Kaino back with All Blacks, won’t face Boks
New Zealand have recalled flanker Jerome
Kaino to their training camp ahead of facing South Africa, but he isn’t set to feature in Albany.
Kaino, who has been dealing with off-field matters following revelations about his private life, hasn’t played in this year’s Rugby Championship.
Liam Squire and Vaea Fifita have instead been involved as starters, with the latter performing excellently against the Pumas last weekend.
Kaino though has been recalled this week as Fifita has a shoulder issue, but assistant coach Ian Foster said the former won’t be involved.
“We’ve had ongoing conversations with him,” he said with Kaino to play for Auckland against Southland on Friday.
“He’s had one game of Mitre 10 Cup and he’ll have another one as he’s been out of the game for a little while. He’s got to show us he’s in the right condition and shape to come back but its great having him back.
“It was quite a starting debut wasn’t it so he’s a bit sore,” Foster added on the performance of Fifita. We’ll get a better handle on it tomorrow.”-Planet weekend.”
The Boks face the All Blacks at the North Harbour Stadium in Albany on Saturday. Skosan said he isn’t too concerned about the location‚ even though North Harbour has a sizeable South African immigrant population.
“It’s another game at the end of the day and it’s 80 minutes that we need to see off,” he added.
“Obviously when you’re at home you have the advantage. We’re still playing an away game and we’re still playing the New Zealand side in New Zealand. It’s going to be a tough challenge for us to get the result. We need to do what we need to do on the weekend,” he added. same,” Whitelock said.
“The beauty I love about it, is they’re big, strong guys and there is always that physical battle. They really pride themselves on it, so you always know it’s going to be physical.
“They’re really confident and when a team is confident things normally come off for them. In their first couple of games, they played typical South African rugby; their big, strong guys were carrying hard and they were using their skills when releasing the ball to go wide.”
Whitelock also praised his opposing secondrow Eben Etzebeth on the growth and maturity he has shown as Bok captain.
“He’s developed massively from when he first arrived. He was similar to myself and made the starting lineup when he was quite young. It’s always a steep learning curve for any player but he has really grown and evolved in that leadership role, and seems to be really enjoying it. When you’re enjoying your rugby, normally you’re playing great.”