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All Blacks name team for second Test with France
By Online Editors
The All Blacks are unchanged for Saturday's second Test against France at Westpac Stadium in Wellington.
New Zealand recovered from an 11-8 deficit to score 44 unanswered points in a 52-11 opening Test win in Auckland which was marred by the double head fracture to France winger Remy Grosso in a collision with Sam Cane and Ofa Tu’ungafasi.
All Blacks Head Coach Steve Hansen said: "As we have a big focus right now on developing our game and working on our skillsets, connections and combinations, it isn't beneficial to be making wholesale changes, if any at all, to the playing 23.
"Whilst we were really happy with the way we finished last weekend's Test, we're fully aware that we still have a lot of work to do over the rest of the Steinlager Series.
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"The French would've taken a lot of confidence out of their first 50 minutes on the weekend and will be coming to play on Saturday night. Therefore, it will require us to raise our game to an even higher level.
"Rather than being inhibited by this, we'll be embracing and walking towards the challenge. We'll be looking to play our own high-energy game with real intent.
"When it comes to our performance, we know there are high expectations from our fans. This, in turn, demands that we drive our own expectations even higher.
Captain Samuel Whitelock will win his 98 cap while prop Owen Franks will pick up his 97th. Whitelock is the most capped All Blacks lock of all time and eighth on the list of most capped All Blacks, while Franks is the second most capped prop behind Tony Woodcock (118).
Cane is in the backrow, while prop Ofa Tu’ungafasi is among the replacements.
World Rugby came in for some stinging criticism over independent Citing Commissioner Freek Burger's decision to issue Tu’ungafasi with just a warning over the tackle on France winger Grosso.
Former Wales international Jonathan Davies branded the decision "clueless".
Tu'ungafasi insisted he never intended to hurt Grosso in a tackle that left the France wing with a double facial fracture.
Cane's arm appeared to make contact with the head of Grosso, who was then hit in the face by Tu'ungafasi's shoulder as he went to the ground.
A press release from World Rugby said "Having reviewed all available camera angles, the Citing Commissioner considered Ofa Tu’ungafasi to have executed a dangerous tackle “just short of” red card level (in accordance with World Rugby Regulation 17), which caused injury to France winger Remy Grosso."
Both sides will be looking to move on from the affair which dogged the aftermath of the first Test.
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Latest Comments
Lakai? Hell no, Kirifi is the like for like. I could never imagine Lakai throwing a dummy like Ardie, his had’s and offload are probably his best asset. Still a good option to replace Ardies function within the group. Happy for that to phase in slowly over the next two years.
Kirifi is someone demanding attention as Ardie’s/the teams go to back up option though. Like with you’re Kaino ref though, happy for that to reverse back again if Lakai simply starts outperforming him again. The Kaino role has really been filled by Cane (perhaps because they didn’t find a replacement) and the 6’s that have been used are more like a Read/Jones/Flavell/Fifita.
I really do like the idea of that rock being a little bigger and a little tougher than Cane though. Miracle looks like that guy, and there are few possible young kiwis coming through too. Barrett over Vaa’i for me, he just has a little of the mongrol and flair you also want.
Go to commentsI think you have gone in the wrong direction here Nick. I think you need to delve down into the rules etc around Moana Pacifica’s selection policies and then you need to understand that a lot of KIWI BORN rugby players have PI heritage. It appears ok for the 4 home nations to pillage NZ born players constantly without retribution but you want to question whether NZ BORN players should be eligible for NZ? Seems a real agenda in there.
Go back and look at the actual Aims and agenda for MP becoming a entity and you see lots of things enshrined in policy that you arnt mentioning here. EG there is an allowance for a percentage of MP to be NZ eligible. This was done so MP could actually become competitive. Lets be real. If it wasnt this way then MP would not be competitive.
There also seems to be some sort of claim ( mainly from the NH ) that NZ is “cashing in” on MP, which , quite frankly is a major error. Are you aware of how much MP costs NZR Financially?
39 NZ born rugby players played at the last world cup for Samoa or Tonga. PLUS plenty for Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales.
Taumoefolau is a BORN AND BRED NZer. However I very strongly doubt he will be an AB, but who do you believe he should be allowed to play for? Levi Aumua is ALSO a born and bred Kiwi.
Aumua was eligible to represent Samoa and Fiji for the Pacific Nations Cup in July that year but ended up playing for neither. He IS eligible for his nation of Birth too Nick
He is a Kiwi. Are you saying an NZ born, raised Kiwi cant play for NZ now?
Sorry Nick Kiwi born and bred actually qualify for NZ.
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