Henry unveils strong selection

IRELAND v NEW ZEALAND:SAVE FOR one or two exceptions, Graham Henry pretty much unveiled his strongest selection for the third leg of their attempt at a third Grand Slam tour in six years.

Seven of this team have already started each of their three end-of-season tour games to date, including the last-kick defeat to Australia in Dubai – the All Blacks only setback in a dozen games this year.

Keven Mealamu is missing through suspension and Brad Thorn (hamstring) was ruled out after initially being named, while the injured Israel Dagg and Joe Rokocoko would be amongst those in contention for the fluid wing spots.

Henry and his brains trust have the luxury of reverting to the Ma’a Nonu-Conrad Smith midfield partnership for a 26th time (22 wins, three defeats), with player of the moment, the ridiculously dynamic and skilful Sonny Bill Williams, to make an impact off the bench.

Otherwise the only nods toward “rotation” – now an unused dirty word in the New Zealand rugby lexicon – sees Tom Donnelly promoted to the secondrow at the expense of Sam Whitelock and Andy Ellis at scrumhalf for Jimmy Cowan. Richie McCaw, Dan Carter et al roll up after being hauled off for the last quarter of the ominous, 49-3 rout of Scotland last week.

In addition to Donnelly, Ellis and Nonu, the only changes to the team which kicked off against Scotland are the return of fit-again winger Cory Jane and flanker Jerome Kaino, with Anthony Boric promoted for the stricken Thorn.

Noting that the core of this All Blacks team were rested from provincial rugby for around six weeks after the Tri Nations, when they won all six matches, Henry added: “We’ve got an objective to try and be a better rugby team at the end of the tour than we were at the end of the Tri Nations, and we’ve changed a lot of things, and you can’t improve unless you have the core playing all the time; otherwise it would mix it all up and you start from scratch again each time.”

To that end, all the more so with the addition of Williams, they’ve changed some of the backs’ running lines, with the competition in midfield now ferocious.

Acknowledging that the emergence of Williams is “keeping me on my toes”, Nonu added: “When someone comes in like that and does those one arm offloads, freakish stuff, it kind of reminds us we need to express ourselves as well.

“Sometimes players don’t push it because they want to make a mistake. We’ve got skills and we’ve just got to use them.”

Nonu’s heritage is both Samoan and a small part Irish – as are reflected in some of his tattoos – yet despite a four-wins-from-four record against Ireland, scoring in two of them, just as telling of the standards All Blacks set is his memory of the win at home in 2006.

“One game that I’m always reminded of is that one when we played in Hamilton and O’Driscoll scored that try. I’ll never forget that. You don’t want to make those mistakes again.”

Henry himself observed: “Ireland a year ago were looking like they were going to be a strong force in the game, and they’ll be disappointed with their form in recent times. I think they’ve got the players there to do the business. Will it happen on Saturday? I hope not

“I had a good look at them before the tour, and I thought their form over the last two Six Nations and their form away was pretty good.

“They had some potency in their back line with Kearney and O’Driscoll and company, they are well equipped, which is unusual for Ireland.

“They usually have a very strong forward pack and maybe struggling to find the attacking force behind. But there is certainly the attacking potency there. I’m a bit surprised they have a dropped off a wee bit over the last few games but they’ll come again, I think.”

Landmarks abound. Although the normally indestructible 35-year-old Thorn misses out on his 50th Test, McCaw (who made his debut at Lansdowne Road in 2001) and Mils Muliaina will eclipse Sean Fitzpatrick in playing their 93rd Tests and becoming the most capped All Blacks of all time.

“They are superb individuals and superb footballers,” said Henry. “They set a very high standard every time they play so they’ve been marvellous role models. They’re just fabulous young guys and top New Zealanders.”

Meanwhile, Carter is 20 points short of Jonny Wilkinson’s haul of 1,178 points.

“That’s not something that plays on my mind. If it was to happen it would be fantastic and I’d be extremely proud of it but it’s not what drives me, it’s all about this team first.”

In that regard, while always respecting and analysing the opposition, he admitted that the All Blacks tend to control their own destiny.

“We were pretty happy with the way we played last week but to us that’s just a benchmark. We want to improve on the way we played last week. So most games come back to us and the standards we want to achieve.”

Victory tomorrow would also constitute a 100th Test win for Graham Henry (76 to date with the All Blacks, 22 with Wales and one with the British Irish Lions) in 130 matches. “It shows I’ve got a bit of longevity in the game,” he noted with typical dryness.

“I haven’t been sacked too many times and it shows I did something right over the years, which is pleasing.

“In saying that I’ve been associated with some remarkable individuals over that time, and that’s the real pleasure.”