John Afoa has defended the choice of some of his All Blacks team-mates to take a break despite minimal involvement in the Tri-Nations.
New Zealand prop insists team-mates needed a break
Prop John Afoa has defended the decision of some of his New Zealand team-mates to take a break despite seeing little action in the Tri-Nations.
All the players were entitled to two weeks off following the conclusion of the tournament, although Wellington's Cory Jane, Hosea Gear and Rodney So'oialo made an immediate return to their province.
Some of the players, including Afoa, Waikato's Aled de Malmanche and Brendon Leonard and Bay of Plenty forward Tanerau Latimer, have come under fire for choosing to take the break even though their Test match involvement was limited.
"A lot of the guys have been playing since the last week of the Super 14 and went straight into camp," Afoa, who played little more than an hour of rugby across the whole series, told
Radio Sport.
"That's a long time and even the guys that didn't play at all, I think it's important for those guys to have a break."
"Because you're there training, you're there travelling - you're doing all the work except for the 80 minutes of the game."
Distress call
Afoa's team Auckland are mid-table after two consecutive losses to North Harbour and Tasman, and coach Mark Anscombe made a distress call for the prop to return after originally not being due back for another week.
The 26-year-old will rejoin the squad with All Blacks loose forward Jerome Kaino for the upcoming clash against Southland after Paea Fa'anunu and Charlie Faumuina were ruled out of the Air New Zealand Cup match with injury.
"I spoke to him when the All Blacks first got back and he clearly said he wanted two weeks," said Anscombe of Afoa.
"But then we spoke to him again earlier in the week and he was pretty keen to come back and play which was great news for us. He is a quality player."
