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All Black captain Read 'didn't feel right' until end of the year
By Jack Davies
All Blacks captain Kieran Read says he is "in really good shape" following back surgery and is feeling confident about his fitness heading into 2019.
Read missed the first half of 2018 after undergoing treatment late last year and has struggled to rediscover his best form since making his comeback.
However, with New Zealand's World Cup title defence on the horizon - after which Read will stand down from All Blacks duty - the 33-year-old is optimistic about what next year might hold.
"Getting over back surgery was probably the biggest thing for myself," he told Newstalk ZB. "It took a lot of time and effort.
"It's been 12 months since the surgery and it probably wasn't until the end of the year where I started feeling somewhat decent physically.
"Where I was at this point last year, the pain I was in, it [surgery] was needed. It's been a fairly fast recovery in some respects. I've worked pretty hard at it and I'm in good shape now.
"So it bodes well to head into this off-season and pre-season feeling in really good shape."
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You'd swear they didn't win 28-7 away from home....
Go to commentsMcKenzie is better than Barrett , but not better than Richie Mo'unga. Richie regularly outplayed DMac in Super Rugby. , as he did in the 2023 Final in Hamilton. I remember the 2021 Aotearoa Super Rugby Final here in CHCH. Mo'unga took him to the cleaners. McKenzie is a fine footballer , but at best a hybrid 10 . Fergus Burke , ( now playing in England ), who made a big difference when he came back late in the Crusaders season , is a better 10 than DMac. I also think 140 game + Crusader Matt Todd was always a better no 7 than Sam Cane.A big part of 3 title winning teams when South African teams were still in the comp. How many titles did the Chiefs win in that period of time?
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