All Blacks to take 51 players to Japan reveals Hansen

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen, in speaking of the end of year tour plans, has revealed that he will take an enormous squad of 51 players to Japan.

The All Blacks will take on Australia in the third Bledisloe match in Yokohama at the end of October, and then face Japan on the 3rd of November in Tokyo. The squad then heads to  to London for the first of their three encounters which will see them take on England, Ireland and Italy.

When explaining squad selections Hansen said “We’ll take 32 players to Europe, and we’ll take 32 initially to Japan, then an extra 19 players will come over for the Japan week.”

This would mean about 22 players could then fly to London early to begin preparations for the English clash.

The All Blacks approached the end of last year similarly, with the split squads and in doing it again will look to build an extensive depth of international experience.