Veteran Owen Franks has been left out of Steve Hansen’s All Blacks to take on the world in Tokyo next month.
Hansen said Franks is one of the greatest All Blacks and his leadership has been valuable to the group, but he decided to go with more mobile props in his 31-man squad for the Rugby World Cup.
“We believe the game requires us to have big mobile number ones and threes, and in this case we just think the other guys we have named are more so than he. Therefore, we had to make a tough decision,” Hansen said.
Hansen added that he personally called Franks about the decision. While the 108-Test prop was disappointed in his cutting of the squad, he was "very respectful", Hansen said.
Nepo Laulala, Joe Moody, Atu Moli, Angus Ta’avao and Ofa Tu’ungafasi are the selected props for this year's Rugby World Cup, which starts next month.
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