carter out, cruden in All Blacks/pumas test,,,

All Blacks first five-eighth Daniel Carter has been withdrawn from the team to play Argentina in the Investec Rugby Championship match at Westpac Stadium, Wellington, this weekend, with a calf strain.
  All Blacks Head Coach Steve Hansen said Carter had been carrying a tight left calf this week but had been hopeful of playing.

"However, at training this morning it was apparent that he would not be able to play so we have done the sensible thing and withdrawn him from the Test match."

Aaron Cruden will now start the Test in the ten jersey, with Beauden Barrett, who made his Test debut against Ireland this year, called onto the All Blacks bench.

The revised team to play Argentina is now as follows: (with Test caps in brackets. * denotes new cap)


Starting XV:

1. Tony Woodcock (87)
2. Keven Mealamu (95)
3. Owen Franks (36)
4. Luke Romano (3)
5. Brodie Retallick (5)
6. Victor Vito (14)
7. Richie McCaw - captain (108)
8. Kieran Read (40)
9. Aaron Smith (5)
10. Aaron Cruden (12)
11. Julian Savea (2)
12. Ma'a Nonu (68)
13. Conrad Smith (58)
14. Cory Jane (33)
15. Israel Dagg (17)

Reserves:

16. Andrew Hore (67)
17. Charlie Faumuina *
18. Samuel Whitelock (30)
19. Liam Messam (12)
20. Piri Weepu (61)
21. Beauden Barrett (1)
22. Ben Smith (6)

Sasu

Carter injured AGAIN?   You know my view of injuries that seems to increase as players get older.   I think the All Blacks would do well to accept that Carter is not the future and start afresh with Cruden as the alternative.

There is a number of other rugby "geriatrics" in the All Black team that will also need replacement - so when is that going to happen?   The All Blacks have such a huge pool of talented players - they must start using them.

Mike cater is 29 so still has a couple of years to go. They will probably give Cruden more game time but will not jetison Carter and rightly so.

These abs are not too hot and they are in for a few shocks in the next few years.  Boks are getting ready to rule.

Watch this space.

@clevermike,
LMAO bro, its crazy but the first thing i thought of when i heard carter was injures was, sweet now cruden can get a crack to show his wares, the second thing i thought of was ur views on the older players, lol.

i still disagree with its time to phase carter out, his performances ofr the All Blacks have easily been the best from any 10 in the world and that is why he deserves to be there.
i also think that injuries are all part and parcel of the game, i mean goosen has missed more games then carter has all year abd hes 10 years carters junior, end of the day if ur performance has u being the best in the world in that position, it would be mad to drop u.
i wont be chnaging this view on carter until his performances start to mirror john smits and that time is still far far away on the horizons.

i will say i thought we should have played cruden against the pumas in the first place, save carter for the big matches against the Boks and wallabies and split the load with cruden for the rest.
its a win win for the All Blacks no matter who starts between cruden and carter, but im a little torn, cos im almost hoping that carter dosnet recover till after the Bok/All Blacks test match so that he can test himself against them.
the near future and battles between the All Black/Springbok looks set to be played in the cruden/goosen era.

God speed with ur recovery carter, :o)

No real loss IMO, Cruden is a great player, and the more experience he can get now the better for the AB's. Strictly from an All Black point of view, can you imagine how the record books would look if Carter was not so injury prone? A scary thought.

Ssaue

Please don't get me wromg - Carter is pobably the best flyhalf who ever played rugby - and it would be a tragedy not to admire his playing skills in future.   However, he has become injury-prone and has in the past year played rugby for  months only. 

I believe you are right about playing Cruden in the less problematic games and retain Carter for the more difficult ones.   Whether that will effectively work out - there are differences in playing styles between Carter and Cruden - is another question.   In the latter regard - bearing in mind the absence of Williams as well - the change may result in some disruption of backline play.   However, that is theoretical and I may be way off the mark in this case.

Glad to see Conrad Smith back at 13 - he really is the other key to successful backline performances by the All Blacks.