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'Two or three' mystery players on Steve Hansen's World Cup radar

New Zealand coach Steve Hansen (Photo by Getty Images)

Any chance of the All Blacks selecting a World Cup bolter appear to alive and well as head coach Steve Hansen has admitted that “two or three” players have caught his eye during Super Rugby this year.

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Speaking on Radio Sport, Hansen said that a few “young” players have impressed him as preparations continue for the World Cup in five months’ time.

“I’m not going to mention names and put pressure on them but there have certainly been some people out there,” Hansen said.

“[They] have also been quite obvious to most people.

“It’s been good to see and now that we’re getting to the business part of the season it’ll be interesting to see if they can maintain that high level of performance that we’ve been getting from them.”

Despite the ambiguity surrounding Hansen’s comments, plenty of previously unheralded players have made a name for themselves in this year’s edition of Super Rugby.

21-year-old Crusaders fullback Will Jordan unanimously crowned Rookie of the Year in RugbyPass‘ annual Super Rugby mid-season awards last week, while plenty has been made of Blues pair Tom Robinson and Ma’a Nonu.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BwnOGrdg4GL/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Robinson and Nonu’s Super Rugby teammate and uncapped No. 8 Akira Ioane was also called up to the All Blacks’ ‘foundation day’ camp in Wellington earlier this month.

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Hansen went on to say that the performances of many individuals has left him and his fellow All Blacks selectors, Ian Foster and Grant Fox, with no shortage of options when it comes to picking a squad later this year.

“There are a few guys that are established All Blacks that are starting to come into some good form and a lot of young guys starting to put there hands up,” he said.

“When the time comes to pick the side we’ll have plenty of candidates.

“Everyone is a chance, we’ll say no to nobody.”

2019 Rugby World Cup City Guide – Kamaishi:

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Nickers 32 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

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