Richard Loe: Play the injured and you risk creating a monster

Richard Kahui. File photo / Brett Phibbs

It's been a pet hate of mine for years - why do we insist on selecting players who are injured? Whether it's a tour or a series like the Tri Nations, it's just a bad idea.

Take last week's Tri Nations squad, with its add-on players like Cory Jane and Sitiveni Sivivatu.

Among the injured were Tony Woodcock, Israel Dagg, Isaia Toeava and Hosea Gear and now they have been joined by Richard Kahui. I know the All Black coaches can argue they want these players in the All Black environment over the Tri Nations and the build-up to the World Cup. Fair enough.

But why not just select the "asterisked" players (Wyatt Crockett, Jane, Sivivatu and Ben Smith) to play - and then bring in the others later, when they are fully recovered and ready?

I am not sure why the selectors have a 34-man squad when only 26 are able to go on an overseas fixture, and when they have to trim to 30 for the World Cup, anyway.

It's like they don't want to make some hard calls right now. Why not just name 30 and say the injured players are crocked and not available? They can always enlist them later if need be. People can still force their way into the final RWC squad.

It also increases the temptation to play the injured blokes - and we all know what can happen then. However, having said all that, I am sure Graham Henry is not going back to the bad old days of rotation (another pet hate).

What he'll be doing now - and what I would do - is to rest some of the guys who have had a thrashing over the Super 15 and to experiment with a combination or two.

Players like Keven Mealamu, Jerome Kaino and Brad Thorn have played a heap of rugby and I don't think there is any doubt that the new Super Rugby system of playing local derbies has really taken it out of many players.

However, there are also some players who really need to press their case and/or who really need more rugby, not less. People like Crockett, Andrew Hore, Jarrad Hoeata (where will he be if Anthony Boric comes back fighting fit?), Ma'a Nonu and Zac Guildford, to name a few.

I am sure Henry will test out a few combinations he hasn't seen much of. Case in point - Jimmy Cowan and Colin Slade. Cowan hasn't had rugby for a while now and Slade, as we all know, has had those two broken jaws.

So even though they are in the same Highlanders franchise, they haven't had much time together. It makes sense to play them now, against Fiji on Friday, and give Piri Weepu some time off the bench.

Here's what I'd do against Fiji. I'd start Crockett and John Afoa at prop (they've had a lot of rugby but will be burning to impress), with Hore at hooker.

Hoeata and Williams would be the locks. Richie McCaw, Adam Thomson and Liam Messam would be the loosies - and maybe they will give Thomson time at 7, too.

Cowan and Slade would start, so would Nonu, Conrad Smith, Guildford and Jane, with Mils Muliaina at the back. I'd bring on Sivivatu and Smith from the bench for impact.

The team that starts the next game, against South Africa on July 30, will likely be quite different but, again, Henry won't be doing that for rotation purposes - but to work out his best combinations for the RWC.

He'll want to rest a lot of the Crusaders and Blues players, I know. But we should always go with the fit and the motivated and let the others force their way back in when injury and form permit. Playing or even including those with injuries is always a risk.