Rugby World Cup 2019: Crooked Feed - All Blacks recruit surprise fill-in at training

Newshub's Ross Karl and John Day are on the ground in Japan, and what better setting for their debut piece from 'The Land of the Rising Sun' than a lazy game of elderly golf croquet.

The pair were forced to beat a hasty retreat from All Blacks training, as the brass closed the doors to the media to work through tactics for their blockbuster World Cup opener against South Africa.

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• All Blacks target Springboks' gambling defence

Top of the agenda is likely to be a formula to unblock the Springboks' special brand of rush defence, which Day believes lies in one particular All Blacks tandem.

And with lock Brodie Retallick only a light participant, as he works his way back to full fitness, the team was forced to call on an All Black from yesteryear to fill that role. There's no way you guessed correctly who.

All of that, plus speculation at what the All Blacks starting XV might look like in Tokyo on Saturday.

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Join us at 9:45pm Saturday for live updates of the All Blacks v Springboks World Cup clash