Get your bets in for the All Black Squad for the june tests

[Darwin]

Cruden has yet to prove ANYTHING at test level. Great at super15 though and certainly has potential provided hansen doesnt make some daft positional calls and put to much pressure on him defensively.

I think people are missing the whole picture here yes cruden has a great ability to attack the line and good enough vision... totally unproven in anyother way imo. I would pick donald anyday if I knew it was going to be a tight game with massive forwards running at the 10 channel.

He'll probably get a chance against the Irish which isnt going to tell us much either.

He played very well against Australia in the RWC semi-final, and was looking very comfortable in the final before injury. You are right that he hasn't proved that much at test level, but he has only had three starts, and looked very good in 2/3 of them. He is not an outstanding defender but a lot of people underestimate his defensive ability - he would be as strong defensively as most international 10's (and indeed would be much better than a number of them...). He has more than just 'the ability to attack the line and good enough vision' - he now possess a strong tactical kicking game, is great at directing the team around the park, and is a very good goal-kicker too. In my opinion he has been far and away the best 10 in the entire Super Rugby tournament this year - indeed he has one of the most dominant performances by a NZ 10 at Super Rugby level for years. I'd be more than happy for him to start at test level against any opposition, as I don't think his lack of size is a major issue.

 

[austingtir]

Australia... they have been pretty bad for atleast 3 years or more. They only beat southafrica because of some crazy ref. There results before and after the WC have been pretty pathetic. NZ totally dominated them in the semi the Irish dominated them everybodys pretty much kicked them around in the last few years. Of all the teams for Cruden to shine against id say it would have to be them.

People were saying the same thing about weepu oh he had a couple of great games against the aussies last year.... well they have been quite bad so anybody is going to look great against them.

 

[Darwin]

Australia... they have been pretty bad for atleast 3 years or more. They only beat southafrica because of some crazy ref. There results before and after the WC have been pretty pathetic. NZ totally dominated them in the semi the Irish dominated them everybodys pretty much kicked them around in the last few years. Of all the teams for Cruden to shine against id say it would have to be them.

People were saying the same thing about weepu oh he had a couple of great games against the aussies last year.... well they have been quite bad so anybody is going to look great against them.

Yeah, Australia were only the Tri-nations champions, ranked number 2 in the world at the time, and had beaten us 2/3 of the last times we had met... anyone could have looked good at first-five against them on that day in pressure match