South Africa captain John Smit will lead a star-studded Barbarians side against Australia in Wednesday’s Olympic centenary clash at Wembley.

Wales star Shane Williams has been named in the Barbarians squad for next month’s London Olympic Centenary match against Australia at Wembley.

AS EXPECTED, coach Graham Henry has made a number of changes to the All Black team that enjoyed a big win over Italy last Saturday for this weekend’s meeting with World Cup minnows Portugal.

New Zealand have been forced to make late changes to their side for tomorrow’s World Cup Pool C encounter with Italy in Marseille.

World Cup favourites New Zealand will parade their big guns in Saturday’s Pool C opener against Italy.

Canterbury duo Greg Somerville and Andrew Ellis have overcome injury to seal places in New Zealand’s World Cup squad.

NEW Zealand rugby selectors picked scrum-half Brendon Leonard and prop John Schwalger for the first time and omitted winger Rico Gear for the All Blacks’ final matches before the World Cup.

THE All Blacks defended using security guards to ward off spies at training after yesterday naming their “A team” to face Australia in Brisbane on Saturday.

NEW ZEALAND coach Graham Henry has made eight changes from the All Blacks side which beat Australia for the Tri-Nations game against South Africa in Wellington.

New Zealand flanker Richie McCaw has been ruled out of tomorrow’s Test against England at Twickenham.

New Zealand head coach Graham Henry has named Sitiveni Sivivatu and Doug Howlett on the wings for Saturday’s highly-anticipated clash with England at Twickenham.

ALL BLACKS captain Tana Umaga may be shielded from playing in front of irate Irish rugby fans next month as coach Graham Henry looks to keep his players’ workloads in check during a rare Grand Slam tour.

John Lewis

IF Munster’s pre-season form is anything to go by, then the team will improve on last year, according to centre Rob Henderson.

Luke McAlister is undaunted by the challenge of stepping into New Zealand hero Dan Carter’s boots for the final Test against the British and Irish Lions on Saturday.

LIONS captain Brian O’Driscoll is relishing the chance to quickly atone for his side’s defeat to the New Zealand Maori against Wellington on Wednesday.

New Zealand 91 Fiji 0

A SLIGHTLY experimental All Blacks will face Fiji in their first test of the year tomorrow as coach Graham Henry fine-tunes the side ahead of the three-test Lions series.

New Zealand coach Graham Henry today named two new caps in the side to face Wales in Saturday’s Test at the Millennium Stadium.

New Zealand coach Graham Henry was true to his word today when he named his team to face England in Dunedin on Saturday.

Beaten semi-finalists New Zealand and France have taken vastly different approaches to Thursday’s World Cup third-place play-off.

Hosts and defending champions Australia take on the mighty All Blacks in the first of the World Cup semi-finals today in Sydney.

New Zealand’s coaching team John Mitchell and Robbie Deans today warned the All Blacks will need to up their game or be sent packing by Australia in Saturday’s World Cup semi-final.

New Zealand coach John Mitchell today named an unchanged starting line-up for Saturday’s World Cup semi-final against Australia.

Lock Ali Williams has returned to the New Zealand camp and will face Tonga on Friday after recovering from a fractured foot suffered in the build-up to the World Cup.

New Zealand 68 Canada 6

Daniel Carter insisted the changes to the New Zealand line-up for tomorrow’s World Cup clash against Canada will have no effect on the All Blacks’ thrilling, attacking gameplan.

Italy’s coach John Kirwan has insisted his illustrious All Blacks career will count for little on Saturday when the Azzurri open their World Cup campaign against New Zealand in Melbourne.

The continuing misfortunes of Andrew Mehrtens and Jonah Lomu continue to dominate the build-up to New Zealand’s Tri-Nations clash with Australia on Saturday.

John Mitchell returned to his strongest possible line-up for New Zealand’s twin assault on the Bledisloe Cup and the world number one ranking this weekend.

Brad Thorn will make his first Test start in New Zealand’s Tri-Nations clash with South Africa on Saturday in a line-up that features five changes from that which thumped Australia 10 days ago.

JOHN MITCHELL has dropped captain Anton Oliver from the All Black side to contest the annual Tri-Nations Series with Australia and South Africa.

New Zealand coach John Mitchell has wielded the axe after his side’s weekend defeat by England.

Matt Dawson is out of England’s Test match against New Zealand in Wellington after failing to overcome a thigh injury.

England will be unchanged when they take on New Zealand this Saturday after head coach Clive Woodward today named the same starting line-up that defeated Ireland in the Six Nations Grand Slam decider.

THE Super 12 final tomorrow is a lineup of the great constellations for rugby fans — a dream-like test of brawn and brilliance under Eden Park’s bright lights.

Christian Cullen's recent see-saw International career took another down-turn with the news that he has been dropped in favour of Leon McDonald for the All Blacks crucial Tri-Nations trip to Durban on Saturday.

David Wallace is believed to have regained his fitness ahead of Ireland’s clash with New Zealand in Lansdowne Road tomorrow.

Jeff Wilson and Christian Cullen have been omitted from John Mitchell’s first New Zealand squad.