Ben Smith All Black trio dropped after Wallabies loss

Prop Owen Franks and wings Ben Smith and Rieko Ioane have been dropped by New Zealand in the wake of the All Blacks’ 47-26 defeat by Australia.

The trio fail to even make the bench for Saturday’s return at Eden Park.

“They’re not playing, you can say they are dropped,” coach Steve Hansen said.

Franks, Smith and Ioane have a combined total of 213 Test caps. Their replacements Nepo Laulala, George Bridge and Sevu Reece have just 22 between them.

“Obviously, we’d like to see Ben, Owen and Rieko playing better but we’ve made the decision because we’ve got to find out more about these other people in pressure-cooker situations and you don’t get much bigger than this,” Hansen added.