Tuesday, November 3, 2009

NZ confident of Carter's fitness

WALES v NEW ZEALAND
Venue: Millennium Stadium, Cardiff Date: 7 November Kick-off: 1715 GMT
Coverage: Live on BBC TWO Wales, Radio Wales and Radio Cymru, plus commentary online


Dan Carter picked up his knock in New Zealand's win over Australia
Dan Carter picked up his knock in New Zealand's win over Australia

New Zealand say they expect fly-half Dan Carter to shrug off a calf injury ahead of Saturday's Test against Wales.

"He looks like he's OK," said All Blacks assistant coach Wayne Smith, with New Zealand set to name their side for the Cardiff showdown on Wednesday.

Carter took a knock to his calf in the 32-19 Bledisloe Cup win over Australia in Tokyo at the weekend.

All Blacks coach Graham Henry already has a selection headache after the bans to Sitiveni Sivivatu and Tony Woodcock.

Crusaders star Carter is being nursed through training, with Stephen Donald or Mike Delany the options if he does not recover ahead of the Millennium Stadium clash.

"[Carter] travelled pretty well, we'll manage him in training and hopefully he'll come through for the weekend," said Smith on Tuesday.

Scrum V discusses the All Blacks' arrival in Cardiff with pictures of a limping Dan Carter

"It's a knock rather than a pull... We need to look after him."

Sivivatu and Woodcock were cited after the win over the Wallabies and were given one-week suspensions, ruling them out of Saturday's game.

All Blacks assistant coach Steve Hansen - like Henry a former Wales head coach - said that once-capped Crusaders prop Wyatt Crockett was the front-runner to replace Woodcock at loose-head.

"Obviously we've got two guys we can't select so from that point of view it does [complicate things]," Hansen said.

"But we've got a group of 33 so someone's demise is someone else's good fortune.

"[Woodcock] is a big loss but Wyatt's been with us all season as well and trained really well all year," Hansen said.

Jones hopes to face Carter test

"He probably deserves a crack anyway, so it's a great opportunity for him to come out and show us what he's made of.

"We've just got to get on with it now and plan for next week."

New Zealand's other selection dilemma is on the left wing thanks to Sivivatu's suspension, with Hawkes Bay 20-year-old Zac Guildford being tipped to make his Test debut.

Meanwhile, New Zealand captain Richie McCaw believes the match against the Wallabies helped shake off the ring rust ahead of their Tests against Wales, Italy, England, France and the Barbarians.

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"Having that game under the belt will help that," said open-side flanker McCaw.

"A few of us played in the Air New Zealand Cup but the intensity is a long way off Test match level, so we'll be better for having that run.

"We perhaps didn't have enough field position in the first half. We had a couple of opportunities and in one I spilt the ball when we probably would have had five points.

"So little things like that, if we can iron those out, we will put teams under pressure."


New Zealand squad:

Forwards: John Afoa (Auckland), Anthony Boric (North Harbour), Wyatt Crockett (Canterbury), Tom Donnelly (Otago), Jason Eaton (Taranaki), Corey Flynn (Canterbury) Owen Franks (Canterbury), Andrew Hore (Taranaki), Jerome Kaino (Auckland), Tanerau Latimer (Bay of Plenty), Richie McCaw (Canterbury, captain), Liam Messam (Waikato), Kieran Read (Canterbury), Rodney So'oialo (Wellington), Adam Thompson (Otago), Brad Thorn (Canterbury), Neemia Tialata (Wellington), Tony Woodcock (North Harbour).

Backs: Daniel Carter (Canterbury ), Jimmy Cowan (Southland), Mike Delany (Bay of Plenty) Stephen Donald (Waikato), Andy Ellis (Canterbury) Tamati Ellison (Wellington), Zac Guildford (Hawke's Bay) Cory Jane (Wellington), Brendon Leonard (Waikato), Luke McAlister (North Harbour), Mils Muliaina (Waikato), Ma'a Nonu (Wellington), Sitiveni Sivivatu (Waikato), Ben Smith (Otago) Conrad Smith (Wellington).

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