1
Whitelock leads All Blacks after Cane loss
By AAP
Sam Whitelock will be New Zealand's replacement captain for the rest of the team's northern hemisphere tour, All Blacks forward coach Jason Ryan has said.
Sam Cane withdrew from the squad after suffering a broken cheekbone. Cane incurred two small facial fractures in their 38-31 victory over Japan in Tokyo on Saturday and had to return to New Zealand while the rest of the squad travelled to Europe.
The All Blacks are due to play Wales in Cardiff on Saturday followed by tests against Scotland at Murrayfield on November 13 and England at Twickenham on November 19.
"Sam Whitelock will captain the All Blacks for this northern tour and Ardie Savea and Beauden Barrett will be vice captains," the New Zealand Herald quoted Ryan as saying on Monday.
"Sam is really experienced and respected in the group. He's played 100-plus test matches and experienced a lot so he's the right man for the job.
"It was pretty straightforward and really well supported by the vice-captains."
The 34-year-old Crusaders lock has led New Zealand has been a replacement captain on a series of occasions and led the All Blacks in September's Rugby Championship-clinching victory over the Wallabies at Eden Park.
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Jake White: Ireland, Australia and Wales have the same problem
3
David Campese names his Springbok world player of the year winner
4
Let's be real about these All Blacks
5
Latest Comments
The England backs can't be that dumb, he has been playing on and off for the last couple of years. If they are too slow to keep up with him that's another matter.
He was the only thing stopping England from getting their arses handed to them in the Aussie game. If you can't fit a player with that skill set into an England team then they are stuffed.
Go to commentsSteve Borthwick appointment was misguided based on two flawed premises.
1. An overblown sense of the quality of the premiership rugby. The gap between the Premiership and Test rugby is enormous
2. England needed an English coach who understood English Rugby and it's traditional strengths.
SB won the premiership and was an England forward and did a great job with the Japanese forwards but neither of those qualify you as a tier 1 test manager.
Maybe Felix Jones and Aled Walter's departures are down to the fact that SB is a details man, which work at club level but at test level you need the manager to manage and let the coaches get on and do what they are employed for.
SB criticism of players is straight out of Eddie Jones playbook but his loyalty to keeping out of form players borne out of his perceived sense of betrayal as a player.
In all it doesn't stack up as the qualities needed to be a modern Test coach /Manager
Go to comments