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All Blacks boost bench experience in latest team naming
By Ned Lester
All Blacks coach Ian Foster isn't budging on his vision for the All Blacks squad, as is confirmed by this weeks team naming.
Again, the All Blacks named the same starting 15 from their previous two tests - games which despite continuity in selection, produced very different results.
The bench sees Brodie Retallick make his return from injury, after a strong recovery from a broken cheekbone suffered in the Irish series.
Also returning from injury is Beauden Barrett, who was rested last week after experiencing neck soreness. The All Black veteran comes in for his Blues team-mate Stephen Perofeta, who managed only 50 seconds of game time in his All Black debut in Christchurch.
Also on the bench, Dalton Papali'i and Dane Coles come in for Akira Ioane and Codie Taylor. Both players who struggled to deliver any positive impact off the bench last week, with Taylor having his worst performance in the black jersey, making a crucial line-out error in the games final moments and securing the win for Argentina.
The All Blacks coach last week asked New Zealand for patience, emphasising the teams "rebuilding" status. The comments amplified anticipation for the team naming this week, with pundits interpreting a rebuild as an opportunity for new players to get their shot at the black jersey.
Instead, the consistency in selection suggests that the building of combinations and cohesion within the team is the focus within the camp.
All Blacks team for Argentina:
- Ethan De Groot
- Samisoni Taukei'aho
- Tyrel Lomax
- Sam Whitelock
- Scott Barrett
- Shannon Frizell
- Sam Cane
- Ardie Savea
- Aaron Smith
- Richie Mo'unga
- Caleb Clarke
- David Havili
- Rieko Ioane
- Will Jordan
- Jordie Barrett
Reserves
- Dane Coles
- George Bower
- Fletcher Newell
- Brodie Retallick
- Dalton Papali'i
- Finlay Christie
- Beauden Barrett
- Quinn Tupaea
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Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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