Luatau expected to be fit for All Blacks selection

Blues flanker Steven Luatua is making solid recovery from his shoulder injury, with the All Blacks hopeful that the powerful forward will be available for the opening fixture of The Investec Rugby Championship, kicking off against the Wallabies in Sydney August 17.

The 22-year-old forward picked up a shoulder injury in the Blues 34-13 loss to the Cheetahs, and while the injury wasn’t classed as major, the Auckland based franchise erred on the side of caution to allow the blockbusting forward to recover for Test commitments.

Luatua, who gained his first All Blacks cap against France in the third Test, is expected to play a bigger role during The Investec Rugby Championship.

With incumbent blindside Liam Messam playing this weekend in The Investec Super Rugby Final, Hansen may decide to give another player a run in the number six jersey.

Luatua's inclusion this year means that Messam and Victor Vito have another player in town competing for the coveted blindside jersey.

Meanwhile All Blacks captain Richie McCaw will not feature for Christchurch RFC this weekend, but will play in matches against a Canterbury and Wellington selection in Lower Hutt next week. 

good to see luatua back, IMO All Blacks depth is the best in the world in the loose forward area and as great as luatua has been, i cant even see him on the bench, unless its another french scenario where he goes on as a lock replacement, but as we all know, if fit, whitelock, romano and retallick willl always be the first pick choics of hansen and rightly so.

blindside flanker is luatuas best position, but vito has had a great season and messam against the chiefs went along way to proving its not a mistake or coincdence that hes the No6 incumbent, but i do think hes had a season which pales to his 2012 season.
so i cant really see luatua making the 22 match day squad unless its aginst a team like argentina, against the Boks and wallabies, we need to feild our top guns, which will have messam or vito at 6.

blindside flanker - l messam, v vito, s luatua, g whitelock, R McCaw, t latimer
openside flanker - R McCaw, s cane, m todd, l braid, v vito, t latimer, b shield
No8 - kerean read, R McCaw, l messam, v vito, s luatua, b shield

real nice depth for the All Blacks at the moment, the wallabies and the Boks arent too shabby either.

No doubt NZ has the best depth right now in the loose forwards.

The only drop-off in quality would be at #8 if Read went down. All those you have listed behind him would be excellent replacements but don't have the same ceiling he does for impacting a game as a #8.

Sas, I am interested in your opinion about whether McCaw should be starting against the Aussies? Heard he picked up a neck niggle in his 12 minute cameo against the Chiefs or he would be playing club rugby this weekend. Old age sucks ....... haha

@oimatey,

i wouldnt have any problems with vito at 8, hes faster then read and just as physical, but read does always perfrom better in black, so thats a good point.

regarding McCaw, thats a tough one, but IMO i think he should, not because im the president of the McCaw fan club (though according to article IV chapter 3,,,,,,,,) but because i think he will deliver, similar to what nonu and dagg did.
his spXV hitouts havent been ideal, and the wallabies despite being yellow aint no pushovers, but something tells me that when plays the whole 80 minutes, he will be solid.
the alternative otherwise is we start sam cane, and IMO hes lost a bit of that spark which made him so awesome last year. right now on form, luke braid and matt todd are miles ahead of cane, but cane did have an outstanding debut 2012 season, i just dont think that was enough to give him a benefit of the doubt reputation, the likes of which saw nonu and dagg saved by others more worthy of starting.

old ages sucks??? i liken McCaw to good bottle of wine, he gets better the older he gets, LMAO, :oP