my All Blacks based on 2015 tests so far,,,

1 t woodc0ck, 2 d coles, 3 o franks

4 b retallick, 5 s whitelock

6 j kaino, 8 k read, 7 king richie

9 a smith, 10 d carter

12 SBW, 13 c smith

11 c piutau, 15 b smith, 14 i dagg

16 c taylor, 17 w crockett, 18 n laulala, 19 l romano, 20 v vito, 21 tj perenara, 22 l sopoaga, 23 m fekitoa

savea is an automatic selection of course, but hes yet to play a game and piutau has shown why the All Blacks depth in the backs is unrivlaed.

ive been singing the praises of hika elliot big time this year and bagging hansen for his continued snubbing of hika, but codie taylor is the most impressive debutant of all the newbies in 2015.
he just keeps doing everything right.

nepo laulala hass also been impressing me in 2015, the brother of one of the most underrated players in NZ casey is continuing the family trend of consistency.

v vito always makes an impact when he comes of the bench. he is a must for hansens final RWC squad, but i dont know if he can fit him.

Good luck to the wee abs saSUE  !Frankly that is not very imprerssive. Have you got guys out injured? 

thanks brother benno, but the mighty All Blacks dont need luck when they have my awesome little fella and his spiffy blue overalls cheering for them,


only injury concerns i know of are to brodie retallick and maa nonu.

the rest of the selections made to date by hansen have all been with the RWC in mind.
while that paid off with our 100% winning percentage in test rugby this year, it was too much of gamble last weekend vs ur Boks who have a 100% losing percentage in tests rugby this year.

heavens to murgatr oyd, could u imagine what would have happened had the All Blacks played their A team like the Boks did???

i begrudgingly admit that hansen was correct with his selection policies, :/

 Naru San, good selections. I have seen others select Vito over Messam, e.g. Wynne Gray of NZ Herald. I always wanted Vito to step up & be an influential AB. I hope he has done it this time. Good to see Piutau take it up a gear also. Sopoaga played well & I guess you didn't select Slade because he hasn't had a chance to show his stuff yet.
We have so much talent to chose from.
Did you see where Beeno only rates the Boks as a B team. Tough but fair assessment I would say 
Now he's really mad

LMFAO,

now now beeno, hands of my mate dr win,

@dr win,

i was happy with slades contribution of the bench, but sopoagas was baptised by the hottest fire there is in  world rugby (for an All Black), the Boks at ellis park.

the selections of course are based only on performances to date, my top team would look vastly different, especially with our backs,

 How do you rate Milner -Skuder ? Is he an outside chance or is it 2019 for him ?

 Impressive enough to beat your lot Beeno haha. My ab team
1. Woodcock 2. Coles 3. O Franks 4. Retallick 5. Whitelock 6. Kaino 7. Richie 8. Read 9. Smith 10. Carter 11. Savea 12. SBW 13. Smith 14. Dagg 15. B Smith
Either way the Abs are retaining
I hope skudder gets a run againgst Aussie at Eden Park maybe, off the bench. Or a star Lima got one, Skudder deserves one, Naholo gotta a start too. If NZ beat Aussie next Saturday, then Skudder could get a game at Eden Park. 

 I think Milner-Skudder was injured at the wrong time, i.e. before the final. Dagg is surviving mainly because of his boot. Those long kicks down field for field position will be a key element in the RWC. M-S is a very exciting player with tons of x-factor. I hope we see him get a run.
Picking the starters is easy enough but the bench is a little more tricky. Is there room for Piutau when Savea is fit, will Slade beat out Sopanga, where will Barrett fit in. Will Cody beat out Elliott? At lock, who will be the bench players (for sure Romano) Broadhurst or Thrush). backrow: Vito or Messam. Cane will be in for sure. 
So to me there are only a few questions about starters but lots of good choices for bench and backups.
On the issue of who should start at full back, here is an opinion that it should be B. Smith.
Article

i think skudders chances of a world cup start are pretty slim.
savea hasnt played a test all year, and there is no way he cant be in the All Blacks no1 team.
hansen has been using the tests so far as a preparation for the RWC, so surely he can understand the need for savea to start in the two tests vs the wallys???

after seeing sopoaga get named vs the Boks though, i wouldnt be surprised to see skudder named.
maybe hansen will feild a full strength team to lock up the RC/4nats and then give skudder a chance in the final bledisloe???
or maybe hansen will just say F it, tie some weights to skudder and throw him in the deep end and say sink or swim mofo, lolz,

im also not completely sold on dagg having no place in the All Blacks team too.
i would definitely start ben smith at fullback, but i would have dagg on the wing.
lucky lukes All Blacks is pretty much the top team i would name, but with nonu at 12. not SBW.

