future All Blacks squad,,,

having interesting chats with one clevermike, i stole his idea and revamped it a bit picking an All Blacks squad for the upcoming 4nats and selecting nobody over 28 years of age.

All Blacks squad,,,
props - owen franks, ben taumafuina, jamie mackintosh, charlie faumuina
hookers - hika elliot, motu matuu
locks - sam whitelock, brodie retallick, luke romano, jamie broadhurst
loose forwards - sam cane, victor vito, kieran read (c), nasi manu, matt todd
halfback - aaron smith, tj perenara
flyhalf - aaron cruden, beauden barret, tom taylor
center - SBW, ben smith, robbie fruean, rene ranger
wing - j savea, z guilford, t nanai-williams, l masaga
fullback - i dagg, a taylor

strongest All Black 22,,,
1 b taumafuina, 2 h elliot, 3 o franks, 4 b retallick, 5 s whitelock, 6 v vito, 7 s cane, 8 k read (c), 9 a smith, 10 a cruden, 11 t nani williams, 12 SBW, 13 b smith, 14 a taylor, 15 i dagg
16 m matuu, 17 c faumuina, 18 l romano, 19 n manu, 20 tj perenara, 21 b barret, 22 r ranger

k read is the no brainer captains choice and i picked a lot of players who have played at All Blacks level and for those who havent, i relied on their spXV form.
my selections also had an emphasis for the need for utility players, especially in the backs.
i would back this team to win against the pumas and any of the wallabies team who played wales and scotland, i would also back them to beat the Boks team named in test 3 vs england, but only if played in NZ.

Nice squad - all the rugby geriatrics are out.  Years ago I wrote that McCaw is somethoing special - that was a year he was selected the first time for the All Blacks.   A lot of New Zealanders then said that McCaw is not as good as I thought.   Let me give you a bit of advice now - from my perspective Read is average and nothing special.   He may be the best captain amongst the younger players - but I for one do not rate him as huighly as I rated for instance Carter and McCaw.

Not convinced with Smith at 13 at all, I'd play Fruean

@clevermike,

there are always detractors for any new upincoming players, coming from the invercargill in the deep south of NZ, we were alot more privy to the talent from otago and southland, which are the two provinces that make up the hihglanders.
the young rugby stars of otago and southland would often play for otago boys high and southland boys high, so i got to watch a few games of McCaw during the anual otago boys vs southland boys match ups.
McCaw was a touted by many down south as a future superstar and the only other player from down that neck of the woods to get as much hype was mills muliaina.
so i completey believe u that there would have been many kiwis saying arguing against u at the time, but im sure they have all had their fill of eating their own words, lol. :P

in regards to read, there have been many kiwis saying that read will be as good if not better then McCaw, but like u i am not one of them.
i will say that read is IMO, the best No8 in the world at the moment though, i cant think of anyone who comes close, vermeulen on spXV would have a strong case, but two things count against him,
1) hes injured and vitality is as big a part of performing, cos whats the point of being a star, if u spend as much time on the sidelines?
2) zero test caps is massive.

i respect but disagree with ur comments about read not being anything special, cos for me hes really special and important for both the crusaders and All Blacks. we have the talent to cover, but his worth is very highly rated in nearly every NZ corner.
one of the best ball in hand attackers ive seen since 2009 spies, fast and his tackle breaking ability is through the roof. he is also building up a super reputation for kick restart takes, an area of the game that no team bar the All Blacks and crusaders focuses a lot of time and effort into.

@saffex,

IMO ben smith is going to be in the All Blacks picture for many years to come. he is one of the most consistent players in NZ and has the added bonus of being a top class utility player who can cover 11-15,
hes been one of the form fullbacks for spXV a player with an almost nonexistent error rate.

theres a reason why fruean is yet to make the All Blacks, defense and workrate. everyone knows what fruean has to offer on attack, hes fast and built like a bricksh!t house,, but whenever the crusaders are pushed by their opponents and they find themselves with their backs to the wall, dont be surprised to see that u havent seen fruean at all. hes a player who makes a team playing very good, look unstoppable, but when ur backs to the wall and u  need inspiration to rise to the occasion, hes one of the players looking for answers.
his workrate and defense have improved big time since coming onto the spXv scene, cos it was down right atrocious at the beginning, and while it has improved, its still no where near for what is acceptable for an All Black.
i do think his time will come, maybe EOYT? but i see him more on the wing, where his deficiencies can not be exploited as much.

