Winger missed his ABS callup

Leicester Fainga’anuku didn’t realise he was an All Black until Richie Mo’unga leaned over and gave him a gentle nudge.

When wing Fainga’anuku joined his Crusaders team-mates at Rugby Park in Christchurch on Monday to watch the announcement of the All Blacks squad, he nervously waited to learn whether his hot form in Super Rugby Pacific had been acknowledged by the national selectors.

But there was a problem.

Even though Fainga’anuku was named in the 36-man squad he didn’t know NZ Rugby board director Bailey Mackie, who read out the list of players in Auckland, had uttered the magic words.

‘‘I didn’t hear my name get called out,’’ Fainga’anuku admitted. ‘‘I don’t know whether I was daydreaming ‘imagine if this would happen?’’’

Mo’unga was the first to quietly congratulate Fainga’anuku. Then the penny dropped with a thud.

‘‘It wasn’t until boys like Richie started touching me,’’ said Fainga’anuku. ‘‘That is when I started clicking, ‘oh, I must have got named or something’.’’

Mo’unga, at the time, didn’t realise he had done Fainga’anuku a favour by alerting him to his good fortune. But if it hadn’t been for the first five-eighths’ quick reaction, Fainga’anuku may have sat through the remainder of the announcement wondering went wrong.

‘‘No I didn’t,’’ Mo’unga said. ‘‘He may have realised after. He didn’t really give me much, or say anything. I think he missed his name . . . and then we missed the next name after that which was [Folau] Fakatava’s.’’

Fainga’anuku, who can also play centre, was no bolter. After being on the selectors’ radar last year, he joined Jordie Barrett, Will Jordan, Caleb Clarke and Sevu Reece as the those listed as outside backs in the squad for the threetest series against Ireland next month.

Tongan-born

Fainga’anuku, who was named after the English East Midlands city of Leicester, and Crusaders fullback Jordan are the competition’s leading try scorers on 10 which is an indictment of their attacking ability.

Few finishers in New Zealand can match Fainga’anuku’s power with the ball in limited space, as he uses a combination of explosive leg drive and acceleration to eat up metres.

After hearing news of his selection, Fainga’anuku had to focus on training with the Crusaders as they prepared for the final against the Blues in Auckland on Saturday night. Ten players from the Crusaders were named in the All Blacks.

After Monday’s training he had planned to catch up with his parents, who live in Christchurch.

‘‘You can message them as much as you can, phone call, but it is not until you really see them eye-to-eye and give them that first big hug. That’s when it truly means something.’’

A replay of that French test is painful viewing from an All Blacks perspective.

In the opening 40 minutes in Paris, Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock were dominated by French ball carriers Jonathan Danty and Paul Willemse, Whitelock coughed up a cheap lineout penalty with the French under pressure, Nepo Laulala dropped a relatively simple pass, Ardie Savea was turned over in contact, and the French scored two tries from mauls.

It was sort of punishment usually dished out to the Wallabies, and the All Blacks can forget about the World Cup if they are bullied like that again.

The Irish aren’t as physical as the French, but there are still big question marks about this All Blacks pack that must be answered in July.

This is an ageing pack with a lot of dents in the bodywork, and there are significant differences between this side and the supposedly old All Blacks side that won the World Cup in 2015.

There is a fair bit of misunderstanding around that 2015 forward pack when it comes