Black to the future
Mealamu has largely escaped the vilification heaped on Umaga since the pair combined for the tackle that badly damaged Brian O’Driscoll’s shoulder in the first Test against the Lions last June in Christchurch.
However, the Kiwis are understandably slightly miffed with the frequency the incident is being dredged up. Graham Henry said as much yesterday, but asking the Irish media to gloss over such a juicy sideshow is akin to ordering children to ignore an ice cream truck. As for Mealamu, he claimed he hadn’t given it much thought until his arrival in Dublin.
As unassuming off the pitch as he can be bruising on it, he seemed slightly bemused by the attention paid to him after yesterday’s team announcement.
“I suppose I have been sort of thinking about it. Once you’re on the field and playing the game, that’s the only thing on your mind for that 80 minutes. Everything else gets blocked out. I’m actually looking forward to getting out there.
“It’s a privilege to put on the black jersey. You’ve gotta savour every moment you have in it. I might hear a little bit about it once the whistle goes but from then until the end I won’t think about it.”
Amazingly, Mealamu is one of 15 changes made by Graham Henry from the side that sauntered past Wales at the Millennium Stadium last week, marking the first time in All Black history that an entire side has been changed in the space of two Test matches.
That will be more grist to the mill for those Kiwis back home who claim that Henry’s rotation policy has somehow devalued the value of wearing the Silver Fern jersey, but the former Wales manager will not be deflected from building towards his ultimate purpose, the 2007 World Cup.
“The objective, the tour focus, is to try and develop players,” Henry said flatly. “We’ve been saying for some time now that we want to develop two teams across the board, across the field and we’re actually walking that talk. We’re doing what we’re saying.
“So there’s been 15 changes from the team that played Wales. That’s the strategy for the tour, the objective for the tour. It’s a change I guess from what’s happened in All-Black rugby over the last 100 years and some people will find that difficult.
“In the last World Cup we had a situation where we had players playing out of position who had never played there before and I think that was one of the factors that cost the team the opportunity to win a semi-final.
“We just don’t want to go through all that again so we just want to make sure that we have all the bases covered really.”
The infusion is mainly one of youth, or at least of relative inexperience. Auckland prop John Afoa and Taranaki lock Jason Eaton will be making their debuts while a further six of the starting side have earned less than ten caps, most of them considerably less.
Nick Evans, only in the squad because of injury to Luke McAllister, slips into Daniel Carter’s shoes at out-half. The 25-year old Highlander has four caps to his name at full-back but this will be his first at number ten. He has also been handed goal-kicking duties.
It isn’t all about the untried and untested for the tourists however. Old pros like Doug Howlett, Leon McDonald and Aaron Mauger are in the back line as well as Mealamu, while Ali Williams and captain Richie McCaw up front bring 160 caps to the table between them.
Still, the inference drawn by some observers yesterday was that Henry had clearly prioritised the Welsh and English games as the crunch tests with the games in Dublin and Edinburgh relegated to secondary status.
That insinuation was flatly denied by the All-Black head coach who insisted that a game between the sides selected to play Wales and Ireland would probably end ‘33-all’.
“We expect this week’s team to be as strong as last week’s. We’ve shared our resources equally across these first two matches. If I had to go for one I would say last week’s team would sneak it because it has more experience but that’s about it.”
Henry’s protestations were supported by assistant coach Wayne Smith who said the changing face of international rugby, and tours specifically, made such an Eriksson-like juggling policy a necessity.
“I don’t see it as being unprecedented in that, tours that I went on, you played two teams as well. You got your crack, whether it was against Sydney, New South Wales or Queensland or whoever to become a Test player. Players don’t get that opportunity these days. We play Test matches the whole time so it’s a different model.”
Henry went on to remind everyone that, the last time the All Blacks had played in Ballsbridge in 2001, they had to overturn a 23-7 deficit before running out 40-29 winners. And that, he stressed, was a team everyone regarded as the Kiwis’ first choice selection.
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