The All Blacks selectors, Coach Steve Hansen, Assistant Coach Ian Foster and fellow selector Grant Fox, have selected 35 players to attend two training camps ahead of the three Steinlager Series Tests against Ireland.
The first wider training group camp will be held in Auckland from next Sunday 20 May – Tuesday 22 May with the second camp in Wellington from Sunday 27 May – Tuesday 29 May.
allblacks.com
The 35 players attending the camps are as follows:
Blues
Charlie Faumuina, Ma’a Nonu, Keven Mealamu, Piri Weepu, Ali Williams and Tony Woodcock.
Chiefs
Sam Cane, Aaron Cruden, Richard Kahui, Tawera Kerr-Barlow, Brodie Retallick, Ben Tameifuna and Sonny Bill Williams.
Hurricanes
Beauden Barrett, Cory Jane, Julian Savea, Brad Shields, Conrad Smith and Victor Vito.
Crusaders
Daniel Carter, Wyatt Crockett, Israel Dagg, Andy Ellis, Ben Franks, Owen Franks, Richie McCaw, Kieran Read, Luke Romano, Luke Whitelock and Samuel Whitelock.
Highlanders
Tamati Ellison, Andrew Hore, Aaron Smith, Ben Smith and Adam Thomson.
All Blacks Coach Steve Hansen said the camps would give the All Blacks coaching and management team valuable time with a core group of Test players as well as a number of new wider training group members, ahead of the All Blacks Steinlager Series of Tests against Ireland.
“We have two aims with the selection of the players for the camps. Our main aim is to begin to prepare a squad to win the Steinlager Series against Ireland; and secondly, it gives us the opportunity to introduce and work with some younger, talented players in the All Blacks environment,” Hansen said.
“In the wider training group we have a balance between proven Test players, in-form Super Rugby players and some talented, young players. This includes 21 players from the Rugby World Cup squad and, notably, six players from the 2011 Junior World Championship-winning New Zealand Under 20 team.
“We will use the time in the camps to work on some of the protocols, expectations and disciplines that are needed to succeed in the All Blacks, plus it will also give us a little bit of training time to work on some new things which we hope to bring in for the Tests against the Irish.”
The 30-man All Blacks squad for the Steinlager Series will be named on Sunday 3 June.
Strong front row
Adequate locks
Great loosies
Good scrumhalves
Great flyhalves
Good centres
Fast back 3
Not bad, hey!
But there’s nothing at the same time suggesting that the New Bokke can’t take them to the cleaners!
Yup, fear for Ireland a bit.
They will p0es klap Ireland and then be beaten by the Boks!
3 @ Loosehead:
I think Aussie has the toughest challenge with Wales (Six Nations Champs) touring in June.
Bokke should at least win the series against England and like you say, the All Blacks should and will klap the Oirish.
Aussie Super Rugby sides are improving though, compared to early Super Rugby season, where they were utter crap.
If only Heyneke had 2 more weeks to prepare the Bokke, man… eish, 5 or 6 days to prepare after monsterous Super Rugby derbies is freegin short turn-around time!
One thing that the Northern Hemisphere sides are all good at, and here I include their Clubs, is precision work at breakdowns and strong set pieces.. and keeping possession, to go through phase after phase.
Where they fall behind the Southern Hemisphere, I think, is in creativity and suddenly speeding ball up dramatically.
Their backlines seem to run a hell of a lot of crash-ball and I suppose one can ascribe it to the heavier fields, generally, up North.
It seems to me that Southern Hemisphere sides are less accurate with ball in hand and at the breakdowns, with more turnovers caused and conceded… but run wide and for space much more cleverly.
The penalty situation seems about the same in both Hemisphere’s.
There is also a remarkable difference in Law Interpretations between North and South, with the Northern sides getting away much more with sealing the ball off (maybe they just do it more cleverly).
I would like to hear YOUR views on what I’ve just said!
