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'Two or three' mystery players on Steve Hansen's World Cup radar
By Online Editors
Any chance of the All Blacks selecting a World Cup bolter appear to alive and well as head coach Steve Hansen has admitted that "two or three" players have caught his eye during Super Rugby this year.
Speaking on Radio Sport, Hansen said that a few "young" players have impressed him as preparations continue for the World Cup in five months' time.
"I'm not going to mention names and put pressure on them but there have certainly been some people out there," Hansen said.
"[They] have also been quite obvious to most people.
"It's been good to see and now that we're getting to the business part of the season it'll be interesting to see if they can maintain that high level of performance that we've been getting from them."
Despite the ambiguity surrounding Hansen's comments, plenty of previously unheralded players have made a name for themselves in this year's edition of Super Rugby.
21-year-old Crusaders fullback Will Jordan unanimously crowned Rookie of the Year in RugbyPass' annual Super Rugby mid-season awards last week, while plenty has been made of Blues pair Tom Robinson and Ma'a Nonu.
"There are a few guys that are established All Blacks that are starting to come into some good form and a lot of young guys starting to put there hands up," he said.
"When the time comes to pick the side we'll have plenty of candidates.
"Everyone is a chance, we'll say no to nobody."
2019 Rugby World Cup City Guide - Kamaishi:
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Latest Comments
Were you shocked by Sexton trying to rip Barrett's head off when he scored that final try in that return game?
Sexton once again the beneficiary of incredible double standards. Some of the rules simply didn't apply to him. The referee even watched that replay about 5 times in slow motion to see if he grounded the ball. If an NZ player had made that tackle it would have been a yellow card.
Ireland led by Sexton were the biggest bunch of whingers to ever play the game. NZ's dislike of Ireland was not caused by losing to them, it was caused by the Irish players, commentators and media being such giant crybabies.
I genuinely think Ireland are the best team in the world, and I think they will beat the ABs on Friday, but they are by some distance the team I like the least, and I know many people, not just from NZ, who feel the same.
Go to commentsThanks for the analysis Nick, thought provoking as usual. Couple of queries though, in the pic where you've circled Williams bind , I'm pretty sure it shows Stuart's knee on the ground, surely that's a NZ penalty? Also having had the chance to watch it again the All Black scrum seeems to improve after halftime, but before either England or the All Blacks replace their props. Not sure if that was the result of Tuipolutu coming on or some halftime tips. Either way this is only Williams second international season, so he'll be better for the experience.
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