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I have seen many assumptions that the All Blacks will fail in the next Rugby World Cup because the team is too old.
Some have compared them to the South Africa side of the 2011 World Cup.
Given the extended team has been announced for the mid-term tests, I have reviewed the side from an age perspective.
Making my own assumption on what is aged, i.e. ‘aged like a good wine’, I have taken the liberty of stating over 30 for a back and over 32 for a forward meets the classification.
So who are the ‘mature’ players. Interestingly enough there are three forwards and three backs. Let me stress the age shown is their age at the tournament in England next year, not now.
Kevin Mealamu (36), Richie McCaw (34), Tony Woodcock (34), Conrad Smith (33), Ma’a Nonu (33) and Cory Jane (32).
I don’t believe Mealamu will be around for the next world cup, but all the others are a distinct possibility subject to injury and form.
That makes the average age of the pack 28. And the average age of the backs 26.
I have not compared that to any other team, that is for others to view, but is it too old? I don’t think so. Do the All Blacks have cover or a transition plan?
For Mealamu in the current squad there are three others in the same position, with ages of 28, 24 and 22.
For McCaw we have Sam Cane aged just 23. For Woodcock we have two other props with an average age of 31.
In the backs it is slightly more difficult as several players can cover several positions, but using the players named as cover, the centre pairing of Nonu and Smith would be covered by Ryan Crotty (27) and Malakai Fekitoa (23).
However I don’t believe they would ever throw these two in together so you have to add Ben Smith (29) into the mix.
Some of these players will be dropped as the team is finalised, but I am assuming this is who they are looking for with the world cup in mind.
I also must add that there are unnamed players due to injury or other circumstances I haven’t included. Two are on the ‘mature’ side in Dan Carter (33) and Sonny Bill Williams (30). There are others but all fall under my age criteria.
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