Online Reporter
The All Blacks have elected to start their Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour of South Africa with what could be described as a scratch team to play the DHL Stormers in Cape Town tonight.
There are just two players lining up in the starting game against the Stormers who played in the starting team against Ireland – wing Josh Moorby will line up in this game at fullback while the forward who played in that test at Eden Park who will front again is lock Patrick Tuipoluto.
Four players on the bench were involved in the match day squad in Auckland – hooker Asafo Aumua, flanker Peter Lakai, scrumhalf Cortez Ratima, centre Anton Lienert-Brown and wing Caleb Clarke.
That does not mean though that the All Black team that will face the Stormers under the DHL Stadium lights is a weak one, or that there is a shortage of star players in the mix.
At the team announcement press conference, All Black coach Dave Rennie explained that the selections for the three tour games building up to the first test against the Boks at Ellis Park had been decided prior to departure from New Zealand.
“We’ve already picked the teams that will play in the tour games ahead of time. Obviously there will be some change of emphasis in the group depending on circumstance and injuries,” said Rennie.
“We have a number of guys returning from injury (in the team for Friday night) or guys who didn’t play a massive amount in the Championship games. But it is still an experienced team too. Beauden Barrett I think is ready to play out of his skin after his beak, and I feel we have a strong side that features a number of guys who are are desperate to show us what they can do.”
He added that the tour games would be all about building on the foundation laid in his first games in charge during the home leg of the Championship.
“We want to build on what we have done in the last three games, we want to spend time together and build new combinations. We are up against a Stormers side that we know was very competitive in the URC and will be excited about the potential to grab an international scalp. We in turn know that with a test match against the Springboks just around the corner we need to be better than we have been.”
He said he wasn’t too concerned about what the absence of the Stormers’ many Boks might do to the game as a contest.
“It is still a strong Stormers side, we know there is no shortage of depth of talent in this country. We have a massive amount of respect for South African rugby. We are aware of the quality of the side that we will play against (on Friday).”
Rennie, who coached the Chiefs Super Rugby side on many tours to South Africa, said that now the tour was on the eve of kick-off the excitement had started to become palpable.
“This is a massive tour, we are in a country that holds the World Cup and is a very proud rugby nation,” said Rennie. There three (tour games) give us a chance to create competition for test match places. Everyone is excited. As the intensity of the tour grows there will be more pressure, but at the moment what we feel is excitement. We have been in Cape Town for nearly a week and it is a great place to start the tour. We are all ready to go on Friday night.”— SuperSport.
