Olympic champions and test stars named in Fijian Drua pre-season side

6 mid fielders when 4 will do, but only 5 loosies when 7 would be useful -> Maybe Lakai and Parker come in? No 3rd choice at 10 meaning if one of BB or DMac sustain a mid to long term injury there is no one they are specifically trusting to come into the team and be able to close out matches - maybe they think Love is the 3rd best 10 in NZ?

Great to see Tavatavanawai straight in on the back of a huge season - he should 100% be in the 23. There have been players before like Stevenson or Sotutu who had the season of the their lives and didn’t get picked, so this is great and a little surprising to see.

Only 4 locks and no lock cover among the loosies named. This seems like an area we need to be developing more players rather than concentrating the talent pool down further. Maybe when Darry is fit he finds his way back in, but it would be good to see Lord or whoever the 6th best lock is around the squad too.

One thing I continue to find strange about ABs selection going back many years is that they are obsessed with backs being able to cover multiple positions, but they don’t take advantage of this in any way. The fact that we have 3 players who can play 12, and 3 that can play 13, doesn’t stop them from selecting ALB to cover 12 and 13 giving them 4 options at each position - what is the point of this? Likewise Love, I really like him, especially at 10, But they have Jordan, BB, Dmac who all play 15 at test level, as well as JB who is world class at 15 to cover, so why take up another spot in the squad with yet another 15? Why do we need four options for every position in the backs except 10, which is arguably the most important one where we have not been able to develop a new test player for 8 or 9 years.

And unless there is a big change this year they also don’t use all these utility backs to enable a 6-2 bench split, and will instead pick a specialist winger on the bench to come on and play the last 10 minutes.

NZ rugby needs to tell the selectors and players that they need to be starting/incumbents for their Super sides before they're getting capped as Allblacks.

Will Jordan is the Crusaders incumbent fullback and if Fihakis wants to play fullback for the Allblacks then he needs to shift franchises and prove he's in the top two fullbacks.

Jordan - He’s a test match 15, that debate is over, he’s world class at the back.

Newell - A beast, and could make the ABs scrum a real weapon. Especially if fatigue becomes more of a factor at test level.

Christian Lio Willie - Serious bruiser, could be the big tall loosie we’ve been looking for, well deserved call up.

Scott Barett - Sometimes actions speak louder than words…

Codie Taylor - Looks good at 34! Hope he can keep it up until 2027

Blackadder - Thought he was immense in the finals, maybe not as explosive as others but certainly has a big motor. Interesting he wasn’t retained, could the japan rumors be true?