Fronting up: Canterbury
Canterbury coach Rob Penney has kept the faith in his troops by naming an unchanged line-up to take on Wellington in the Air New Zealand Cup final.
The squad of 22 which beat Hawke's Bay 20-3 in last week's semi-final will get the chance to retain Canterbury's title won against Wellington in the capital last season.
"The boys are really excited about the challenge ahead," said Penney.
"It will be difficult because Wellington are a very good side but we are determined to give it everything."
The match will be centre Casey Laulala's last match for Canterbury before he takes up a contract with the Cardiff Blues in Wales.
Laulala made his Canterbury debut in 2003 and first played for the Crusaders a year later. Saturday's match will be his 65th for Canterbury and he played 61 times for the Crusaders.
The match will have two of the competition's top try-scorers, Canterbury's Sean Maitland and Wellington's Hosea Gear, against each other. Hawke's Bay wing Zac Guildford - on tour with the All Blacks - leads the try tally with 13, with Gear second on 11 and Maitland third with eight.
On Canterbury's other wing is Tu Umaga-Marshall, who will be up against his former province for the first time.
Umaga-Marshall, who was not in the Canterbury squad which beat Wellington to win the Ranfurly Shield in August, has impressed since moving to Christchurch this season.
"This match should be an absolute cracker,' said Penney.
"Both teams like to run the ball so there will be no shortage of excitement. We hope to see a big crowd there to add to what will be a great atmosphere."
Canterbury: 15 Colin Slade, 14 Sean Maitland, 13 Casey Laulala, 12 Tim Bateman, 11 Tu Umaga-Marshall, 10 Stephen Brett, 9 Tyson Keats, 8 Nasi Manu, 7 George Whitelock (c), 6 Michael Paterson, 5 Isaac Ross, 4 Samuel Whitelock, 3 Peter Borlase, 2 Ti'i Paulo, 1 Andrew Olorenshaw.
Replacements: 16 Steve Fualau, 17 Rodney Ah You, 18 Ash Parker, 19 Matt Todd, 20 Willi Heinz, 21 Ryan Crotty, 22 James Paterson.
Date: Saturday, November 7
Venue: AMI Stadium, Christchurch
Kick-off: 19:35 (06:35 GMT)
Referee: Vinny Munro
Assistant referees: Chris Pollock, Jonathon White
TMO: Keith Brown
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