McCaw, Carter bonus for crowd, teammates

Steve Hansen

The Richie McCaw and Dan Carter double act is likely to delight the 27,000 spectators inside Tokyo's Prince Chichibu Memorial rugby ground for the Japan v All Blacks test on Saturday, regardless of the result.

The injuries to both this season, and the subsequent need for game time, mean they are a bonus addition for an expectant crowd - apparently all tickets were sold out within an hour - but the appearance of the pair will also add value to their less-seasoned teammates' experience.

In what is a developmental tour (and a lucrative one, of course), having McCaw and Carter there can only give it extra gravitas. Seeing how 120-test McCaw and Carter (97 caps) prepare for a test can only be a good thing for newer men such as Luke Whitelock, Steven Luatua, Dominic Bird and Francis Saili.

McCaw and Carter are almost guaranteed to start but it won't be a feast and famine scenario in terms of test caps - there will be a fair smattering of experience among their teammates too.

"When the team gets named I think people will be pleasantly surprised how much experience that group does have now," coach Steve Hansen said on the eve of the All Blacks' departure.

"I think we've had something like 17 injuries this year so there's been plenty of opportunities for everybody to get rugby. It's been going along quite seamlessly, really, and experience - there's not a lot of 50-test players but there's quite a few with 10, 20, 30 test matches - and that's more than enough to be able to get the job done properly."

Players such as Brodie Retallick, Aaron Smith and Ben Smith are into their 20s in terms of test caps, while Owen Franks, who hasn't played since injuring his groin against Argentina at La Plata on September 29, has 51. Ma'a Nonu has played 85 tests.

Hansen added of the emerging talent: "It's exciting ... there's no doubt about that. But it's all got to be managed, you've got to make people feel like they're valued and to get the best out of them being valued is important.

"It's an opportunity to show we do value them and an opportunity to say 'righto, we've got four or five leaders staying at home, we've got to fill that breach, here's your opportunity to step up and do that and have a different type of experience building into a test match'."

Who better to learn that from than McCaw and Carter?
- APNZ