All Blacks coach Graham Henry insisted he had no qualms about picking a largely second-string side for this weekend’s match against the Barbarians at Twickenham.
Henry made 13 changes to the side that thrashed France 45-6 in Paris last weekend with full-back Malili Muliaina and wing Doug Howlett, the lone survivors.
”The team selected itself,” Henry told reporters at the squad’s training base here on Tuesday ahead of a match against rugby union’s most prestigious invitational side.
”I think it was important that everybody got a fair crack on the tour and had an opportunity to show their ability and put their hand up for next year.”
Henry has decided to rest Tana Umaga and Daniel Carter. Prop Saimone Taumoepeau, scrumhalf Jimmy Cowan, No. 8 Steven Bates and openside flanker Jerome Kaino will all start for New Zealand.
Saturday’s non-cap international will crown a tour that has also seen the All Blacks beat Italy and Wales.
Henry added: ”The guys who have been selected have done a huge job for us in building for the last three Test matches. Their attitude has been superb and this has been a way of repaying that as well. There was no conflict in selection at all.”
Next year New Zealand host a tour by the British and Irish Lions. But Henry, coach of the Lions on their last trip in 2001 — a 2-1 series defeat against Australia — said he was not thinking that far ahead.
”We had an objective coming on this tour. We wanted to progress from where we were in the Tri-Nations (third) and have more depth in selection going into next year because it’s a big year for New Zealand rugby.
”I think we’ve achieved both those objectives. We weren’t thinking about the Lions.”
The former Wales coach added that even he’d been taken aback by the scale of their victory against France. ”It was a major achievement and the result of a lot of hard work by the players. But I don’t think anybody would have thought it would have been 45-6.”
During the amateur era a game between an international side and the Barbarians was often a Test match in all but name, but the advent of professionalism has left the ‘BaaBaas’ at a major disadvantage.
On Saturday the traditionally British Isles-dominated team will, in a highly unusual move, be dominated by southern hemisphere players.
Italy front-row Andrea lo Cicero is the lone northern representative on a weekend where the hemisphere’s leading clubs are involved in European Cup action.
England back row Chris Jones and flyhalf Mike Catt were selected for the Barbarians but had to pull out with injuries.
French flyhalf Thomas Castaignede also withdrew.
Australia and South Africa, who have both recently completed northern tours, provide the bulk of the Barbarians squad, with 10 and seven players respectively. Among that contingent is world player of the year and Springbok flanker Schalk Burger.
Meanwhile veteran New Zealand scrum-half Justin Marshall, one of two All Blacks selected along with Xavier Rush, captains the Barbarians after being stood down from New Zealand’s tour ahead of what is expected to be a heavy schedule next year.
Aaron Mauger, leading the All Blacks in place of Tana Umaga, said he was looking forward to opposing Marshall.
”It’s going to be tough because he knows a lot of what we’re about and a lot of our style,” admitted Mauger, in at fly-half rather than his usual centre position.
”He’ll be up there to win the game so it’s important we get a hold of him early and try to remind him where he’s from.”
Despite an increasingly congested international programme, Henry insisted there was still a place for the Barbarians.
”I think if you ask the players they would say yes. I think they really enjoy this fixture and I think it’s a great honour to be selected for the Barbarians side.”
Saturday’s match is unlikely to reach the same heights as the corresponding fixture in 1973, when the star-studded Barbarians’ 23-11 win in Cardiff saw a brilliant length-of-the-field move end in a try by Wales great Gareth Edwards, a score regarded by many as the greatest in rugby union history.
Asked if he’d seen that match, a rueful Henry replied: ”I saw it every day when I was in Wales.”
Barbarians coach Bob Dwyer, who guided Australia to the 1991 World Cup, delayed naming a side on Tuesday because of injury concerns notably over Wallaby forward Daniel Vickerman. – Sapa-AP