Wellington – All Blacks coach Steve Hansen did not want to say it, but the threat of Springbok line-out kingpin Victor Matfield seems to be weighing heavily on his mind after he chose Steven Luatua for his “aerial skills” for Saturday’s Rugby Championship clash at Westpac Stadium.
Hansen has to try to neutralise the presence of Matfield, who has returned from a two-year retirement with a bang this year, with his own supreme jumper Sam Whitelock out for three weeks with a rib injury he picked up against Argentina last week.
Long-standing Hurricanes No5 Jeremy Thrush was chosen by Hansen today as Whitelock’s replacement, but the coach realised he needed extra line-out back-up in Whitelock’s absence, with Luatua beating off the challenge of fetcher flank Sam Cane in the place of the injured Jerome Kaino and Liam Messam.
Another Blues youngster, Patrick Tuipulotu, will be the lock reserve.
It was expected that Cane would get the nod to play alongside captain Richie McCaw, especially as the Boks also have two openside flanks in Francois Louw and Marcell Coetzee, but Hansen opted for another line-out option instead.
It is a remarkable comeback to the run-on team for Luatua after he was subjected to what has been dubbed a “public flogging” at a training camp in May when Hansen had the All Blacks fitness coach drill Luatua for an apparent lack of fitness.
Hansen stated at the time that the Blues loose forward tended to “go missing for five or six minutes” in games as he had been a “bit lax on the aerobic side of his game”.
“In the end, his (Luatua) ability in the line-out, his aerial skills won him the day,” Hansen said today in Wellington.
“(The May fitness drill has) shown us that he really wants to be here. He learnt the hard way, but he has learnt a valuable lesson and hopefully he can carry it through his career. But he has worked hard and now he must play that way.
“He’s fitter than last year – we got him past that stage. And how close is his form, I don’t know as we haven’t played him much, so we will find out on Saturday.
“It was part of the discussion to look at Sam Cane, but the aerial skills that we were losing with Sammy (Whitelock), who is one of the best in the world, Steven is very good in the air.
“Rico (McCaw) and Sam Cane are not too bad, but they are not in the same class as Steven.
I think it’s important to have those aerial skills, whe-ther it’s lineouts, kickoffs.”
Hansen made one other expected change to his starting team – Aaron Cruden returning from a chest problem in place of Beauden Barrett – while utility back Cory Jane is also back on the bench for specialist centre Malakai Fekitoa.
The All Blacks are unbeaten in their last 20 Test matches, although they were denied the longest winning streak when the Wallabies secured a 12-12 draw in Sydney last month, and have not lost to the Springboks since 2011, which means that Meyer has yet to taste success against the world champions after four games.
But Hansen believes that it will be another tight encounter after the Boks came close to getting that elusive win last year, losing 29-15 at Eden Park and 38-27 at Ellis Park.
“I don’t think there’s been much in it at all. The Auckland game, everyone afterwards felt that South Africa would’ve probably won it if Bismarck (du Plessis) hadn’t been red-carded, but I’m not so sure about that!” the All Blacks coach quipped.
“And the one in Johannesburg, we all know that was a splendid Test and anyone could’ve won it.” - The Star