All Blacks look for a silver lining

By TONY SMITH in Marseille - Fairfax Media | Wednesday, 12 September 2007

The All Blacks will wear silver jerseys for the first time in their history in next week's World Cup clash with Scotland

Silver – or dark slate with black panels – has been the All Blacks' alternate strip for the last two years. But they have yet to wear it in a test match.

Previously the All Blacks played in white when forced to change due to a colour clash.

The general rule in rugby is home teams change strips – a reversal of the order that exists in international football where visitors turn up in their second-best clobber. Thus, the All Blacks have played in white against Scotland in New Zealand and the Scots have switched to white when hosting the All Blacks at Murrayfield.

Scotland plays the All Blacks in Edinburgh on September 23. But it is a World Cup fixture, and as such, is treated as a neutral match.

A toss was held some time ago to determine which side would wear its traditional strip. Scotland won the coinflip and will play in blue. The All Blacks will sport silver for the first time.

The colour clash issue – once a black and white matter – now has shades of grey for the All Blacks.

Several teams have now moved to darker strips. Wales has also adopted grey as its alternate uniform – an appropriate choice given its unconvincing performance against Canada.

Host nation France is wearing a much darker shade of navy blue at this tournament.

That could have proved to be a potential pitfall for the All Blacks if the two teams were to meet in the World Cup final.

But given France's wretched form against Argentina that may not be so much of a problem.

There is no colour clash between the green of South Africa and the black of New Zealand.

Meanewhile, Graham Henry may have promised his All Blacks "don't want to kill" Portugal, but that hasn;t stopped him sending for his heavy brigade – all 717kg of it.

Henry has stacked his squad with seven front-row forwards – almost certainly an All Black first – for Saturday's World Cup Pool C match in Lyons.

All three hookers and all four props have been named in the 22, although some have dual duties. First-choice hooker Keven Mealamu will start on the bench as loose forward cover. The world's top tighthead prop Carl Hayman will deputise at lock – his schoolboy position.

The poor Portugese will be quaking at their knees at the prospect of facing prime Kiwi beef, from Neemia Tialata, who tips the scales at 127kg, to Mealamu at a mere 106kg.

Henry continued his caring, sharing former school headmaster stance by insisting the All Blacks would show some sensitivity towards part-time Portugal.

Henry said the All Blacks would take a responsible approach at scrum-time. "If we've got dominance at scrum-time, and hopefully we will have, we just don't want to kill people, if you understand my logic.

"I think we need to be sensitive about, if we've got big scrum dominance, how we handle that scrum dominance and make sure we look after opposition props to some extent. I think that's pretty important."

Henry explained his rationale for choosing five forwards and two backs on his bench by stating that the concrete-mixers in the tight five need as much time on the track as they can get.

Anton Oliver, who will again be the reserve rake, agreed with the big-is-best stance, although he used slightly bigger words than his gaffer.

"With our physiology, we probably need to play more because we are bigger chaps and aerobic fitness is harder to come by," Oliver said. "The steaks are more alluring, especially in the south of France."'

While Hayman, Mealamu, Tony Woodcock , Tialata and Oliver all saw action against Italy, this will be the first outing for starting hooker Andrew Hore and tighthead prop Greg Somerville, who will play his first test of the year.

With locks Keith Robinson and Reuben Thorne on the mend from chronic leg injuries, skipper Richie McCaw is the only fully fit forward not named for the Portugal mismatch. Henry has confirmed he will revert to naming close to his top team for the third pool match against Scotland.

Collins will lead the All Blacks for the second time after his captaincy bow in Buenos Aires last year against Argentina.

Sione Lauaki will start his first test since 2005 at No 8 with Chris Masoe replacing McCaw on the openside flank.

The speedy Brendon Leonard and Nick Evans have been paired in the inside backs with Conrad Smith recovered from a hamstring strain to play at centre, outside Aaron Mauger.

The most interesting backline selection is the naming of specialist centre Isaia Toeava on the right wing –_ opposite Josevata Rokocoko.

Henry said Smith and Toeava would both get game time at centre and the selectors believed "Isaia's probably our fourth winger".

Backs coach Wayne Smith said the public should not read too much into Toeava's placement on the wing. "I think he's good enough to play a lot of positions. But he's also good enough to nail down one position. This is just a case of us needing to give Conrad time as well. It's to meet our needs more than anything else."