All Black No 6 Jerry Collins retires from NZ rugby; would not have made the All Blacks test squad next week...
All Blacks coach Graham Henry has revealed Jerry Collins would not have been part of his first squad due to be named this weekend.
Collins has announced his retirement from rugby in New Zealand but is undecided on his next move. He will play for the Barbarians against England shortly. Perhaps he will meet some representatives of European clubs while he is there, and pick up a contract. At present he is unemployed, he claims.
Henry says Collins' form did not warrant selection. He says they spoke about two weeks ago and he told Collins there were others playing better than he was. Henry says Collins' form did not pick up after that conversation so he was battling to be selected. Collins claimed he lost his enthusiasm after the All Blacks World Cup failure.
Meanwhile, a group of All Black hopefuls will gather in Auckland today ahead of the squad naming on Sunday; they do not include Crusaders players who are playing in the Super 14 final against the NSW Waratahs on Saturday evening.
Assistant coach Steve Hansen says they will run the rule over the contenders over the next three days. Hansen says World Cup squad members and other players they would like to have a closer look at will be involved in the camp.
Anthony Boric, Adam Thomson, Paul Williams, Anthony Tuitavake and Jimmy Cowan are among the 25.
The first All Blacks squad of the year will be named after the Super 14 final between the Crusaders and Waratahs.
There are new candidates within the Crusaders squad - Tim Bateman and Casey Laulala are midfield prospects and Kieran Read a possible to replace Jerry Collins on the blindside of the scrum. Read had a big game and scored a try against the Hurricanes last Saturday.
There will be a powerful squad waiting to deal to England in a two test series in a few weeks. There always is in a non-World cup year!
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