All Blacks squad

A largely predictable All Black squad has been named for the Tri Nations by the 3 wise men.

The only concern I have is ,why did they name four injury 'replacements?'

What happens if one or more of those four have absolute blinders in the opportunity they get given?Do they then drop the original selection?

It is clear that Tony Woodcock is the worst of the four injury labelled All Blacks.Should Wyatt Crockett(who incidentally was very unlucky at losing out to John Afoa) play well,better than Afoa or the Franks boys,should he then be relegated to make way for Woodcock? And on the subject of Crockett,I find it hard to see how Todd Blackadder could rate him ahead of Ben Franks in the Crusaders outfit,yet Henry and co rate him behind not only Franks but also John Afoa,the man they tried to convert in to a hooker just last season.

Having said that,that is the only issues I have with this squad.As I said,largely predictable.I had thought that with Colin Slades lack of game time that Aaron Cruden may have nudged in ahead of him,but I'm not complaining.I would have liked to have seen Sean Maitland get a run in place of either Sivivatu or Jane as an injury replacement.It would have been a perfect opportunity to have given him a run against Fiji.

Very experienced,very reliable and all these players know the patterns and the rules and what is required of them in World Cup year.

Now,roll on October....



Straight Shooter-telling it like it is