Cruden's costly booze binge
Aaron Cruden may be paying a very dear prize for his booze binge in the latter stages of the Rugby Championship.
Not only has he been left out of New Zealand's last two matches, against Argentina and South Africa, but he has dropped dramatically down the All Black pecking order.
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has revealed that not only has Beauden Barrett edged ahead in his flyhalf rankings, but hinted that Cruden has dropped down to No.4 – having been the first-choice before his indiscretion.
Hansen carefully sidestepped the issue of whether Cruden is still being punished further for his late night indiscretion, by missing out on the team to play the Wallabies in Brisbane on Saturday.
However, he made it clear that Barrett has certainly overtaken Cruden – who now also appears to have dropped below Colin Slade in the pecking order, with Dan Carter making his way back from injury.
"He [Cruden] hasn't made the [matchday] 23 simply because we feel that Beauden Barrett has been playing well enough to get another go at flyhalf," Hansen told a media scrum, after naming the team for Saturday's encounter with the Wallabies.
Asked why Slade has been given the nod as Barrett's backup this week, Hansen cited Cruden's inability to cover multiple positions.
"He [Slade] covers flyhalf, inside centre, wing, fullback and as we saw against the Springboks, scrumhalf," the All Black coach said.
He's also confirmed Carter will be named in the year-end tour squad on Monday, despite again being ruled out of the Canterbury for this weekend's NPC semifinal as a result of his ongoing injury issues.
"We will have to make some assessments, whether he [Carter] is right to play, but we want to take him on the tour as well.
"He's pretty good. He's able to train fully, but he just can't take a knock [contact] on it. I'm speaking on limited information, because I'm over here and he's over there, but the nerves haven't settled down enough for him to respond well to a knock on it. That's what is effecting him."
Hansen says Jerome Kaino is having scans on a foot problem, but it's hoped a light week of training and sitting out this weekend's test will help it come right.
