Bledisloe brings new challenges

The Bledisloe Cup offers a different set of challenges to the All Blacks than playing South Africa but with less difficulty.

Australia has some quite serious weaknesses in their team and the tests against the Wallabies are matches the All Blacks should be able to win reasonably comfortably.

Australia are still really struggling to find a front row they don't seem to be able to get over that issue at all.

They have a significant problem in the midfield at second-five and they don't seem to be able to find a fullback of true international class.

They are all extremely important positions in international rugby and I know the All Blacks will be able to exploit those weaknesses quite significantly.

Across the rest of the park you could argue there is parity.

Of course things aren't perfect with the All Blacks at the moment.

The performance against the Springboks in Dunedin wasn't bad but there are certainly aspects in which Graham Henry will be looking for improvements.

There were two tries blown against South Africa at Carisbrook and I think Wayne Smith's task this week will be to try and get Ma'a Nonu looking outward and trying to link up with the players on the outside of him rather than going on his own.

Halfback is also a problem area.

It's certainly not functioning as they would want. Partly because of the delivery of the ball to the halfback but also because Andy Ellis isn't concentrating on clearing the ball quickly as he did when he first came onto the scene.

When he came into Super rugby he was a pretty snappy passer and he needs to return to that core of his game if he wants to hold his place.

Of course it may already be too late as there is lots of talk around about Jimmy Cowan being given the start in Sydney on Saturday.

Cowan is a very strong defender and a pretty good passer of the ball but I'm not sure if he has the tactical nous and the guile of Ellis. The decision as to who gets the No 9 jersey will be an interesting challenge for the All Blacks selectors.

I can't help thinking that Henry, Smith and Steve Hansen are having second thoughts about Piri Weepu.

Another talking point of course is the possibility of the Auckland openside Daniel Braid being brought into the team in time for Sydney, a move with much merit.

He is a very good link player. He would be another very quick player to the breakdown to claim ball and the thinking may be that that is the strength of the Australian loose forwards and they will want to counter that.

I hope that doesn't mean though that Rodney So'oialo doesn't go back to No 8.

I genuinely believe that we have to persist with Jerome Kaino at the back of the scrum.

If we want him to be a world class No 8 he needs time in the jersey at test level week in, week out. If we look back at So'oialo's career we find that he was given five years in the jersey regardless of his variance of form as these same selectors for the last four years waited for him to reach the levels required to play test football.

Surely Kaino deserve a reasonable number of tests to come to grips with the position?

He wasn't as effective in Dunedin as he had been in Wellington a week earlier against the Boks and that was largely because Adam Thomson wasn't doing his job, requiring Kaino to be tied up in the tighter work.

I think it would be a smart move to play Daniel Braid but only if So'oialo is on the other side of the scrum and Kaino at No 8.

Sure, not selecting Thomson will take away a bit of height from our lineout but winning lineout ball is not about height.

It's about the quality of the lifters and timing of the throw and getting people into space within the lineout.

And the All Blacks will have to be smart at lineout time because the likes of Nathan Sharp and Rocky Elsom are all pretty impressive competitors so it's not going to be much easier than it was against the Springboks' combination of Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha.

Some people have criticised the possible selection of Braid as being a change of philosophy from Henry who would have talked about wanting to have his flankers play left and right rather than under the traditional openside and blindside roles.

I would suspect Braid and So'oialo would stay as left and right flankers because they are both very good at claiming ball.

It will be fascinating to see what Henry decides on Tuesday but even more fascinating for me will be the Robbie Deans factor come kick-off on Saturday.

It will be interesting to see how Deans' knowledge of the New Zealand players manifests itself in the game.

He does have a great knowledge of certainly all of the Crusaders players and I think the All Blacks selectors will be very conscience of that and will work very hard to insulate those players in the way they use them.

I have no doubt the Deans factor will have some effect not only on the selection of the New Zealand team but certainly the game plan chosen for this test.

Certainly it will be difficult for the All Blacks coaches to work out exactly how Deans will attack them.

Perhaps an area would be to direct much of the Wallabies attack at the All Blacks midfield especially given the obvious class of Stirling Mortlock.

But the one thing I've learnt from watching Deans is if it looks obvious to expect something, then don't expect it!

He second-guesses all the time.

As most good coaches do, he'll have his views of what he suspects Henry thinks he will do. Deans is just as likely to do something different on the day.

I don't think this panel should try and second guess Robbie Deans ... I suspect he might be one step ahead of them.

But I still think the All Blacks should win the test.

Australia at the moment have too many vulnerable areas in their team.

Is Laurie Mains on the button as usual? Have your say below.

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