New Zealand v England

Summer Tour 2008 - 21^st June - Christchurch

England take on the ‘All Blacks' in their second and final test of this Summer Tour with a black cloud hovering over their heads.  

On the longest day in the Northern Hemisphere and no doubt the shortest day in the Southern Hemisphere I am sure that some of the players will be wanting this day to go quick and get on the plane back home.   Serious allegations made off the field have distracted both players and public about this forthcoming match.

However, the players are professionals, they get paid to represent their country as ambassadors, they get a nice freebie down under in the land of the silver fern and it was only a short while ago they threatened strike action for more money!  Is this is all starting to sound a bit like the football mentality creeping into rugby?   

Oh no it isn't I hear you cry!  This went on, goes on all of the time on rugby tours.  Well that maybe so but I would suggest that was for the armature days and now that rugby is a professional game the players need to be aware of the pitfalls of their actions.  I would prefer youngsters to be able to look up to rugby heroes as decent role models not sleaze balls.

So onto the team for this game, well we have a new look back line again and six changes to the team from last week. 

Toby Flood scoring a try in the RBS Six Nations. 

In come Tait, Flood, Noon, Varndell and Danny Care who I am really looking forward to seeing play the full match.  We also have Tim Payne in for the injured Andrew Sheridan (who we hope will recover soon).   Barkley and Strettle to the bench.

Barkley although taking it on the chin has spirit and made his views known about being dropped, I wonder if he would have been so vocal if Johnno had been around and not 12000 miles away as Johnno was involved in the decision to strengthen England's midfield defence with the inclusion of Jamie Noon ahead of Barkley.

Johnson has of course been keeping in  touch with the camp and in particular his Captain Steve Borthwick, who I am sure has had a difficult task to get the players focused from the off field antics to the task in front of them.  He insists however, that their preparations have not been effected by the off-field issues.

"I have spoken to Martin. With somebody of Martin Johnson's character, any conversation you have with him is going to be a positive experience," said Borthwick.

Borthwick went on to say "Every time you pull on an England shirt, it is a huge honour.  What you saw on Saturday was an immense amount of effort and the guys were tremendously courageous - but ultimately we made too many errors.  As a team, we need to display that courage and effort but add on accuracy in our game. We can improve markedly from where we were. If we enact what we failed to do on Saturday, in terms of our attacking game, we will hopefully ask the All Blacks some big questions."

As for New Zealand coach Graham Henry dropped Conrad Smith from the second test squad surprising really at both Smith and Ma'a Nonu caused lots of problems for England in the first test.  Henry has elected to pair Nonu with the uncapped Waikato center Richard Kahui. He also dropped Anthony Tuitavake, to give game time to another debutant, Auckland winger Rudi Wulf. 

Henry said:  "Trying to get that balance right was a major concern but he is expecting an improved effort from England."

I think the ‘All Blacks' team looks pretty balance to me - look out England they are coming to get you!

England: Mathew Tait (Newcastle); Topsy Ojo (London Irish), Mike Tindall (Gloucester), Jamie Noon (Newcastle), Tom Varndell (Leicester); Toby Flood (Leicester), Danny Care (Harlequins); Tim Payne (Wasps), Lee Mears (Bath), Matt Stevens (Bath), Tom Palmer (Wasps), Steve Borthwick (Bath, Captain), James Haskell (Wasps), Tom Rees (Wasps), Luke Narraway (Gloucester).

Replacements: Jason Hobson (Bristol), David Paice (London Irish), Ben Kay (Leicester), Joe Worsley (Wasps), Peter Richards (London Irish), Olly Barkley (Bath), David Strettle (Harlequins).

New Zealand: Leon MacDonald (Crusaders); Sitiveni Sivivatu (Chiefs), Richard Kahui (Chiefs), Ma'a Nonu (Hurricanes), Rudi Wulf (Blues); Daniel Carter (Crusaders), Andy Ellis (Crusaders); Neemia Tialata (Hurricanes), Andrew Hore (Hurricanes), Greg Somerville (Crusaders), Brad Thorn (Crusaders), Ali Williams (Crusaders), Adam Thomson (Highlanders), Richie McCaw (Crusaders), Rodney So'oialo (Hurricanes).

Replacements: Keven Mealamu (Blues), Tony Woodcock (Blues), Anthony Boric (Blues), Sione Lauaki (Chiefs), Jimmy Cowan (Highlanders), Stephen Donald (Chiefs), Mils Muliaina (Chiefs).

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