All Blacks to name their squad for upcoming Tri Nations tournament on July 10 - Rugby News
All Blacks coach, Graham Henry, will name the final squad of the upcoming Tri Nations tournament and the sole test against Fiji, on July 10. Graham Henry has declared the squad will be balanced and said that it allow New Zealand selectors to name the best
possible team for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. The Tri Nations tournament will kick off on July 23rd in ANZ Stadium, in Sydney.
New Zealand, Australia and South Africa will participate in the Tri Nations championship, shortly before the start of 2011 Rugby World Cup, which is kicking-off later this year in September and will be hosted by New Zealand. The championship will consist
on seven matches including the final.
New Zealand will defend its title as they won the previous tournament winning all their matches of the competition. The Tri Nations tournament will provide the three best teams of the world to assess their squads for the Webb Ellis Trophy. Recently all the
top players of the three teams are engaged in Super Rugby championship, which would come to an end in the first week of July.
The All Blacks will play a test match against the Fijian rugby team before engaging in the Tri Nations cup. Talking to media, the All Black coach, Graham Henry, said that only promising players are included in the side. Henry further said that, "I think
we're going have to (use back-up players during the Tri Nations), it won't be wholesale changes, but I think guys that play in specialist positions will need to have experience in big Test matches
- in case they're selected for sudden death matches at the World Cup."
Graham Henry further said that the players who have performed well in the Super Rugby championship will definitely be preferred. Responding to a question regarding his retirement, he said, "What I have made a decision on is to be totally focussed on the
rugby World Cup and then in November to give some thought to the future. One thing is, I'm not too old, I'm just late middle-aged. They just given me the pension now,"
The All Blacks have real depth in their squad and they will be able to announce the best unit for both tournaments.
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