Somerville in for Afoa
As expected, Crusaders prop Greg Somerville is the only change to the New Zealand line-up named for Saturday's first Test against England at Eden Park.
As expected, Crusaders prop Greg Somerville is the only change to the New Zealand line-up named for Saturday's first Test against England at Eden Park.
Somerville takes the place of John Afoa, the Blues prop forced out due to a medial ligament strain.
One other change has been made to the matchday 22 with number eight Sione Lauaki named as the loose forward reserve ahead of Adam Thomson.
“We're building from Test match to Test match and we're pretty happy with them. We're just trying to build this team and hopefully they get better each week,” said coach Graham Henry.
“We know we've got a major challenge this week, it's a very good England team. I don't know whether the New Zealand people understand that but it is a very strong side.
Henry said in the rebuilding process the selectors didn't want to make too many changes and the backs didn't get much of a chance in Wellington because of the weather and they wanted to give those seven players another opportunity to play together.
Greg Somerville's inclusion was the result of the medial ligament suffered by John Afoa in Wellington while Sione Lauaki had replaced Adam Thomson in the loose forward reserves.
“We want to get Sione out there at some stage, he's been on a pretty strong programme to get himself in great nick and we want to give him an opportunity to come off that programme and show his ability,” said Henry.
Forwards coach Steve Hansen said Lauaki was a different type of runner than Thomson. Lauaki was a contact runner and off-loader whereas Thomson was a penetrating runner and off-loader.
New Zealand: 15 Mils Muliaina, 14 Anthony Tuitavake, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Ma'a Nonu, 11 Sitiveni Sivivatu, 10 Daniel Carter, 9 Andy Ellis, 8 Jerome Kaino, 7 Richie McCaw, 6 Rodney So'oialo, 5 Ali Williams, 4 Brad Thorn, 3 Greg Somerville, 2 Andrew Hore, 1 Neemia Tialata.
Replacements: 16 Keven Mealamu, 17, John Schwalger, 18 Anthony Boric, 19 Sione Lauaki, 20 Jimmy Cowan, 21 Stephen Donald, 22 Leon MacDonald.
Date: Saturday, June 14
Venue: Eden Park, Auckland
Kick-off: 19:35 (08:35 BST)
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Touch judges: Stuart Dickinson (Australia), Paul Marks (Australia)
Television match official: George Ayoub (Australia)
Assessor: Stuart Beissel (New Zealand)