Sonny Bill Williams
Dan Carter
New Zealand welcomed back superstars Dan Carter and Sonny Bill Williams for next month’s Northern Hemisphere tour, but dropped pivot Colin Slade, despite his heroics against Australia at the weekend.
Flyhalf Carter, the world’s most prolific international points scorer, has not played since breaking his leg in the Super Rugby Final in August, while Williams returns to the All Blacks after two seasons playing Rugby League in Australia.
There is also a return for Aaron Cruden, who has finally been forgiven for his late-night indiscretion in the latter stages of the Rugby Championship.
Coach Steve Hansen also recalled flank Victor Vito at the expense of Steven Luatua, and included promising scrumhalf Augustine Pulu as the only uncapped player in the squad for the four-Test tour.
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Hansen admitted Slade, who nervelessly slotted a conversion after the siren to give the All Blacks a 29-28 win over Australia in Brisbane, was desperately unlucky not to make the 34-man squad.
But he said the world champions have an embarrassment of riches at flyhalf with Carter, Slade, Beauden Barrett and Aaron Cruden.
“There’s not much between all four,” he told reporters.
“It’s just unfortunate that one of them has to miss out.”
He said medics had reported some nerve damage in Carter’s injured leg, but were confident the 32-year-old, who has played just 40 minutes of rugby since being sidelined, would be fit by the time the squad departs this coming Friday.
“He’s damaged the nerve and when he gets a bang on it, he can’t feel it. At first it took quite a while to recover, now it’s recovering within a day and getting shorter and shorter all the time,” he said.
“So I’m pretty confident he’ll be available to tour, otherwise we wouldn’t have named him.”
Hansen said Williams, who played the last of his 19 Tests in August 2012, would concentrate on the inside centre role as he eases back into Rugby Union, rather than being used as a utility back as he has been in the past.
“Realistically, what we want to do with Sonny is get him back into the game and understanding what we’re trying to do [so] limiting the number of positions he has to learn at this point would be sensible,” he said.
“So No 12 will be where he’ll concentrate.”
New Zealand normally has a 33-man touring squad, but Hansen said the All Blacks decided to take an extra body in Luke Romano, who is also recovering from a broken leg sustained on Super Rugby duties, as back-up for locks Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock.
The tour opens with a Test against the United States in Chicago on 1 November, then England at Twickenham on 8 November, Scotland at Murrayfield on 15 November and Wales at the Millennium Stadium on 22 November.
“I want to congratulate all those who have been selected and also commiserate with the unlucky players who haven’t made it this time,” Hansen said.
“It was a very hard team to select, more because of the depth we have, rather than people not being good enough to make it,” he added.
The positional split for the squad sees 19 forwards selected (three hookers, five props, five locks and six loose forwards) and 15 backs (three scrumhalves, three flyhalves, four midfielders and five outside backs).
The All Black squad will again be led by the All Blacks’ most capped player, long-time captain and openside flank Richie McCaw, who will be making his 11th tour to Europe.
The squad has a combined total of 1,249 Test caps experience and, as well as McCaw, features three of the other most capped All Blacks of all-time in their position: hooker Keven Mealamu, flyhalf Daniel Carter and centre Conrad Smith.
Three players, scrumhalf Tawera Kerr-Barlow, midfielder Ma’a Nonu and prop Tony Woodcock, were not available for selection because of injuries.
The squad features a spread of Super Rugby representation and is made up of three Highlanders players, 10 Crusaders, nine Hurricanes, seven Chiefs and five Blues while provincial representation is led by Canterbury (nine players) with Wellington (seven), Auckland (six), Bay of Plenty (three), Counties Manukau, Hawke’s Bay and Manawatu (two); and Waikato, Taranaki and Otago (one).
Hansen also said extra management staff would come on Tour and was a reflection of the numbers of management that would be going to the RWC. He said it would give those staff the experience of touring, and an extra opportunity to work with the players and existing management.
The All Blacks squad assembles in Auckland this Sunday for the flight to Chicago.
New Zealand squad:
Forwards: Dane Coles, Nathan Harris, Keven Mealamu, Wyatt Crockett, Charlie Faumuina, Ben Franks, Owen Franks, Joe Moody, Brodie Retallick, Luke Romano, Jeremy Thrush, Patrick Tuipulotu, Sam Whitelock, Sam Cane, Jerome Kaino, Richie McCaw (captain), Liam Messam, Kieran Read, Victor Vito.
Backs: TJ Perenara, Augustine Pulu, Aaron Smith, Beauden Barrett, Dan Carter, Aaron Cruden, Ryan Crotty, Conrad Smith, Malakai Fekitoa, Sonny Bill Williams, Israel Dagg, Cory Jane, Charles Piutau, Julian Savea, Ben Smith.