NINE BLUES NAMED IN ALL BLACKS SQUAD

Nine Blues players have been named in the All Blacks Northern Tour Squad.

The All Blacks play Japan in late October at Nissan Stadium in Yokohama before heading to the UK and Europe to face England, Ireland, France and Italy in November.

The Blues players named in the All Blacks squad:

Ofa Tu’ungafasi

Patrick Tuipulotu

Sam Darry

Dalton Papali’i

Beauden Barrett

Rieko Ioane

Caleb Clarke

Stephen Perofeta

Mark Tele’a

All Blacks Head Coach Scott Robertson said:

“This Northern Tour is an exciting challenge, which will allow us to continue evolving our game and building a style of rugby that creates opportunities against some fierce competition.  We have selected a squad that will bring consistency and continuity, while also achieving the right balance of giving newer talent the chance to develop within a team that has valuable experience against these northern hemisphere sides.” 

In addition to the squad of 36, a small number of players from the All Blacks XV squad will travel to Japan with the All Blacks to help with their preparation and gain additional experience in the All Blacks environment, before joining up with the All Blacks XV squad to play Munster and Georgia in November.   

This will also allow a group of players from the All Blacks squad to travel to England two days earlier to focus on preparation for the Northern Tour test matches.

The All Blacks squad will depart for Japan on 17 October for the following matches:

Saturday 26 October- All Blacks vs Japan, 6.50PM (NZST), Nissan Stadium, Yokohama 

Sunday 03 November - All Blacks vs England, 4.10AM (NZST), Twickenham Stadium, London 

Saturday 09 November - All Blacks vs Ireland, 9.10AM (NZST), Aviva Stadium, Dublin 

Sunday 17 November - All Blacks vs France, 9.10AM (NZST), Stade de France, Paris 

Sunday 24 November - All Blacks vs Italy, 9.10AM (NZST), Allianz Stadium, Turin