All Blacks

Ian Foster's side will have a new captain in Ardie Savea and a fresh halves duo, with a trio of first-choice players staying home for the births of their children.

Apart from those forced changes, selectors are wary of unsettling the side with too many new combinations, assistant coach John Plumtree said on Wednesday.

"We've had a couple of weeks break so we'd be silly to make wholesale changes because some of our players haven't had a lot of rugby," Plumtree told reporters on a video call.

Governing body SANZAAR has confirmed the 12-team tournament would kick off in 2022, bringing Pacific islands teams into the southern hemisphere provincial competition for the first time.

New Zealand's teams won 23 of 25 games against their Australian opponents in Super Rugby Trans-Tasman in May and June, underlining the gulf between the nations' rugby programmes.

"I think if you look across the board at the competition next year, you're going to probably look at a 90%, 80% win rate for New Zealand teams," Read told Sky Sport.

  McKenzie, whose contract with New Zealand Rugby is due to finish at the end of the year, played 95 times for the Chiefs and is reportedly set for a lucrative move to Japan.

"All I know is Damian is not going to be with us, at the moment that's all I can sort of comment on," the Chiefs chief executive Michael Collins told Stuff.

"I think Damian McKenzie's probably irreplaceable. He's one of the Chiefs' favourite sons, done a great job for us over many years."

The Chiefs on Tuesday welcomed the arrival of Māori All Blacks first-five Josh Ioane from the Highlanders.

Savea, who is set to make his 53rd appearance for New Zealand, will take on the role after stand-in skipper Sam Whitelock and first-choice halves Richie Mo’unga and Aaron Smith were left out of the squad with the players expecting babies.

Regular captain Sam Cane is currently sidelined due to injury while Brodie Retallick and Beauden Barrett have been named vice-captains.

“Ardie has been a key part of our leadership group and I love that he has a very different style of leadership,” All Blacks head coach Ian Foster told Newstalk ZB.

Sam Whitelock, who led the side in the first two Bledisloe Cup tests, didn't travel to Perth on Thursday, as he's remaining in New Zealand for the birth of the newest addition to his family.

Veteran halfback Aaron Smith, who captained the All Blacks in the first test against Fiji last month, also didn't make the trip.

Savea led the Hurricanes in Super Rugby this year in the absence of TJ Perenara.

He has played 52 tests since making his debut in 2016 and came off the bench in the All Blacks' first Rugby Championship test at Eden Park earlier this month.

As part of Sky Sport’s quest to find New Zealand’s Greatest XV, a panel of leading journalists and broadcasters – Grant Nisbett, Ken Laban, Rikki Swannell and Phil Gifford – were last week asked by The Breakdown who they thought were the country’s best-ever halfback and first-five.

The panel were unanimous in their verdict that Smith, the current All Blacks No 9, and Carter, the two-time World Cup-winning No 10, were New Zealand’s greatest halves pairing.

While NZ Rugby was explaining its decision to extend All Blacks coach Ian Foster’s contract through to the 2023 World Cup in France, Robertson’s supporters had to, again, take a deep breath and accept defeat.

Robertson missed out to Foster when the pair interviewed for the top job in late 2019, following Sir Steve Hansen’s departure after the World Cup in Japan.

Foster was offered a two-year contract. Robertson returned to the Crusaders, and this year re-signed a fresh deal that runs through to 2024 with the option of a release a year earlier.

Foster took over from Steve Hansen after the 2019 World Cup.

In this time in charge the All Blacks have won the Bledisloe Cup twice, as well as last year's Rugby Tri-Nations.

He has also welcomed 13 new All Blacks into the fold.

NZR chief executive Mark Robinson said Foster could now plan for next year and beyond with certainty.

It's understood an announcement will be made today after the Queensland government gave approval for the state to host the tournament and put South Africa and Argentina in quarantine facilities where they can continue training.

The All Blacks will fly out for Perth this week and will play the Wallabies in the final Bledisloe Cup test on September 4 before both teams move to Queensland for their Rugby Championship games against the Springboks and Pumas.

The sport’s governing body has confirmed it was reviewing the name, setting the scene for arguments between old school traditionalists and those who value inclusivity.

The All Whites nickname dates back 40 years to its qualification run to the 1982 World Cup, when New Zealand donned an all-white kit for the first time against Taiwan.

The fan-given nickname stuck, the moniker sitting as an irreverent contrast to the senior men’s rugby side, the All Blacks.