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"Japan have been great": Savea denies being underdone as he returns to lead ABs

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Tue, 23 Jun 2026, 8:29am
All Black captain Ardie Savea after the team naming at the Feilding Yellow Rugby Club, Feilding, New Zealand. Photo / Mark Mitchell
All Black captain Ardie Savea after the team naming at the Feilding Yellow Rugby Club, Feilding, New Zealand. Photo / Mark Mitchell

New All Black captain Ardie Savea denies he's worse off from having skipped Super Rugby to play a season in Japan. 

Savea returns to lead the national side for the upcoming Nations Championship tests after returning from Kobe in Japan. 

He told Mike Hosking that there’s a perception that Japan isn’t that great of a team, but they have world class coaches and players mixed in with local players. 

Savea says you’ve got to be playing high-quality games, and while you can define what that means, he doesn’t know – what he does know is that Japan has been great.  

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