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Named: All Black team to play France
By Online Editors
The All Blacks team has been named to play France in the second match of their end of year tour at Stade de France on Saturday 11.
The matchday 23 is as follows (with Test caps in brackets):
1. Kane Hames (6)
2. Dane Coles (55)
3. Nepo Laulala (10)
4. Luke Romano (29)
5. Samuel Whitelock (93)
6. Vaea Fifita (3)
7. Sam Cane (50)
8. Kieran Read - captain (107)
9. Aaron Smith (68)
10. Beauden Barrett (59)
11. Rieko Ioane (10)
12. Sonny Bill Williams (43)
13. Ryan Crotty (32)
14. Waisake Naholo (15)
15. Damian McKenzie (9)
16. Codie Taylor (26)
17. Wyatt Crockett (68)
18. Ofa Tu'ungafasi (11)
19. Scott Barrett (14)
20. Matt Todd (10)
21. TJ Perenara (39)
22. Lima Sopoaga (13)
23. Anton Lienert-Brown (19)
The matchday 23 features 11 players from the team which played the Barbarians in London last weekend. They've been complemented by a group of senior All Blacks returning to the starting XV, including captain Kieran Read, hooker Dane Coles, lock Sam Whitelock, halfback Aaron Smith and midfielders Sonny Bill Williams and Ryan Crotty.
Meanwhile, Vaea Fifita has been named at blindside flanker, Rieko Ioane is back on the left wing and Damian McKenzie is at fullback. Wyatt Crockett and Matt Todd also return to the matchday 23 providing loosehead prop and loose forward cover respectively from the bench.
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Latest Comments
If a coach having Crusaders heritage is so sacrosanct, why did the Crusaders not pursue Vern Cotter as Scott Robertson’s replacement?
Go to commentsFinau is definitely operating on razor thin margins. He hasn’t done anything wrong… yet. But a player going into contact 6 inches lower than he is expecting, without him even knowing, will end in disaster. You can imagine a situation where the pass dies on Edmed and he has to bend down a little lower to catch it at the last second. Finau’s hit would have been catastrophic. The margins are just too fine. He needs to study how PSDT, at 6’7”, manages to drop his tackle height and exert just as much force with close zero danger of taking someone’s head off. Given how poorly NZ has adapted to lower their tackle height, and that this issue which has plagued the ABs for years and played a big part in them not winning the World Cup, I thought NZR and all SR coaches would be prioritising sorting this issue out. If I was Razor I would be on the phone to Clayton MacMillan and Samipeni Finau saying exactly that. Finau is a monster and shaping up to be the closest thing to Kaino since Kaino, but I wouldn’t risk selecting him for the ABs at the moment.
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