ABS prep for World Cup rehearsal
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen says he’s ‘‘reasonably happy’’ with the state of his team as he gets set to welcome back several stars for an end of year tour that will have an extended squad split between the Japan and European assignments.
New Zealand finished their Rugby Championship campaign with a thrilling come-frombehind 34-32 win over the Springboks in Pretoria on Sunday.
Now they turn their attention to a dress rehearsal for next year’s World Cup in Japan, playing the Wallabies in Tokyo on November 3 before taking on England, Ireland and Italy, on consecutive weeks.
Hansen revealed the All Blacks would take a squad of 32 to Japan but 19 players would leave Tokyo early for Britain with fitness coach Nick Gill. They would be replaced by others to cover off the match against Australia and gain experience of the Japanese conditions and allow the selectors to assess fringe players with an eye to next year’s tournament.
A squad of 32 would operate the three tests in Europe with the clashes against England at Twickenham and Ireland in Dublin giving the All Blacks a taste of the pressure situations they will encounter at the business end of next year’s tournament.
While flanker Sam Cane is out of the tour with a fractured neck from the Pretoria win, Hansen expects to have hooker Dane Coles, prop Joe Moody, loose forward Liam Squire and lock Brodie Retallick available as they recovered from injuries.
Coles is expected to finally play a couple of games for Wellington B as he finally returns from a long stay on the sidelines with concussion and knee issues.
‘‘It’s been a long process but we are finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. He gets through those games and not necessarily he jumps straight back into the test against Australia but he will have enough footy behind him to get some time at some stage on the tour which would be great,’’ Hansen said of Coles.
Hansen said the All Blacks involved in the last two tests against the Pumas and Springboks wouldn’t play in the national championship this week because of the travel demands they had endured.
He said the injury problems the All Blacks had suffered over the past year, particularly with their front row, had enabled them to develop new depth in their propping department and that was a real plus moving forward.
He was comfortable with where they were at less than a year out from defending their World Cup where they are looking for an unprecedented hattrick of titles, following successes in New Zealand (2011) and England (2015).
‘‘I’m reasonably happy about how we are playing the game. I think we learned some lessons in Wellington,’’ he said of suffering a rare home loss to the Springboks.
‘‘We didn’t really particularly hit the spot last night [in Pretoria] with our strikes. But again, I think that will be a good learning curve for us.
‘‘We don’t claim to be the finished article but we are introducing new stuff that takes time and you usually get a dip before you get a rise.’’