All Black Captain Richie McCaw and key players Dan Carter, Mils Muliaina and Israel Dagg all look set top play in New Zealand’s crunch Rugby World Cup pool A match against France in Auckland on Saturday.
The match is set to decide the runner up of the pool and therefore who will face the winner of Pool B which includes England, Argentina and Scotland.
The four players all suffered injuries in the run up to the All Blacks match against Japan which led to the All Black coaches making late changes.
However all four players took part in training at Linfield Park in Christchurch on Monday.
“It looks like they’re all on track to be available this Saturday,” All Blacks assistant coach Wayne Smith told Sky.
“Richie had quite a big session and finished it doing some of the forward unit work. Daniel got through a bit of work today and (back) had freed up a bit better but he still is not 100 per cent.”
“The back is still stiff and a bit uncomfortable but I think the positive thing today was that he goal-kicked after training and that’s a really good sign. ”
“Mils got through a lot more and is pretty close to right and Israel looked pretty free.”
Smith added that No. 8 Kieran Read who was injured in the Tri-Nations and has not played since was recovering well.
“He ran for the first time this week and is hopefully on track for the Canada game (October 2).” said Smith.
There has been speculation that France might field a second string team on Saturday to save themselves for the quarter finals but Smith believes they will be looking to win the Pool.
“I’m certain they will want to knock us over. Psychologically it is important for the team and we want to do the same.”
Smith said he felt that France had not shown their hand yet in their victorious matches over Japan and Canada and they would continue to play the same game pattern they had displayed all year.
“We’ve studied them through the Six Nations and in pre-World Cup games so we have a pretty good feel for what their patterns are and from my experience patterns don’t change a lot with individuals,” he said.
“We’ve got a really big game this week and we’ve got to get really get some edge.”
“We’ve been watching all the other teams play and if you look at a couple of games – Ireland is a good example – the physicality of their game was well up from what we’ve experienced so we’ve got to get that really quickly.”
Smith also suggested that the original team that was named to play against Japan would be close to the team they select for France and that the goal was to name a full strength team.
“We were going to see it last week. We picked a team we thought would probably play last weekend and next week, but that’s the reality of tournament play. You have to react to the injuries and have players come in and step up to that level.”
“You talk about picking the best team but I don’t know if that ever exists because you always get niggles and have guys coming and going.” Smith added that some players who had been under pressure had stepped up to the plate.
“There’s a couple of positions where we’ve got good options, but that’s great because you want selection to be tough and you don’t want injuries to make the decision for you.”