Tanerau Latimer's chance to outflank rivals

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Tanerau Latimer has spent all week bashing up his All Blacks team mates and now he's out to do the same to the French as he tries to impose his true game on the test scene.

It's the Chiefs openside flanker's first test start after getting 20 minutes off the bench in last week's loss in Dunedin. It's a huge opportunity and one he reckons he's well prepared for after his brief French lesson and an intense week of training in Wellington.

The All Blacks, guilty of being outmuscled by the French at Carisbrook, have turned the blowtorch on themselves over the past few days.

"We have been bashing each other up. If you can bash your team mates up you can definitely get stuck into the opposition," said Latimer, who described his debut last week as "a bit of a blur".

"I was really nervous before I went on. Everything was pretty fast. They say things change at test match level and that definitely showed last Saturday.

"I expect the intensity to be well above last week and that's fine by me. I look forward to it. It's a real challenge, not only for us as a team but for me as well.

"I'm very happy and very excited to be starting. It gives me a chance to show the selectors and my team mates and also myself how I play rugby."

The 23-year-old Latimer brings his specialist No 7 skills to a makeshift back row that was sorely lacking them last weekend and has been revamped accordingly, although there will again be a question mark at No 8 where the versatile Kieran Read is asked to fill in.

Latimer has been getting plenty of help from returning blindside flanker Jerome Kaino and also received more tuition from injured skipper Richie McCaw, the master openside who was with the squad on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

"He's been hugely influential," Latimer said of having McCaw's advice to tap into.

"We sat down and went through my 20 minutes of fame. He gave me a few things to work on. I did my job on the computer and watched a few of his games from last year as well."

McCaw pointed out a few technical things for Latimer to work on, mostly about entry into rucks both on defence and attack.

"Get in there nice and fast make sure we have got our eyes up and looking for threats. Richie has changed the seven game and it keeps changing as he plays it."

After last week's shortcomings Latimer knows there will be plenty of pressure on him from all directions. It has been made clear to him by the All Blacks coaches that his first job is to tackle, something that was alarming absent at times in the first test.

"We got beaten up on physicality we weren't committed enough to putting their players to deck. That's my job this week - put them to the deck so that we can get a metre past the ball and get a couple of turnovers."

Latimer has also had to deal with the new rules that allow any player who gets their hands on the ball to fight for it. That has certainly added to the physicality at the breakdowns.

It's been a huge learning curve all round for Latimer who is now in his third week in camp with the All Blacks.

He admits he's going to be nervous again although he believes last week's taste of action will have him more settled. He realised he was probably facing a starting assignment the moment he returned to the Dunedin hotel last Saturday night and found Adam Thomson nursing a broken hand in a sling.

From there he has put his head down and worked hard for what will now be a new high, wearing arguably the most famous number in New Zealand rugby on his back.

"The biggest thing in this camp is they push preparation and once you have that sussed, come Friday you just relax go through your playbook and just visualise and come Saturday you are ready to rumble."

Latimer reckons he is ready to rumble and he's also ready for a change of fortune. After such a solid season for the Chiefs he has had to endure two nightmares in his last two matches - a hiding from the Bulls in the Super 14 final and then an All Blacks loss on debut.

"They were two very different places. One was bloody cold (Dunedin) and one was quite hot (Pretoria). But the Super 14 final was kind of like last week - we didn't show. We need to lift our intensity and physicality and we'd like to see a 'W' up against our name this week."

- © Fairfax NZ News