any word on nonus and retallicks injury???

my All Blacks team for the first bledisloe

1 t woodc0ck, 2 d coles, 3 o franks

4 b retallick, 5 s whitelock

6j kaino. 8 k read, 7 king richie

9 a smith, 10 d carter

12 m nonu, 13 c smith

11 j savea, 15 b smith, 14 i dagg

16 c taylor, 17 w crockett, 18 n laulala, 19 l romano, 21 v vito, 22 b barret, 23 m fekitoa

my All Blacks team for 2nd tests

1 t woodcock, 2 d coles, 3 c laulala

4 l romano, 5 s whitelock

6 v vito, 8 k read, 7 king richie

9 a smith, 10 l sopoaga

12 SBW, 13 c smith

11 j savea, 15 b smith, 14 m skudder

16 c taylor, 17 w crockett, 18 o franks, 19 j thrush, 20 l messam, 21 a ellis, 22 c slade, 23 c piutau

1st bledisloe team secures the RC and bledisloe.
2nd bledisloe team has a core strong enough to win, and lets us see how players answer the many questions selectors and us armchair critics have,

GO THE MIGHTY MIGHTY ALL BLACKS!!!

 Sasue
In the main would not disagree about your selections based on performance thus far - but Whitelock was only from the bench and got a well-deserved yellow card as well. Doubt whether he had more than 20 minutes playing time - so Romano should replace him in my humble opinion.   I am not at all happy about Conrad Smith as well - he was poor in the last game -so for my money it must be Fekitoa.
Insofar as your total team is concerned I would indicate the changes I would make for the WC team:-
 1 t woodc0ck, 2 d coles, 3 o franks
4 b retallick, 5 s whitelock

6j kaino. 8 k read, 7 king richie

9 a smith, 10 d carter

12 Williams, 13 Fekitoa 
11 j savea, 15 b smith, 14 Charles Piutau

16 c taylor, 17 w crockett, 18 n laulala, 19 l romano, 20 v vito, 21 TI Perenara, 22 b barret, 23 Milner-Skudder
After last Saturday would not touch Nonu and Conrad Smith with a bargepole.  Two rookie players dealing with them the way they did is bad indeed.

Naru San; strangely no word on Retallick and Nonu injuries. What strikes me in doing the search for this news is how often Retallick has been injured lately. Even though they have been different injuries they better make sure he is fully recovered as the RWC is not that far away.
On selections for the bledisloe tests, I don't see Sam Cane in your teams. He will need some playing time so I think we will see Hansen pick him.

 JW
I think that a player is more subject to injuries because of high work rate and involvement in the hard grind up front.  When Retallick was less involved up front and more seen in open play - injuries were less.
Agree with you about Cane - he should be picked - since McCaw may still have problems after landing on his bum when he tried to tackle De Allende and was sent flying.      

 If, as it seems till now, Hansen is using the RC as preparation for the RWC during the next 2 matches against the aussies we'll probably see resting the players who have played the 3 tests (Woodc0ck, franks, Read, McCaw, Piutau, Dagg) so Crockett, Laulala (even Moody), S. Cane, Todd, Vito, Savea will have their opportunities.
Barret and Slade have played only from the bench so I can see one or both of them starting the next matches.

I would like to see C. Taylor starting at least one of the games ( the second bledisloe at home could be the perfect occassion). Both he and Laulala have been impressing since the last ITM cup and with Sopoaga they are possibly seizing one of the 31 spots for the RWC squad.
I would give C. Taylor as much gametime as possible with a view to give him the bench spot. With his speed he can be a very dangerous impact player.
For the people who didn't see it, here's a sample of what he can do. Worthy to watch or re-watch, it's Taylor's try (0'33'' in the video) in last november's match AB Maori-Japan

 ...yup he;s the new kid on the block so good succession planning in place there...no shortage of depth in any position I can think of...competition for limited places also added motivation to play well

 He's fast, has good ball handling skills. How is he at the breakdown & carrying the ball in heavy traffic, e.g. pick and go?

 he's good, with Canterbury he got some tries picking and going while he's often involved at breakdowns. This season he's been working to add some more kg. to improve both of them and the scrumming. He's also very good at lineouts.
His tackling could be the area where he can improve more though he's already quite decent. His ratio success is around 81%, while Moore, du Plessis or Coles have around 85-86% success and the best tacklers (Coltman, Parsons, Strauss) around92-93%.

 He sounds like a real find for the ABs  we needed to find a few more hookers.