New Zealand on Monday 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.
Fly-half Carter, the world’s most prolific international points scorer, has not played for New Zealand since breaking his leg in the Super 15 final in August, while Williams returns to the All Blacks after two seasons playing rugby league in Australia.
Coach Steve Hansen also recalled flanker Victor Vito at the expense of Steven Luatua, and included promising scrum-half Augustine Pulu as the only uncapped player in the squad for the four-Test tour.
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 fly-half 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 on 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, 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 rugby 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 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 15 duties, as back-up for locks Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock.
The tour opens with a Test against the United States in Chicago on November 1, then England at Twickenham on November 8, Scotland at Murrayfield on November 15 and Wales at the Millennium Stadium on November 22.
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 (capt), 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.
