News on possible Aaron Smith recall for All Blacks-Springboks test
Aaron Smith will be recalled to the starting line-up for New Zealand’s Rugby Championship match against South Africa on Saturday.
Smith started the All Blacks‘ opening two victories against Australia, but was replaced at scrum-half by TJ Perenara for the hard-fought 39-22 win against Argentina on Saturday.
The All Blacks ran in six tries against the Pumas in New Plymouth, though the scoreline belies the difficulty of the victory with Argentina having led 22-15.
And head coach Steve Hansen feels his team would benefit from the return of Smith to the XV.
“I think we saw there is a difference between the speed of ball when Aaron’s there,” Hansen said on Sunday.
“He’ll come back and I think that makes a difference to how we play.”
Flanker Vaea Fifita marked his first All Blacks start by storming around the outside of Argentina and going over in the corner for a game-changing try that levelled the scores at 22-22.
Rate this try from Vaea Fifita out of 10… GO!#NZLvARG pic.twitter.com/7xCoyB2X6t
— All Blacks (@AllBlacks) September 10, 2017
Fifita is a formidable force with ball in hand, but Hansen is keen to see the 25-year-old help out in other areas and improve his understanding of how New Zealand play.
“We need him to be in the right places in the different structures, but that’s normal,” said Hansen.
“As he gets out there and understands the structures better, he’s likely to be in the right places more often than not.
“But you can’t just go out to the flank and wait for the ball to come to you. Sometimes, as a flanker, you’ve got to do the hard work too.”
The Springboks won successive matches against Argentina before drawing 23-23 with Australia in Perth on Saturday.
Hansen has been impressed by their development as a unit and is wary of a tough challenge in Albany next weekend.
“Australia will probably be kicking themselves again at 20 points to 10 [up with 33 minutes to play], but South Africa are playing really well,” said the All Blacks coach.
“They seem to be incredibly tight with each other, so they’re obviously building something there from a culture point of view and that’ll make them more dangerous.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Great work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
2 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
2 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 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!
5 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 …
35 Go to comments