Lions tour: All Blacks have faith in captain Kieran Read's readiness for battle
Channel: Make Money Online
Date: 2017-06-20

Lions tour: All Blacks have faith in captain Kieran Read's readiness for battle

In fact no one in Camp All Black has the slightest concern about Read's state of readiness for the team's biggest test since the 2015 World Cup final at Twickenham.

That's how much faith they have in their skipper who is back, fit and firing around the training field, and will, barring the unforeseen, lead his team out in the first test against the mighty British and Irish Lions on Saturday night at Eden Park.
Sure, he'll be a trifle underdone, and those lungs might burn just a little at times, but Read's coaches and team-mates understand too well the special rugby player they have in their midst.

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Read, of course, has hardly played in 2017. He made a late entry into Super Rugby after off-season wrist surgery, and then fractured his thumb three games into his return, putting him in a race against time for the once-every-12-years shot at the Lions.
It was a race he was always going to win, even if the margin for error was tight. The All Blacks captain, who will bring up his century of test caps if he plays all three tests against the Lions, wasn't quite right for the warmup against Samoa, but came through Tuesday's first major training hitout of the week in fine fashion.

Asked if Read was ever going to miss the series opener, assistant coach Ian Foster told media at the team hotel on Tuesday: "He didn't want to miss it. He's desperate to play and he's our leader. But the diagnosis has always been that he was due back to play this game.

"We've just been monitoring that progress. He was touch and go for last week, to get a few minutes under his belt. But it didn't happen.
We're pretty satisfied. He had his first real solid hitout with contact [at Tuesday training], and hopefully he comes through that really well and it becomes a reasonably easy decision."

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All of which makes the All Blacks an even tougher obstacle for the Lions. Not only is Read one of the biggest, toughest most adept No 8s in the game, but he's a man his players will happily go to their dark places to back up.

"Reado has been a big part of our leadership group for a long time now," added Foster. "The way he grew into the role last year (post Richie McCaw's retirement), the biggest accolade I can give him is that he grew the people around him. He's very inclusive in his leadership style, and earned a lot of respect for that.