuries, is that you usually do your meniscus on the inside knee, because MCL attaches to it. Meniscus tears take ages to heal. McCaw has the same issue. He played with strapped knee for the whole of Super 14.

I see Jane at full-back with Gilford and Gear on each wings. This is on form. Dagg, as flashy as he is, still green. Jane just looks so confident and solid in both fullback or wing positions tho.

Carter, jesus, what a freak. I don't know what the fuck we'll do without him.

All Blacks for the weekend:

Mils Muliaina, Cory Jane, Richard Kahui, Benson Stanley, Zac Guildford, Dan Carter, Jimmy Cowan, Kieran Reid, Richie McCaw, Jerome Kaino, Tom Donnelly, Brad Thorn, Neemia Tialata, Keven Mealamu, Tony Woodcock. Reserves: Aled de Malmanche, Owen Franks, Sam Whitelock, Adam Thomson, Piri Weepu, Aaron Cruden, Rene Ranger.

I tell you what, Zac Guilford needs a big one to keep Gear out! And I suspect this Saturday will be Benson Stanley's last start for a while in the black shirt - McAlistair was dynamite in the Maori game. I wouldn't be surprised though if Stanley and McAlistair combine to keep Nonu out of the All Blacks...

I'm just super stoked to see the depth in NZ rugby. Let's hope we will not lose all this talent overseas, especially before the world cup.

I wouldn't mind a few of those Poms coming over here for NPC contracts... that fullback, the #6, the substitute #22 especially

I was thinking about this. The British players are forever moaning about the gap in speed, appreciation, and athleticism between their competitions and ours. But while they moan a lot, they don't actually care enough to do anything about it. They'd rather take 500,000 pounds a year to plod their way through 40 games in Europe than take $500,000 dollars for two years in Super rugby and actually become better players.

But the funny thing is, Martin Johnson did exactly that, and he was fully rewarded by becoming their best lock in decades, possibly ever.

Only thing is fishy, they don't get $500,000 for two seasons of Super 14. Try half that, for top players. Do you still wonder why a lot of talents leaves? hehe