Steamy Savea eyes keeping googles
Ardie Savea is committed to wearing his goggles following issues with them over the last couple of games during which he has ended up jettisoning them .
The All Blacks loose forward, who suffers from deteriorating vision in one eye and announced before the Canada match in Oita that he would wear the space-age goggles as protection, tore them off during that match and wore them in the warmup four days later against Namibia in Tokyo but not during the game.
Savea confirmed yesterday that the heat and humidity was causing the goggles to fog up which was affecting his vision. However, he is adamant he will persevere with them.
“Like anything you try that’s new it takes a bit of time,” Savea said as he and the All Blacks prepare to play Italy on Saturday.
“It’s probably the worst time to try them because the conditions here are very humid and it’s very hot; I’m just trying to get used to them. They were fogging up during the warm-up [against Namibia] so I just decided not to wear them during the game. I’ll continue giving them a crack and trying to find ways to wear them.”
The All Blacks, who will leave for Nagoya on Friday for the Italy game in nearby Toyota City a day later, are committed to a much better start compared with their early performance in the 71-9 win over Namibia.
Afterwards, coach Steve Hansen reminisced about the consistent excellence of Richie McCaw as an example of a player who never let his standards slip and fellow loose forward Matt Todd, who played alongside McCaw at the Crusaders, said: “Obviously he was a legendary All Black and set the standard for preparation and being able to push yourself to the point you needed to get to to get the job done. Obviously you want to put your body on the line and front week in, week out — that’s crucial.
“We weren’t happy with our start… we didn’t execute the way we wanted but in saying that we adjusted.
“They’re a quality team, Italy. They’re a Six Nations team and are used to playing at that level on a regular basis.”