All Blacks Squad

All Blacks Squad

John Afoa    Auckland
Anthony Boric     North Harbour
Dan Carter       Canterbury
Stephen Donald      Waikato
Andy Ellis       Canterbury
Andrew Hore      Taranaki
Richard Kahui      Waikato
Jerome Kaino      Auckland
Sione Lauaki      Waikato
Brendon Leonard      Waikato
Richie McCaw (c)     Canterbury
Leon MacDonald      Canterbury
Keven Mealamu      Auckland
Mils Muliaina       Waikato
Ma�a Nonu      Wellington
Sitiveni Sivivatu       Waikato
Conrad Smith       Wellington
Greg Somerville       Canterbury
Rodney So�oialo      Wellington
Adam Thomson       Otago
Brad Thorn        Tasman
Neemia Tialata        Wellington
Anthony Tuitavake      North Harbour
Ali Williams        Tasman
Tony Woodcock        North Harbour
Rudi Wulf        North Harbour

wonderful squad. mainly because reuben thorne mark 2 (aka kieran read) did not make it! would have liked to have seen masaga but he can wait. not much cover for richie in there

4 players from Wellington. You would almost think they had a really bad year.

How the hell did that fat,overweight  & lazy Tialata get in? Are the AB's short of wingers? Having been to the Hurricanes games at the Stadium, it seeems out on the wing is where he spends most of his time. A lazy fat F! Schwalger & fairbrother are miles better and get stuck in where the work needs to get done.

Hes a great scrummager apparently..

tialata and afoa both play both sides which is something this panel enjoys, also they are both good lineout lifters.
i agree with you chrfit about cowan, but only ahead of ellis. leonard is a quality player.

Ellis is better than Cowan (who couldn't play for the Highlanders).

Thought Read should have been in, best number 6 in the country. He isn't a Reuben Thorne clone he has much better skills in running, offloading.

Laulala too, best center in NZ this season, improved his defence and passing and has been consistently better than Conrad Smith for the last few years. Not saying Smith shouldn't be in but everyone always goes on about Smith, and Laulala who has played better doesn't get much credit.

Has Tialata been on the bench because of injury or form? Either way not a big fan of his game or him after he had both of his hands around Richie's neck choking him 2 years ago.

Donald is either really hot or icy cold, no real in between in his game. but not many other options.

Doesn't seem we have that much strength in our depth anymore.

except for the fact that Laulala's shoulder is dodgy, two weeks in a row he's gone in for the big hit and come up worse off!! Conrad is was safer than he is!

Agree with Henry's comments about Kahui. Spoke a schoolmate of his a while ago who told me that he used to play 1st five which is why he has good distribution skills. I would like to see his kicking game improve but otherwise I think he could be the solution to inside centre now that McCallister is gone. We need a genuine second kicking option and in the past we have relied on either the halfback or fullback. I doubt Nonu will play inside centre becasue he also lacks a kicking game. If all else fails they could always move Carter back to 12.

Nonu's game is one diemnsional too. Crash through then run like hell. Trouble is, teams are aware of it and two tackle him, rendering it in effective. It doesnt really take an extra guy out of the play either. Conrad is the brains in the back line in Wellington.

wayne smith has said nonu is there first choice 12. im not a nonu fan so i think it is a ridiculous decision. i think we are going to see a change of style by the abs this year, different type of players have been picked, eg thompson and kaino before read. henry was always seen as a big fan of playing the dual first recievers at 10 and 12 but nonu being there is a different dimension. i think we will see a lot of tried and true combos against the irish this week
woodcock, mealamu, tialata, williams, thorne, mccaw, soialo, thompson, ellis, carter, nonu, smith, siti, wulf, mills.
that would be my team

I'm sure you mean Thorn, not Thorne

Masaga should be in there.

But I'm happy Donald got it.

LG thats a crock of shi*te if it takes two to tackle Nonu then there is clearly one less man to tackle the next man woth the ball, he has a knack at releasing the ball as he is tackled (like the league fellas) therefore creating a one man overlap - this happens more often than not as most eams tend to try and gang tackle him. This may hinder his running ability a bit, but if he gets the ball to smith and wider theres tries all over the place.

It will be interesting to see who gets the number 6 shirt?

With Jerry out, I think it's a choice between Kaino, Thomson and possibly even Lauaki? With Lauaki, you pretty much get a bigger version of Jerry, however as others have said they may be looking for more of a worker like Kaino or Thomson to help McCaw. I think they will go with Rodney at 8 as he's the most experienced.

Not sure what will happen at fullback either?

Surely MacDonald is cover for Mills and not the other way around, although MacDonald played a big part in the Crusaders run to the final and is in good form. There seems to plenty of options at centre so I think Mills will used at fullback.

I'm no rugby fanatic, but when I look at this squad I think that it is the first relatively weak squad since I have set foot on these fair shores (7 years).

Still too much for Ireland I dare say...


HarryHotspur2008-06-03 00:12:26

ppffftttt

Lonegunmen2008-06-02 23:02:16

nonu only manages to release the ball in the tackle cos he loses it.

1. Neemia Tialata
2. Andrew Hore
3. John Afoa
4. Brad Thorn
5. Ali Willliams
6. Rodney So�oialo
7. Richie McCaw (c)
8. Jerome Kaino
9. Andy Ellis
10. Dan Carter
11. Sitiveni Sivivatu
12. Ma�a Nonu
13. Conrad Smith
14. Anthony Tuitavake
15. Mils Muliaina

Reserves:
16. Keven Mealamu
17. John Schwalger
18. Anthony Boric
19. Adam Thomson
20. Jimmy Cowan
21. Stephen Donald
22. Leon MacDonald

And yes Kaino/So'oialo are in 8/6 respectively...

SurgeQld2008-06-03 16:21:08

Lets hope... If they get a few games... ???