Thu, 04 Aug 2011 11:02a.m.
By Jim Kayes
There’s few surprises in the All Blacks side to play the Wallabies at Eden Park but there are four positions that remain highly contested – for now at least.
Wyatt Crockett is simply keeping the loosehead prop’s new tight fitting jersey suitably stretched till Tony Woodcock gets a couple more game games under his belt. Crockett will then be trying to secure a place in the squad, which could be difficult as he’s a specialist loosehead – and there’s probably only room for one of those, Woodcock.
Behind him in the scrum Ali Williams will want to continue the improvement he showed in Wellington. He was a lot better there than in Dunedin but is still making too many errors and, purely on form, wouldn’t start ahead of Sam Whitelock. But Williams is a class act and the coaches realise that after two years out injured, he needs game time. Giving him just that is a sensible move.
At halfback Piri Weepu gets a rare start and will need to be sharper than he was when he tried his best not to explain why he’s leaving the Hurricanes. Weepu’s normally a great interview subject because he’s brutally honest. When he tries to obfuscate, he’s a shocker. On the field Weepu has a tight tussle with Jimmy Cowan for the regular starting berth, though if Andy Ellis gets a bit of time he could put pressure on them both. Of the three none really stands out as clearly the best halfback and though Cowan’s been the preferred choice, he’ll need to lift his game from what we saw in Dunedin and Wellington.
The wings are a huge log jam with Hosea Gear and Sitiveni Sivivatu given the latest chance after Sivivatu was all class in Dunedin before Zac Guildford and Cory Jane fired in Wellington. Still to come are Isaia Toeava – who finished last year with Gear as the incumbents, and Israel Dagg who has played four of his six tests on the wing and scored both his tries form there. The reassuring thing for the coaches is that it really doesn’t matter who they pick, they’re all extremely good.
The Wallabies slipped into Auckland for the Bledisloe Cup match under the cloak of darkness but that wasn’t why no one saw them. As a dress rehearsal for the World Cup they were swept out the back door of the airport, whisked away to their hotel without engaging the public. It’s a pity if that’s a template for the tournament because some of the teams coming to New Zealand will get raucous welcomes. Surely that’s part of the fabric of a successful tournament.