All Blacks for Japan

Toomaga-Allen into All Blacks squad

27th October 2013 07:38

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Call up: Jeff Toomaga-Allen

Wellington prop Jeff Toomaga-Allen has been called into the All Blacks squad for the Japan Test and European Tour.

Toomaga-Allen comes in as a replacement for Canterbury prop Joe Moody, who was ruled out of the tour after fracturing his fibula in last night's ITM Cup-winning Final against Wellington.

Meanwhile, the 27-man squad which will head to Tokyo tomorrow to prepare for the first Test against Japan has been confirmed, with nine players heading to Paris later in the week to start early preparations for the second Test against France.

The players heading to Paris are: Tony Woodcock, Luke Romano, Sam Whitelock, Kieran Read, Liam Messam, Israel Dagg, Cory Jane, Julian Savea and "apprentice" Ardie Savea.

The squad heading to Japan is as follows:

Hookers: Dane Coles, Andrew Hore and Keven Mealamu.
Props: Wyatt Crockett, Charlie Faumuina, Ben Franks, Owen Franks and Jeff Toomaga-Allen.
Locks: Dominic Bird, Brodie Retallick and Jeremy Thrush.
Loose Forwards: Sam Cane, Steven Luatua, Richie McCaw and Luke Whitelock.
Half-backs: Tawera Kerr-Barlow, TJ Perenara, Aaron Smith, Beauden Barrett, Daniel Carter and Tom Taylor.
Centres: Ryan Crotty, Ma'a Nonu and Francis Saili.
Outside backs: Frank Halai, Charles Piutau and Ben Smith.

Meanwhile, Aaron Cruden will also travel to Tokyo for promotional work and then travel with the squad to France.

 

 That's really bad luck for Moody but he'll have more opportunities

Watching this list and knowing that Hansen wants to give gametime to Carter and McCaw, I would play with:

1. Crockett    2. Coles    3.Faumuina

4.Bird         5.Retallick

6. Luatua    7. McCaw    8. L. Whitelock

9. Perenara    10. Carter

12. Nonu    13. Sailli

11. Halai    14. B. Smith    15.Piutau

which is a quite strong team, enough to put 60 or more points on Japan.
willing to see the blues backline in action

Yes, really bad luck for moody! I want to see him get his chance & develop but as you say he will have to wait . I look forward to seeing Bird get a shot. If thrush & bird play together one day Beeno will go wild with his "kiwi bird-brain" label  Maybe Ardie Savea   Was concerned about getting injured because he was nearly non existent in the final.
Still no sign of a decent young hooker  besides Cole. I have heard they are developing well in the lower ranks & will show up later .
We have a strong touring team & there is room to test the newbies us give backups more experience .
 Boks fans , are you trembling already ? lol

horrible luck for moody and i wish him all the best for his recovery.
moodys a real good prospect for our lack of depth in the loosehead department. once woodys gone, we have ok options in ben franks and crocektt, but neither are in the top 5 best looseheads in the world, prob not even top 10.
both moody and toomaga allen on the other hand are.

@dr win,
"Maybe Ardie Savea   Was concerned about getting injured because he was nearly non existent in the final."
lolz, good call.
i was very disappointed in ardie during the final, he and many other lions players saved their worst performance for the final, o_O

Sasuke San: yes the Loins did not play like the team we had seen prior to that. Who really knows the reasons? Could have been that they were overwhelmed  by the big occasion & Canterbury have "been there done that" . 
But in the case of Ardie that was the biggest contrast: from being a dominant player who could do almost anything to hardly being mentioned - strange!

@basquefan,

love that backline, and ur right it should put an easy 60 points on japan, but any combination we throw in that backline should put on 60 points plus against the cherry blossoms.

the team i would select slightly differs from urs though,,,

1 jefferey toomaga allen, 2 dane coles, 3 charlie faumina

4 dominic bird, 5 jermey thrush

6 steven luatua, 7 sam cane, 8 Richie McCaw

9 tj perenara, 10 daniel carter

12 maa nonu, 13 ben smith

11 francis saili, 14 frank halai, 15 charles piutau

16 andrew hore, 17 ben franks, 18 owen franks, 19 luke romano, 20 keirean read, 21 tarewa kerr barlow, 22 beauden barret, 23 corey jane

its the All Blacks easiest test of the year, so lets give our newbies a go now, and without the safety net of the All blacks core to fall back on.
toomaga allen, frank halai, tj perenara, big bird all get a chance to spread their All Black wings as the debutantes.

then we can also give other newbies who have had limited AB gametime a decent crack too.
thrush, coles, faumuina, luatua, saili and piutau.

i would want to see ben smith at 13, i think hes the only real option for 13 we have at the moment, at least until we see what earthly delights 2014 dishes us.
i believe that with snake on sabbatical, hansen should heavily invest the 2013 EOYT on ben smith at 13.
this is also why i have nonu starting at 12, a chance for their combo to develop before we face heavyweights england and france.

sailis not really a winger, but hes played their a number of times at spXV level and ITM, so he has a chance to gets another run on too, even if its not in his preferred position.

the bench is chock packed with proven experienced just in case things start to go awry, so all bases covered with 304 test caps ready to step in when and if required.

also think that halai is our future incumbent 14, if not in time for the 2015 RWC, then definitely afterwards.
really love the idea of him and savea on our wings, two 100kg speedsters ready to be unleashed.

This article speculates that 10 ABs will fly directly to France so they will not be available for Japan.
http://tvnz.co.nz/all-blacks/carter-mccaw-return-start-against-japan-5660766