Crotty, Cane in the frame
Ryan Crotty and Sam Cane are fit and available for Saturday’s All Blacks test match.
The pair arrived in Nelson, for the team’s Rugby Championship clash with Argentina, free of concussion symptoms, after both took heavy knocks in the Bledisloe Cup matches against Australia.
Their potential selection for Saturday was going to depend on how well they trained – that question has been answered. Both completed the team’s session yesterday and, with today a day off for the players, we wait to see if Crotty and Cane will feature in the 23 that is named tomorrow.
‘‘They’ve come through training today really well and both participated at a decent level, so we’ll just assess that in the next couple of days. But it was pleasing to see their involvement,’’ assistant coach Ian Foster said.
Which was positive, but not exactly definitive. It led to the follow-up question of whether second five-eighth Crotty and openside flanker Cane are able to be selected for Saturday?
‘‘At this stage they’re where they need to be in terms of all the protocols that we have to follow through. The fact they’ve trained well today means we’ll assess them tomorrow and make a final decision then,’’ Foster said.
It’s an interesting one, for a variety of reasons. Not least of them is player welfare and New Zealand Rugby and the All Blacks being seen to do the right thing by two men with a lengthening history of head knocks.
Just because they’ve passed their tests, doesn’t mean they absolutely have to play.
There are any number of players who you could mount selection arguments for this week. Damian McKenzie, Nehe Milner-Skudder, Rieko Ioane, Ngani Laumape, Richie Mo’unga, TJ Perenara, Luke Whitelock, Ardie Savea, Shannon Frizell, Jackson Hemopo, Scott Barrett, Ofa Tu’ungafasi and Nathan Harris are among a group who could conceivably start.
But that has to be balanced against continuity and putting out a team that can beat the Pumas, plus the fact that fatigue took hold of the side in the latter half of last year’s schedule.
‘‘The objective of the week is to have a great performance on the Saturday. From then on we look at who needs time, who’s playing well and is going to benefit from staying there. It’s not just about the guys that haven’t played, it’s about [the fact] some guys actually get better as they’re in the saddle more and more so you’re trying to balance that the whole time,’’ Foster said.
‘‘We’ve got a squad that’s got a lot of energy about it at the moment. It’s an exciting group – they all want to play and selection’s as challenging now as it probably ever has been in the past few years.’’ champs and to come away with the win is really cool. It’s all about going forward from now on.’’
Porteous took three attempts to nail the win. His first was a deep landing on his switch 1080 which had him in second place behind Norway’s Birk Ruud. Porteous came through with a 93.80 on his second attempt, cleaning everything up and executing a technical run with a left double 1260 and an alley-oop flat spin 540 on his last hit for the lead.
Another local skier, Ben Harrington, was in third place until the third last run of the day, when American Dylan Ladd came through for a score of 92.80, to finish second, pushing Ruud to third and Harrington to fourth.
‘‘Selection’s as challenging now as it probably ever has been in the past few years.’’ Ian Foster, All Blacks assistant coach