Richard Loe assesses AB centre

April 17, 2006

Ex-All Black hardman Richard Loe looks at the ABs vacant centre position.

"These are crunch weeks for Ma'a Nonu," writes Loe in his weekly Herald column. "Right now [Nonu] is coming a long second to Mils Muliaina in the race to replace Tana Umaga in the All Blacks. ... [E]ven an old prop can see that Muliaina is ahead at the moment. He is a more accurate, consistent player who feeds his outsides better than Nonu - who remains a very dangerous attacker, especially close to the line."

"But while Nonu will score tries that no one else can," Loe continues, "he is not so good at giving the ball to others for them to score.

"There are other question marks over his ball security and defence and my pick is that Muliaina will be at centre alongside Daniel Carter and Aaron Mauger, with Leon MacDonald playing superbly at fullback."

Rest the rest of Loe's analysis here.