Veteran Jones dropped for Samoan Test match

Lock Ian Jones has been dropped from the New Zealand All Blacks for their Test against Western Samoa in Auckland on Friday in…

Lock Ian Jones has been dropped from the New Zealand All Blacks for their Test against Western Samoa in Auckland on Friday in favour of Canterbury's Norm Maxwell.

Jones, the second most capped All Black ever with 76 internationals, was also dropped last year but fought his way back into the All Black side for the match against New Zealand A last week.

The other two new caps are Daryl Gibson at inside centre and out-half Tony Brown.

New Zealand: - 15-Jeff Wilson; 14-Christian Cullen, 13-Alama Ieremia, 12-Daryl Gibson, 11-Tana Umaga; 10-Tony Brown, 9-Justin Marshall; 8-Taine Randell (captain), 7-Josh Kronfeld, 6-Andrew Blowers, 5-Norm Maxwell, 4Robin Brooke, 3-Kees Meeuws, 2-Anton Oliver, 1-Carl Hoeft.

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The touring Italian team meet South African provincial side Boland today with both squads hoping to make up for crushing defeats at the weekend.

On Saturday the Italians were thrashed 74-3 by the Springboks in the first Test of their tour, while on Friday Boland were beaten 82-0 by provincial colleagues Free State.

Meanwhile, Springbok captain Gary Teichmann's place in the final Test is in doubt after he suffered a recurrence of a knee injury in the first Test. The captain, who has been out of action for months because of the injury, will face a fitness test this week.