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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."
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Jalibert should be banned from playing for the French ever again, his rank and self-serving arrogance is so typical of the attitude in French rugby and in their culture as well. I am a Saffa and have lived in France for many years and, generally speaking, it's every man for himself, the team comes 2nd or even 3rd sometimes. The Boks show humility and team spirit and play for their country, never themselves......
Go to commentsI remember there was rhetoric about the new coach coming in and continuing the same system Jones installed. That's obviously gone out the window. It was cool watching those clips from the NZ tour, that was a serious Wolfpack. AB players looked like they were being hunted.
What we have now is a shambles. It clear El Abd doesn't know what he's doing and he has no track record to indicate otherwise. His appointment is ridiculous. Nothing against the bloke but he's only got the job because he's mates with Borthers.
When you look at how poorly organised our defence is and how blunt our attack is (Marcus excepted). It pains me to hear these so called pundits banging on about how close England are to being a top side based on narrow losses. England have massive issues, are a long way from being a good side and do not have the coaches to fix the issues. It's a testament to the quality of the players that they're managing to front up enough to compete with these sides.
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