Key All Blacks need to shake rust quickly

All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen has a history of rewarding his players with selection based solely on their past performance in the black jersey, a strategy that has served him incredibly well thus far.

Heading into the first Test series of the year, several key All Blacks - including series captain Sam Whitelock - were under injury clouds and didn’t have a lot of time on the park under their belts.

But despite this, when it came to picking the team to march out onto Eden Park for the first Test of the series, a few of those clouds seemed to miraculously evaporate and Hansen had no hesitation in picking his recently recovered players.

Featured in the starting lineup for Saturday night are three key names - Sam Cane, Ryan Crotty and Sam Whitelock.

Throw in the likes of starting props Joe Moody and Owen Franks - who are coming off suspensions and have played just two and four Super Rugby matches this season respectively - sprinkle in flanker Liam Squire, who has just made his return from a broken thumb, and you get an All Blacks pack that hasn’t spent a lot of time in the saddle of late.

I’m not one to question Hansen’s methods - he would not have picked these players if he didn’t feel they were ready to go out and get the job done - but I’ll admit I was surprised by their inclusion.

While Cane admitted Thursday his stint may be limited to “a short gallop”, it’s tough to ignore the fact that he hasn’t played a minute of rugby since the 21st of April when his Chiefs side played the Reds back in round 10 of Super Rugby.

Cane has been out with an abdominal strain, which he thought would initially keep him out for less than two weeks.

“It’s been a frustrating injury because when I first picked it up I literally thought I’d be sort of ten days out, have a good week of training and then play again,” Cane said Thursday.

“It’s just been continually, week after week ‘Oh she’ll be right after this week’ and it hasn’t been.”

Last weekend Cane was a late scratch from the bench after he was set to make his Super Rugby return following a five-week layoff.

“I trained fully last Thursday and felt good, and then went to do Captain’s Run and was worse off for having trained the day before. That training intensity isn’t the same as the game, so I knew if that was the case then another week was what was needed.”

Crusaders pair Crotty and Whitelock have been in and out of action with ongoing concussion issues this season, and neither have featured for the last few weeks.

Crotty’s last appearance ended after just nine minutes and was bookended by further absences. His last full appearance came on May 4th against the Rebels. Whitelock has appeared in nine matches for the Crusaders this season, the last of which came almost a month ago in round 13.

It’s easy to understand how important getting match fit was for Whitelock in his first series as captain.

“I’ve had a couple of weeks where I haven’t played,” Whitelock said Friday. “It’s frustrating. I always want to be out there if I’m 100 percent fit – or even if I’m not.”

Hopefully it isn’t the latter come Saturday night.

Heading into Saturday’s match Crotty told media he is “fresh and excited” and that he “did what needed to be done to get right and fortunately I’m fit and available this week.”

Crotty has suffered five concussions over the last 18 months, but said he does his due diligence around making sure he is fully fit.

The 29-year-old said he gets testing done before each season and he is happy to continue playing until those tests start trending down.

I can’t help but wonder if starting a Test match is the best place for these players to make their return from injury. I’m not saying they should be wrapped in cotton wool from here on out, these are world class professional athletes we are talking about, and I suspect Hansen will manage minutes accordingly.

I just find it a little curious that these players will all make their return on the international stage after being largely out of action for the last month.

Perhaps Hansen sees this series as a rust-shaker of sorts - as opposed to the usual club run-around practiced by Moody, Israel Dagg and Kieran Read following long layoffs - while the All Blacks continue their preparations for the Rugby World Cup next year.

Only time will tell whether rust impacts the performance on the pitch, and whether being thrust back into the starting lineup after these layoffs will put them at a greater risk of re-injury, as opposed to easing their way back into action over the duration of the series.

Hansen admitted to the Weekend Herald yesterday "there are a lot of guys that haven't played a lot of footy but they've been able to train and get the running in. Sam [Cane] and Sam [Whitelock] have probably been the two exceptions.”

"Both Joe [Moody] and Owie [Franks] have been doing a lot of wrestling and rugby-type mauling and running, so I'm reasonably confident they'll be okay.”

Let’s hope that reasonable confidence is enough to get the job done against a formidable French side.

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