The All Blacks have announced their team to take on the Springboks in Durban on Saturday. There are two changes in the starting XV from last week. Owen Franks gets his first start in his fourth Test, coming in for tighthead prop Neemia Tialata who sprained his right knee last week. Jimmy Cowan replaces Brendon Leonard at scrumhalf.
I am a bit surprised that Graham Henry was not tempted to start Luke McAlister in this game ahead of Nonu and Nonu was highly ineffective in the first test.
All Blacks — 15 Mils Muliaina, 14 Joe Rokocoko, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Ma’a Nonu, 11 Sitiveni Sivivatu, 10 Stephen Donald, 9 Jimmy Cowan, 8 Rodney So’oialo, 7 Richie McCaw, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Isaac Ross, 4 Brad Thorn, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Andrew Hore, 1 Tony Woodcock.
Subs: 16 Keven Mealamu, 17 John Afoa, 18 Jason Eaton, 19 Kieran Read, 20 Piri Weepu, 21 Luke McAlister, 22 Cory Jane.
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2 comments
Guru says:
Jul 28, 2009
This team selection just shows how thin the All Blacks are on their bench. I know Ron begs to differ but I still maintain, the All Blacks bench is piss poor weak. It is so weak that Graham Hendry is forced to use at least 5 players who are so out of form, namely, Muliaina,Rokocoko,Nonu,Kaino and Thorn. While they are all very good players, in previous years such a drop in form would have been rewarded with a place on the bench because traditionally, Graham Henry has been known to rotate players as if this were an NFL game. However, this time around he cannot do the same because if he were to drop these players, the team would have Jason Eaton facing Backies Botha, Kieran Read facing Juan Smith, Luke McAlister facing Jean De Villiers and Cory Jane having to face either Brian Habana or Frans Steyn. The All Blacks have a chance if they keep injury free for 75min. Any need to make early replacements would really expose this bench of theirs.
Ron says:
Jul 28, 2009
I still have faith in the AB’s bench. I believe the reason GH has not made too many changes is that he needs to try stick to these guys he has backed. There is no point changing them as we now that on any given day they can click and cause havoc to any opposition. GH is learning from his errors in the past of wanting to rotate teams, maybe now he has learnt to stick to a team come win or loose. And trust me, come Saturday the AB’s will click.