All Blacks sing Hayman’s praises

CARL HAYMAN was the toast of the All Blacks following his epic duel with England prop Andy Sheridan on Saturday.

Billed as a test within the Test, the clash of the two huge front row forwards certainly lived up to the pre-match hype and came to a premature end when Sheridan, who was lauded for his performance in England’s win over Australia, was subbed in the 76th minute at Twickenham.

Even when the All Blacks were reduced to seven-man scrums following the sin-binnings of prop Tony Woodcock, his replacement Neemia Tialata, then loose forward Chris Masoe, England were never quite able to dominate.

“We saw last week [against Australia] what England are capable of doing against seven men, and without being over the top about it, we came out on top in the scrum,” All Blacks forwards coach Steve Hansen told The Dominion Post in Wellington.

“Carl Hayman deserves a huge pat on the back. It’s probably the best scrummaging performance he has put in. The guy he was scrummaging against got taken off in the end, so there’s a message there.”

Hayman declined to talk after New Zealand’s 23-19 win and it was left up to his front row pal, hooker Keven Mealamu, to sing the 26-year-old’s praises.

“Carl scrummed amazingly,” Mealamu said. “For the size of the man he was against he was technically sound and I take my hat off to him.”

Mealamu added: “There’s been a lot of talk about the scrum and we’re very happy with the way it went.”

New Zealand are in Edinburgh for the final match of their tour of Britain and Ireland needing a win against Scotland to clinch their first Grand Slam over the Home Unions since 1978.

Meanwhile, England boss Andy Robinson is unlikely to make sweeping changes for England’s final autumn Test against Samoa - but he must sharpen their attacking edge.

Robinson has seen his team score just three tries in two games this month, and one of those was from a driven lineout, despite securing huge amounts of possession against Australia and the All Blacks.

England are probably slightly ahead of expectations, having smashed Australia up front and then produced a heroic display in suffering a four-point loss to New Zealand.

Nobody doubts England’s immense forward power, but Robinson must address the missing creative spark that threatens to undermine real progress.

“As always, we will be honest with ourselves, we will look at our game and how we are trying to play,” said Robinson, ahead of selection for next Saturday’s Samoa clash.

“It’s about getting integration between backs and forwards, and getting the balance right. We have got to build on our game.”

Robinson can make a start by assessing the midfield combination of Mike Tindall and Jamie Noon, a partnership that clearly is not working with regard to creativity.

England are far too lateral in their back play. By the time possession reached wings Mark Cueto and Ben Cohen there was just no room for them to move.

Full-back Josh Lewsey has shown on occasions for his club Wasps that he has many attributes of a high-class inside centre, especially in the pace and vision departments, and it would be a popular switch Robinson might consider.

Lewsey’s Wasps colleague Mark Van Gisbergen could then take over the number 15 shirt, with Tindall being moved to a more familiar outside centre role or Leicester’s 23-year-old Lion Ollie Smith being handed a call-up instead.

Gloucester wing James Simpson-Daniel also has strong claims to relaunch his Test career, more than a year after he won the last of seven caps against New Zealand in Dunedin.

At comfortably under six feet tall and 14 stones in weight, Simpson-Daniel might lack the physical prowess many international coaches are obsessed with, yet his game-breaking potential is unquestioned.

France coach Bernard Laporte has once again made sweeping changes to his starting line-up for next weekend’s Test against South Africa at the Stade de France.

As he has done throughout France’s successful autumn series, Laporte has not been afraid to change a winning line-up and of the team that beat Tonga 43-8 in Toulouse last weekend, only a handful have been retained to face the Springboks.

FRANCE V SOUTH AFRICA: Thomas Castaignede; Aurelien Rougerie, Florian Fritz, Yannick Jauzion, Cedric Heymans; Frederic Michalak, Jean-Baptiste Elissalde; OlivierMilloud, Dimitri Szarzewski, Pieter de Villiers, Lionel Nallet, Jerome Thion (captain), Yannick Nyanga, Julien Bonnaire, Remy Martin.