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Twelve All Blacks released from Rugby Championship squad
By Ben Smith
Twelve players in the All Blacks squad for the Rugby Championship have been released to play provincial rugby this weekend, a week before the first Argentina Test.
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Most of the players will play before the weekend, with five of the six teams receiving All Blacks playing Bunnings NPC on Friday.
Tasman Mako have been boosted with four key players, David Havili, Will Jordan, Ethan Blackadder and Noah Hotham, who will travel to Christchurch to play Southland.
In the game between two Chiefs-aligned provinces, Taranaki will receive Josh Lord while Bay of Plenty will have former All Black captain Sam Cane and Pasilio Tosi.
Newly capped centre Billy Proctor will line up for Wellington against Manawatu, while Caleb Clarke will play for Auckland against Counties after announcing a new one-year deal with NZR and the Blues.
On Saturday afternoon Ofa Tu’ungafasi will play for Northland against North Harbour, who have All Black rookie Wallace Sititi.
The All Blacks squad will re-assemble on Sunday August 4 at NZCIS in Wellington ahead of the first Test at Sky Stadium on August 10.
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Eleven pipers piping…
Our All Blacks still lacking serious Impact @ No. 7 where we are Passive, as we saw against England where apart from Ardie we Totally out Player...
Obviously All Blacks biggest problem is selection/ coaching/
gameplan. If it's a wide & running game Reko, Jordy are only defensive players, as was proven against England & Fiji, so D. Mac options to inject some magic were severely Ltd
Wow finally, obviously Harry P.
has been exceptional over the last 3 yrs. So safe @ Fullback,1st & 2nd 5/8
Funny thing, Ireland was very lucky to win the second test, so I would not be bragging, the week before they lost by 7 points. So enjoy your victory well.......
Bunnings NPC starts August 9. The games you refer to are all pre season games
Based on form they should have released JB and Reiko
to learn how to pass and, in the case of JB, tackle as well. Our worst midfield in 50 years.
The only thing you've done is expose your ignorance as to your knowledge of All Black rugby over the last 50 years. We've had some absolute crap midfielders that have handicapped our ability to utilise our outside backs and negated the good work of our forwards. With the obvious exception of Osborne and Robertson through to the emergence of Pokere, Taylor and Stanley, we actually had the worst midfielders in international rugby bereft of skill, power and pace and carrying the threat of a blunt butter knife.
As a pairing Barrett and Ioane wield the triple threat while defensively (which is the true reason I believe they are selected), are exceptionally strong.
We are very fortunate to have ALB as well.
That’ll get a few punters through the gates. Actually keen to see if NPC gets more interest from the fans this year.
The quality of SR was excellent, a lot of the negativity around the game (except for bidwell/rattue/Reason/other people who hate rugby but write about it for some reason) has gone with Foster, and the All Blacks are 3-0.
Looking forward to seeing the mighty Bay Of Plenty wipe the floor with all who (rightly) tremble before them.
Imagine a lunch with Rattue, Reason, Hinton. You’d come away wanting the world to end.