Henry signals 'bold' All Blacks future

All Blacks coach Graham Henry says that the decision to omit veteran halfbacks Justin Marshall and Andrew Mehrtens from the 32-man squad to tour Europe was made with the future of the team in mind.

Marshall and Merhtens between them hold 140 international caps, but Henry has decided instead to hand the likes of Daniel Carter, Piri Weepu and Jimmy Cowan some time in the heated climate of Test-match rugby in an effort to groom the next generation.

"You've got guys that are around 30 years of age and they could well be playing against the Lions next year, but they're not going to be real long-term prospects for New Zealand rugby," said Henry.

"We need to make sure that we've got people who can slot in in their positions in the future and as I say we've got 12 test matches next year. It's a huge year and we just need to have those people developed underneath this group of players."

Carter, who played pre-dominantly at second five-eighth for both the Crusaders in the Super 12 and the ABs in the Tri-Nations, is the front-runner for the No.10 jersey, while Byron Kelleher is the most likely choice to take over at scrum-half when Marshall hangs up his boots.

Henry has also included promising young North Harbour five-eighth Luke McAlister, who will presumably act as back-up to Carter, and Crusaders star Aaron Mauger with scrum-halves Cowan and Weepu to cover Kelleher.

"We have selected to try and suit the objectives of the tour to bring on players in the nine and 10 position," said Henry.

"We think Daniel Carter, for example, has got a big future in the All Blacks. We think he can play 10. He's got the skill set to do so, and we will work with him to try and develop that.

"It's a matter of being bold and getting on with it. We could have stayed with the current three experienced players No.8 Xavier Rush, Marshall and Mehrtens), but we wouldn't have had those other players coming in underneath. So we're just being bold in going forward for the future of All Black rugby."

Henry's predecessor John Mitchell did much the same thing when he took a largely developmental squad to the United Kingdom in 2002, and that squad did better than expected, but with question marks beginning to be raised about Henry's record since taking charge the class of 2004 will be watched with interest.