ANDY COLQUHOUN, Pretoria | Wednesday 9.15am.
COMPARED to the churning ocean on which South Africa ate making their queasy progress towards Saturday’s test match, the All Blacks’ announcement of their side on Tuesday was an oasis of calm.
Greg Feek is given a first Test start at loosehead prop in place of the injured Carl Hoeft while a late decision will be made on the fitness of Dylan Mika.
The loose forward has a strain in the back of his knee and has been bracketed with Andrew Blowers. Rumours that Josh Kronfeld might be out of the match proved to be just that.
The devilish flanker twisted an ankle on Monday and sat out Tuesday’s training but has been included in the starting line-up and will play.
The settled look of the All Blacks contrasts sharply with the ongoing injury crisis plaguing the Springboks. Six players from the original 26 are unfit and a sixth – Jannie de Beer – has had to withdraw after being called up as a replacement.
Bob Skinstad, Adrian Garvey and Robbie Fleck have been despatched to play Currie Cup rugby this weekend and Mallett appears on the point of asking the 15 fittest players on Saturday morning to pull on the jersey of their choice.
The Boks will name their side on Wednesday when it is expected Rassie Erasmus will fill the eighth man’s jersey, Deon Kayser will play on the wing and Gaffie du Toit will resume at flyhalf in two of several changes it would have been hard to predict a few weeks ago.
The problems put All Black coach John Hart in the difficult position of trying not to be seen to be gloating although he was probably genuine when he said he expected a far tougher game than the 28-0 humiliation of Dunedin.
“The opposition will be dramatically better than the opposition we faced in Dunedin,” said Hart.
“They had an inexperienced backline then and they were exposed in Dunedin.
“But they now have a loose forward trio as hard as you’ll find; they’ve got the speed of Andre Snyman in the backline and I expect it to be a dramatically different proposition not only because of the changes but because of the situation they are in having lost three matches and because they are playing on the home ground of the captain.” –MWP
New Zealand:
Jeff Wilson; Christian Cullen, Alama Iremia, Daryl Gibson; Tana Umaga; Andrew Mehrtens, Justin Marshall; Taine Randell (captain), Josh Kronfeld, Dylan Mika/Andrew Blowers, Robin Brooke, Norm Maxwell, Kees Meeuws, Anton Oliver, Greg Feek.