All Blacks greats predict team selection for clash against USA
All Blacks greats Sir John Kirwan and Mils Muliaina have predicted which players will feature for New Zealand against the USA Eagles this weekend.
The All Blacks will begin their tour of the United States and Europe in Washington DC on Saturday [local time] as they face the tier two Americans who head into this match on the back of a World Cup qualifier defeat at the hands of Uruguay.
The USA’s loss to their South American rivals emphasises the gulf in class between them and the All Blacks, who are fresh from their Rugby Championship success in Australia.
Such disparity between the two teams has left many anticipating a rout from the travelling Kiwis, who may look at this fixture as a chance to blood young and inexperienced players while also giving returning veterans a chance to get back into test rugby.
All Blacks head coach Ian Foster has already indicated he will use the fixture to reintroduce captain Sam Cane and experienced hooker Dane Coles into the mix after lengthy injury lay-offs.
Cane and Coles are two of five players – including seasoned lock Sam Whitelock, loose forward Shannon Frizell and uncapped second rower Josh Lord – who travelled to the American capital a few days earlier than the rest of the Australian-based squad.
All five players missed the Rugby Championship for a variety of reasons and instead trained, played and recuperated in New Zealand until being called upon for the end-of-year tour.
It is expected most, if not all, of those five players will feature at FedEx Field in five days’ time alongside a number of other players who have been starved of game time in recent weeks.
However, speaking on The Breakdown on Monday, Muliaina said he was unsure about the selection of Lord, the 20-year-old who was plucked from obscurity to replace locks Scott Barrett and Patrick Tuipulotu in the touring squad.
Both players returned to New Zealand following the Rugby Championship after obtaining MIQ spots, leaving Foster to turn to Lord, who only has five Super Rugby matches with the Chiefs to his name.
Despite the attention surrounding him and whether he will make his test debut for the All Blacks, Muliaina said he believes Foster has only taken Lord on this tour to garner off-field experience.
Instead, Muliaina, the former All Blacks captain who played 100 tests for New Zealand, said he would prefer to see the team’s returning veterans such as Cane, Coles and Whitelock get some game time against the United States.
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“I’m not sure about Josh Lord,” the 2011 World Cup winner told The Breakdown.
“I think he might just be there for a bigger experience in terms of the whole culture, the whole environment, but, when you look at those experienced guys, that’s massive getting those guys over there.
“It’s invaluable what they bring off the field, and so you roll them out there and it’s a good chance, also, for them to get a bit of game time.”
Muliaina added that the test presents a prime opportunity for Coles to overcome a persistent calf injury, which the 76-test hooker said last week had been a source of frustration as Codie Taylor, Samisoni Taukei’aho and Asafo Aumua impressed in the No 2 jersey in his absence.
The former utility back also said that the inclusion of Cane in this week’s match day squad would be beneficial in his preparation for upcoming tests against Wales, Italy, Ireland and France after more than six months without action due to a pectoral injury.
“Obviously it’s frustrating that he’s [Coles] had a calf injury and that, but a game like this can actually get your rhythm back into things,” Muliaina said.
“Sam Cane’s had a game in Heartland [Championship], he now goes back into the environment, so you get them back out there in the lead-up to what’s coming ahead of them over in Europe.”
While Kirwan agreed with much of what Muliaina said, he argued that Lord should be involved in this week’s match as he said it is unlikely he will feature at all throughout the rest of the tour.
“I agree with Milsy, I think you play everyone this week,” the 1987 World Cup-winning wing told The Breakdown.
“I think they’ll be fit enough. I also think you play the young fella [Lord] because he’s probably not going to get another game, so just get him out there, or put him on the bench, bring him on late.”
On the topic of who should start at first-five this weekend, Kirwan was of the belief that Richie Mo’unga deserves a run in the No 10 jersey following Beauden Barrett’s lengthy run of starts during the Rugby Championship.
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Mo’unga only played about a dozen minutes off the bench in New Zealand’s final Rugby Championship match against the Springboks three weeks ago after missing most of the tournament to attend the birth of his second child.
Prior to that, the 27-year-old had established himself as the starting All Blacks playmaker through his efforts in Super Rugby, the July tests and the Bledisloe Cup, but Barrett took full advantage of his absence by producing a string of captivating performances.
After heading into the Rugby Championship as the preferred first-five option, Mo’unga seemingly has his fair share of work to do if he is to solidify his place ahead of Barrett in the pecking order.
Kirwan said that positional competition can only be good for the All Blacks, noting that he would opt for Mo’unga in this week’s clash.
“There is now real competition that Foster has created, and there’s competition at 10, and they’re both different players. They’ve both got x-factor at different moments,” he said.
“With Jordie [Barrett] coming in and putting up his hand at kicking, that’s going to be a real interesting run, right? Because Mo’unga loves kicking the ball for goal, so I just think it creates the perfect scenario.
“I’d put Mo’unga out there against the States straight away, and then it’s all on.”
Furthermore, Kirwan suggested that Whitelock should be the frontrunner to captain the side this week ahead of Cane and interim skipper Ardie Savea.
Cane was named as full-time All Blacks captain last year, while Savea was appointed captain of the All Blacks for their Rugby Championship campaign when Cane, Whitelock and Aaron Smith were all left in New Zealand.
However, Whitelock has extensive experience captaining the All Blacks, having done so throughout the July tests and Bledisloe Cup earlier this year, and Kirwan said letting the 127-test lock lead the side would relieve Savea of extra repsonsibilities.
“I think Whitelock comes back into the captaincy role. I think Ardie’s done a great job, but he’ll be happy, he’ll just be freed up to play.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments