Abs not wanting to experiment against England

Ex Supersport

Rookie hookers Liam Coltman or Nathan Harris are unlikely to be thrown into the fray against England next month unless they are absolutely ready to step up to test level, All Blacks coach Steve Hansen said on Sunday.

Hansen has something of a hooking dilemma on his hands as he fine tunes his selections for next year's rugby World Cup defence with veteran Keven Mealamu injury prone and understudy Dane Coles only 18 months into his test career.

He needs to blood at least one more hooker this year to build some depth there before the World Cup in England and has brought Coltman and Harris into an extended training squad for two three-day camps in Christchurch and Wellington.

"We think the two guys we have brought to the camp are two quality players and (they) are young men we're interested in," Hansen told reporters in Christchurch. "There's no rush for us to bring them in if we think they're not ready yet.

"History tells us that people step up and fill shoes when sometimes you don't think they're going to be able to.

"(But) you don't want to rush them in for the sake of it. They have to be ready to do it otherwise they're going to lose their confidence."

Hansen hinted he may only select two hookers in his 31-man squad for the three-test series against Stuart Lancaster's side that starts on 7 June in Auckland and if needed he had other options if injuries occurred.

"Obviously if we get injuries then Corey Flynn is not going overseas until after the Super (Rugby) competition so he could still be eligible," Hansen added of the 33-year-old World Cup winner, who was not included in the training squad and will join French club Toulouse later this year.

Hansen also said he would not be keen to spring too many surprise selections for the England series, despite naming five uncapped players in the extended squad.

"No," he said when asked if he saw the series as an opportunity to blood several new players and rest some of his veterans.

"The England series is going to be really tough and it's about picking the best 31 guys we can and getting their combinations out there and reacquainting ourselves so we can get our game structures and skill sets back up to the high level they were at last year." (Well they had better be better than last year as they abs should have lost quite anumber of tests as we all should know)

Hansen added he was pleased to see Auckland Blues loose forward Jerome Kaino playing so well after two seasons in Japan, though the 48-test veteran was no guarantee to walk straight back into the side.

"It's exciting to see him come back and see him playing the way he is," Hansen said.

"He's going to have to prove himself again in test rugby if he gets the opportunity.

"He's an athlete that when he was at the top of his game he was the best in the world. Can he reach those levels again? We don't know but we're excited about finding out." Jerome who the best in the world!!!! hahahhahahaha)

Well ou Hansen may well be forced to make changes. Will England be at full strength?

You notice that Hansen knows how to develop his players & not throw them in the deep end too early. 
SA coaches should take note, too many of their young players are rushed into sides with a full workload & they get injured or shell shocked. 

 Hansen s conservative - but conservatism ends up on the wrong side at times.  You cannot play players past their sell-by date - it harms the team.   I for instance think that there are numerous NZ players better than McCaw at this stage - to keep on playing him fr sentimental reasons can be counter-productive.   
I am not in favour to throw young and inexperienced players into any team - but sooner or later the coach must bite the bullet and make changes either because of proven incompetence of present players or when they become incompetent due to advancing age.  
Matter of fact there are a minimal number of changes I would like to see in the Springbok team - namely at 13, at 10, at 7 and at 3.         

 Hasbeeno, Kaino was regarded as the best in the world in 2011 by many pundits, not just Kiwis.

He couldn't be compared to Schalk that year as SA were knocked out of the RWC in the early stages; or had that slipped your mind?......Guess if you can't perform at a RWC in the early stages, that's the Bryce you pay!

 Moolaa
Kaino is a very good loosie and his recent performances with the Blues showed that he can perform well in a team with serious deficiencies in the Tight 5.   I think Hansen is likely to use him from the bench or in the case of injuries.   
I think that at 7 Hansen will use McCaw, at 8 Read and Kaino may come in at 6, but Messam is the incumbent and I like Luatua as a very good 6.  Who do you think Hansen will use at 6?    

 No, Beeno, England won't be at full strength.

For the First Test we will be a mish mash of a team. Some of the players will still be at home as our Season will not be over and they have the Prem and HC Finals to play in. Until last weekend, Stuart Lancaster had no idea who he would be able to take with him and it looks likely that George Ford will be the starting 10 for the First Test ( with Danny Cipriani an outside bet ) Owen Farrell is otherwise engaged playing in the two Finals I mentioned.

We have some injuries to key players, so the likes of Corbisiero, Nowell, Croft, Wade etc won't even be travelling and players like Hartley are a doubt. He has been out for weeks now, since we played Leics in the League match and he injured his shoulder. With Tom Youngs staying at home to be with his wife who is undergoing treatment for illness, that leaves us very short on Hookers...Webber has been injured, so Ward appears to be a probable starter for the First Test ( if Hartley is fit, he will be playing for us in the Prem Final anyway ) The likes of Cowan-Dickie is also travelling, very inexperienced though !

It is a ridiculously thought out Tour and has put Lancaster in quite a difficult position to say the least. NZ will be gleeful at the thought of facing a terribly weakened and inexperienced team first up and should win well; it has the potential to be a bloodbath and that is a terrible tone to set for the Tour.

One just hopes the team can hang on in there and get some good experience from the whole thing, no more injuries and keep the scoreline close. Maybe sneak a win somewhere along the way !! Hope springs and all that !!

Its seems silly to tour the best rugby playing nation in the world without a nations best team available, allmost pointless. It is hard enough trying to beat New Zealand at home with the best team, but a joke without anything else.
Something needs to be done to co-ordinate the global game.

Mike, I think he'll go for the incumbent Messam at 6. He's been loyal to the existing squad to date and although Kaino's been playing well, so has Messam. Luatua seems to have slipped a bit with an unspectacular season so far so I think Kaino will be on the bench. Still, being an unbiased Chiefs supporter, I've been wrong before! 

Moolaa 
It is very difficult for loosies to play well if the tight 5 misfires - such as the case was with the Blues.  The situation is that the loosies must then be drawn in to help the tight 5 players.  I agree that Luatua did not play well under that condition - Kaino and Braid has been better.
However, Nessam has not been a house on fire under similar circumstances and I think he may be saved by loyalty more than anything else.  
.

 From our perspective, we have long-term injuries; that can't be helped. You just have to get on with that and, to add in the newer injured players who are missing out or even possibly missing out ( like Billy Twelvetrees for example ) because they were injured late in the Season. Well you just get on with that too. It's unfortunate because Lancaster has not had the chance to really build a team yet. He's not had any stability at all. 
But the issue with regards the timing; from our point of view, we all know when the season ends over here, we all know that the best teams will be fighting out for the Prem Final, so they will have a chunk of the England team involved and the chances are that some players will be involved in the HC Final/Amlin and the new Play Off for the Euro Comp next year. That would mean that they would all be absent from the First Test as the fixtures were arranged.It's plain stupid. He's had none of those players in Camp, so Quins/Saints/Bath/Sarries/Wasps England players have not partaken in any of the Training Sessions to date. Quins are now out of all competitions so he has them at least ! But the others are still tied up.Saints play Bath on Friday night, after that, Bath players are free to join the Squad but Saints play Sarries the following Saturday.
What they needed to do was either have a 2 Test Series or start a week later ! It would still be a struggle to get the players together and have enough time to train but it would be better than having such a mish mash of a team to start the First Test.It's so important to start the Tour well, we all know that. They have hamstrung us and given NZ an even bigger advantage than they already had, by arranging the fixtures thus.

of course we dont want to experiment, experimenting during tests is what lesser nations use in their explanation books when they lose.

All Blacks No1 priority is to win, that means play our full strength team against the Boks, wallys, england and france.
against the likes of ireland, wales, we play close to our full strength team, but positional changes in a number of areas are acceptable.

agaisnt all others, we have the luxury of not needing a full strength team, but caution should be applied and the core of the All Blacks must not be compromised.

its a shame that england wont be at full strength, and im not too sure why the test couldnt be postponed for a week or two though, same dramas happened with france last year.

isnt it possible to play the entire spXV with out any june series breaks, a straight run through to the finals.
then when it is concluded which by my calculations the spXV grand final would be finished on the 5th of july

with the RC/4nats starting on the 16th of august, thats 6 weeks between the end of thee spXV and the start of the RC/4nats to fit in three tests, and also give players a chance to get together in camps or est and what have u, how ever they wish to spend that time off.

this in turn would give the NH teams ample opportunity toe get sorted and put on a formidable challenge as they travel down south.

the major plus side is the pumas would get a decent proper run before the RC/4nats, somethign they dont really get before the lucky Boks get a crack at a completely unsupervised team.

i agree with comments saying that messam is the incumbent 6, and i think hansen will see it that way too.

very happy to see kaino in some outstanding form at the moment, his selection in the All Blacks squad is well justified, IMO hes looking better then before he left, which is  freaking scary cos he was the worlds best blindside at the time of his depature.

am a little sad though, cos it means theres no room in the All Blacks for my boy vito who i rate a lot.
luatuas versatility at lock means the utility players has a big ace up his sleeve.

All Blacks loose forward trio and bench should IMO be,,,

6 l messam, 7 king richie, 8 k read, 20 jerome kaino

i would also have lutua on the bench but as lock cover, with brodie and whitelock to start, and luatua too add a bit more powered pace in the 6 0 min zone.