Henry's rotation policy takes a back seat

Editor

Rotation has been temporarily relegated behind rebuilding in Graham Henry's rugby vocabulary leading up to the first of two internationals against England at Eden Park on Saturday.

Rotation has been temporarily relegated behind rebuilding in Graham Henry's rugby vocabulary leading up to the first of two Tests against England at Eden Park on Saturday.

In a major departure to the controversial coach's philosophy there is only one alteration to the All Blacks starting line-up for their second Test of the season.

The polarising player rotation policy has been shelved – though not indefinitely – as the coaching team attempt to reconstruct a team fairly unrecognisable from the squad that flopped at last year's World Cup.

Henry on Tuesday made just two changes to the matchday 22 that subdued Ireland 21-11 in Wellington last weekend.

Experienced prop Greg Somerville comes in at tighthead for his 58th Test cap for the injured John Afoa, while on the bench the physical attributes of Sione Lauaki have been preferred over the mobility of Adam Thomson as loose forward cover.

Somerville, who has been handed the onerous task of combating damaging English front rower Andy Sheridan, was rested last week and may have been included regardless of Afoa's knee problem.

Just one change to a starting line-up has been a rarity during the Henry regime, which reaches its 50th Test on his old home ground.

On only two previous occasions has Henry made a single change to his run-on side.

Leon MacDonald replaced the injured Daniel Carter at pivot for the South African international in Dunedin in 2005, a week after the Bledisloe Cup Test in Sydney.

In the previous Tri-Nations campaign, Somerville replaced Carl Hayman against the Springboks in Christchurch, seven days after the All Blacks won in Sydney.

While personnel changes in the pack are understandable, so too was the retention of a back-line constrained by the appalling weather conditions at Westpac Stadium.

That means Wellington and Hurricanes midfield combination of Ma'a Nonu and Conrad Smith have another opportunity to transfer their understanding to the Test arena while virtually unemployed debutant winger Anthony Tuitavake has another chance to make an impression.

Henry was loathe to dwell on the legitimacy of rotation – a cornerstone of planning for the World Cup – pointing out the player exodus since New Zealand's quarter-final exit called for a more conservative approach to selection.

“It's nothing to do with rotation, it's just the circumstances we're in,” Henry told NZPA.

“The team we had over the last four years had a lot of experience, played a lot of Test matches together – this team hasn't had a lot of experience.

“We're rebuilding a side now, and you cannot rebuild by making a large number of changes,” he said, before defending the rotation strategy.

“The other team was built over four years and we had to build depth over the last two of those four years.

“It was an advantage to the group, it produced competition for places, it looked after people so the player welfare was taken care of.”

This season Henry admits he faces the same issues over player burnout but said the loss of so many experienced heads during the off-season, plus the recent retirement of Jerry Collins and impending departure of Nick Evans, left a core of established players to stay on the treadmill in the short-term.

Captain Richie McCaw plus locks Ali Williams and Brad Thorn would also back-up next week in Christchurch despite a long season with the Crusaders.

The inclusion of Lauaki should at least add some punch off the bench with the bullocking utility loose forward primed for action after recovering from a hamstring strain.

“We want to get Sione Lauaki out there at some stage,” said Henry.

“He's been on a pretty strong programme to get him in great nick. We want to get him off that programme to give him an opportunity to show his ability.”

Hansen emphasised Lauaki's promotion was no reflection on last week's debutant Thomson, who logged a few minutes off the bench.

“They bring a different skill set. Adam is a penetrating runner and offloader, Sione's more of a contact runner and offloader. For this game we feel Sione is the guy to come in and do that job.”

The All Blacks are braced for another tough forward battle with Henry rating the tourists' highly.

“There's a lot of quality forwards with experience around the younger guys and the fly-half (Charlie Hodgson) is an astute player – he was probably the best (pivot) on the Lions tour (in 2005),” said Henry.

“There's a lot of experience around him too.”