Sasu

Can be wrong about Read, but I really like what I saw about Cane.   A very hard worker - but I think he has a great future.   By SA standards he is a bit on the light side at 106 kgs.   However, he is the same weight as Coetzee.   You may have read elsewhere what I said about the weight of forwards coupled to their playing capacity and I did allow for some lighter players in the pack - but not more than one.   Pack average weight should nowadays be around 940 kgs - but not fatties, ie heavier players with playing capacity,

Prob;lem is two players as loosies coming in at 105 and 106 kgs - both Read and Cade are those weights - would make for a lighter weight pack, which could be problematic in the longer term in tight games.   Retallick is the right weight for a lock forward and I think he would make it.

A typical example of what I meant was the World Under 20 championship - where the AB's had a top class backline - but they always got the ball under pressure and could not perform.   They could have lost further if players like Jordaan, Howard and Small-Smith was not injured.   They were merely pushed over by the SA Forwards and could not perform.   Reason basically was the weight factor coupled to the issue of playing capacity.  

I am not sure at what weight your pack selections mentioned by you above - would come in.  Maybe you could have a look at that and make comments in the relevant regard.

Insofar as Vermeulen is concerned - the selection in SA often leads to the fact that they shoot themselves in the foot.  That is why there are such strong feelings on this Board about selection of players.   Spies is not favoured by the majority of people and they would go for Vermeulen rather than any others.   He weighs 116 kgs and has had his injuries - but not really excessively so.

I think that we may have to kiss good bye to Burger and see the future loosies to be Vermeulen at 8, Alberts at 7 and Coetzee at 6.   There are constant moans on the Board about Brussow - but it is unlikely that he woukld come into the picture again.   Another great prospect is Pieter-Steph Du Toit that comes in at 2 meter with a weight of 118 kgs.

There are elelments in the present Springbok team that will have to be sorted out in the next three weeks and I have a feeling that there may be significant changes.  The places up for grabs are basically around two imporant positions - namely at 10 and 8.   In my opinion - as Justin Marshall said on the Reunion program - both would mean a change in game plan on the part of the Springboks.   In any event the unfortunate injury to Goosen may delay his selection to September - but change there will be.

Be it as it may - I think Vermeulen, Alberts and Coetzee as loosies would be a major problem for any team and that could easily be the future problem for most opposintg teams.      

@clevermike,

when i heard the NZRU selection policy for the u20 NZ team, i thought that was a good twist and i couldnt wait to see how they roll, but at the time i was under the assumption that all SANZAR teams would be using the same policy.
when i found out that the jrboks and baby wallabies would be using players from the spXV and currie cup, i was like, oh sweet even better, cos there was anumber of spXv players and ITM cup players i wanted to see involved at that level, but then i found out that NZs selection policies was rstricted to them and i thougt WTF??? o_O
it was at that time i realised that NZ might actually not win this thing, especially as SA and OZ had no qualms in picking their players from the curries cup and spXV respectively.

my point is, ite really hard to gauge any success of NZ in the future, based on the performance of a team whose players have never played any games at a level higher then u20.
i would have loved for the 13 u20 ITM players to have been in contention for selction, or the 7 u20 spXV players as they could have added a lot of value to our baby blacks, but then again i am happy they were given a chance and finishing 2nd agaisnt the jrboks in SA is a small but nice consilation all things considering.

ive been aware of the bigger is better mentallity that is in SA, but most of NZ dont share those views. IMO techinque beats power, skill beats size and stamina is one of the All Blacks greatest weapons.
our ability to play a high paced game from the ref blowing the whistle to start the game, to the ref blowing the whistle to end the game is something ive never seen any team do as consistently as the All Blacks.
in the last 3 years alone ive lost count of the number of times in the first 25mins of any TriNat games where Bok and wallaby forwards would be swallowing huge mouthfuls of air and having their hands on theior knees while waiting for goal kicks or lineouts, it also makes me veru suspicious about some of the injuries that players suffer and forces the ref to stop time, cos a lot of those players are getting much needed rest. those injured players who im always suspicious of, always seem to get up no worries and continue to play just as hard as before.
but that is why im not worried about canes size and weight, cos i reckon hes got enough bulk along with his skills to drop anyone, even a rampaging alberts or vermeulen.
read is testemant to that, as hes been one of the ABs go to guys when it comes to going forward.

i dont think burgers time with the Boks is done just yet, i wouldnt be surprised to see him fit and get selected again, same goes with brussow.
there was a big need for a specialst fetcher in the england test and this problem could have been negated by brusoow who is still; SAs best when it comes to pilfering. i also think meyer will play brussow against australia, to counter pocock who punnish u big time if this area is not addressed.
i also wouldnt be surprised to see spies have a long career under meyer which might be detrimental to alberts and especially vermeulens cause, cos im pretty sure that coetzee has done enough for his Bok future.
IMO, my Bok loose forward trio if all were fully fit would be,,,
6 coetzee, 7 burger, 8 alberts, 19 brussow
and if anyone was in doubt, then i would bring in vermeulen straight away.