Another Fiji born player Patrick Osborne is under the New Zealand selectors radar after he trained with the All Blacks over the past couple of days and it was not simply to make up the numbers.
Osborne celebrated his 27th birthday last Saturday and All Black assistant coach Ian Foster says the former Jai Narayan and Queen Victoria School student was added to the squad for the coaching team to study him and as a possible option to play.
Foster told the Otago Times with Charles Piutau out because of a knee injury for a couple of months at least, and Julian Savea also struggling with a knee injury there was a vacancy for a big strong winger.
He added they are pretty happy with what Patrick has shown in the last month and they will have a look at making a decision later in the week if they need a replacement or not.
Players sometimes join the All Black squad for a couple of days to make up the numbers but Osborne is more than that.
Foster said Osborne is a big strong winger, and he has just shown some really nice stuff in the last month with a lot of power, good under the high ball, improved on his defence while his instincts near the goal line are pretty good.
The All Blacks will play England at 7:35pm this Saturday for their second test match.
In other test matches, on Saturday at 10pm the Wallabies meet France. On Sunday the Springboks face Wales at 3am, Canada play Scotland at 6am while Argentina meet Ireland at 6.40am.
Meanwhile, the Vodafone Flying Fijians take on Tonga in the Pacific Nations Cup at Churchill park on Saturday at 3pm and you can catch the live commentary on our sister station VITI FM.