5@ grootblousmile:
In the UK, the ref’s rarely penalise the tackler for not releasing, prefering instead to penalise the ATTACKING side for holding on. This has been VERY obvious throughout the NH season.
Generally the backlines tend to be less creative than the Aussie and NZ midfields, but the ball seems to get to the wings more often.
Personally I don’t think the SA SR sides have creative midfields at all, where crashball 12’s seem to be the order of the day.
In general SA’s provincial players seem almost incapable of off loading either immediately prior to or in the tackle.
Super Rugby has (IMO) become very predictable and almost boring. It’s not very often I look forward to any of the matches of late.
In fact even the half decent prospect of the Cheetahs v Stormers played second fiddle to the Tiger – Sarries game for large portions of the game.
I hope HM gets the Boks to be a bit more adventerous with ball in hand. It’s great to see a winning side, but the only way to rescue Rugby from the empty stadia is through exciting, try scoring football.
6 @ Scrumdown:
You’ve got to EARN the right to go wide and play expansive rugby… and this has been the Lions main fall from grace (apart from a lack of player depth).
So, no, I do not wish Heyneke’s Bokke start to play helter-skelter rugby, in stead I would like to see a mix of Stormers type solid defence and Bulls type attack.
Winning Rugby is such beautiful rugby….
7@ grootblousmile:
I never said HELTER SKELTER Rugby.
The Lions biggest problem is that they can run the ball through 5 – 6 phases, and in the tackle keep the ball well, and then they knock it on with no pressure at all.
I agree 100%, winning Rugby is indeed beautiful. I just question whether the current type of Rugby being played in SA is good enough to beat the likes of NZ and Aus.
The England tour is of NO CONSEQUENCE in the overall scheme of things.
RUGBY per se is under threat from other sport codes. Our stadia are increasingly less well supported (apart maybe from Newlands) as live venues, not only CC Park, but across the board, crowds have been dwindling. That won’t change unless Rugby becomes more attractive to watch.
8 @ Scrumdown:
What is MORE ATTRACTIVE rugby?
Is it a match with 6 or 10 tries, or is it a match with 3 tries… is it a closely fought match, or a match where one team dominates and kills the other?
To me a good match, and an attractive one is one where handling mistakes are minimal, where the contests at the breakdown are real contests and not a one-sided affair which favours the attacking side. It is also a match where the tackles are hard and unforgiving, where the set pieces are a fantastic contest and where guile and technique trumps over keeping or losing a bind. To me a good game is where witt and speed, good passing and great kicking is exhibited, where the referee is a facilitator and not a self-important control freak…. and a few more things.
That unfortunately brings me to the New Rule Interpretations and to the quality of refereeing.
I believe the scrum rules and interpretations are taking a lot away from the spectacle, the way it is currently applied. I believe the breakdown ball rules need to be revisited.
I believe the Laws and rules need to be simplified and the guesswork needs to be taken out of the equasion.
I also believe the prancing freegin referees which sour our game, needs a number of butts kicked.
The rest will follow….
9@ grootblousmile:
One man’s geurilla is another man’s freedom fighter, but unfortunately “bang it up, bang it up and then kick the up and under” Rugby is not attractive to watch week after week.
The ends almost certainly do justify the means as far as the team using the tactics to win are concerned, but the number of bums on seats would suggest that it’s not everyone’s idea of “attractive Rugby”.
And by this statement I’m not having a go at any SA team in particular, but at the general state of play in SA.
Both our Aus and NZ SANZAR partners franchises seem to have the ability to up the ante and do something creative in order to break the oposition defence open when needed, while our SA franchises just seem to try the same thing for phase after phase.
Didn’t FS (one of our better teams with bakk in hand) go 20+ phases on Sat without breaking the defence?
It’s basically just an observation from my part that SA Rugby has become predictable and boring to watch. Us die hards will continue to watch, but you won’t attract new fans.
FFS, the English soccer last night was as exciting as any S15 Rugby from the weekend. (That and my birdie on the 8th at Kempton in the morning!)
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