Carter switch could backfire on All Blacks, says Giteau

The Wallabies believe the All Blacks’ decision to move Dan Carter, widely considered the world’s premier flyhalf, to inside centre “could backfire” in Saturday night’s Bledisloe Cup showdown in Hong Kong.

Carter will start at No.12 to accommodate the inclusion of Stephen Donald, who is being groomed to fill the five-eighth role on a more permanent basis when Carter joins French club Perpignan after New Zealand’s five-Test tour of Hong Kong and Europe.

“We thought it was important to try and get two navigators on the field because of their lack of rugby over the last five or six weeks,” All Blacks coach Graham Henry said.

“Two playmakers, two navigators. We thought early in the game that would be helpful.”
Donald at flyhalf and Carter outside him worked effectively enough in the final half-hour against the Wallabies in Brisbane six weeks ago to enable New Zealand to recover from 17-7 down and clinch the Bledisloe Cup and Tri Nations trophy for another year.

Given that, neither Wallabies coach Robbie Deans nor star playmaker Matt Giteau were overly surprised today to learn of Henry’s decision to persevere with the new-look midfield combination.

But both also hinted the switch might favour the Wallabies.

“I had an inkling they were going to tamper with that area,” Deans said.

“Interesting that they’ve opted to move Dan because they had other ways and means of doing it obviously.

“But I guess they probably looked at the last 20 in Brisbane. It worked well.”
Giteau said the selection move provided the Wallabies with insight into how the All Blacks intended to approach the match.

“It shows the expansive game that they want to play and they’re also more of a threat now with the two genuine ball players in Carter and Donald,” he said.

“It could work well for them. It could backfire … the way they play might change a few things potentially for us but, in attack, we’ve had our game plan set for a little while now.
“Before any team was picked, there’s areas that we feel we could exploit. There’s also areas of strength that they have that we need to shut down as well.

“But, definitely, we’re as confident with that team or any team. We feel with any side we play against that there’s areas that we can exploit.”
Henry also opted to hand winger Hosea Gear, the younger brother of former All Black Rico, his Test debut after impressing with some “explosive” performances.

But even while admitting he would use the tour to rebuild All Blacks stocks depleted by a glut of big-money moves to Europe in recent months, Henry declined to gamble too much on new blood.

“When you’re playing a side of Australia’s quality, you don’t want to play young guys into the fold straightaway,” he said.

“We didn’t think it was appropriate for all of them to play in this game.”

And although veteran Mils Muliaina was named at fullback, Henry said “there’s no guarantee he’s going to be here”, following the birth of his son Max only today.

All Blacks: Mils Muliaina, Hosea Gear, Conrad Smith, Dan Carter, Sitiveni Sivivatu, Stephen Donald, Jimmy Cowan, Rodney So’oialo, Richie McCaw (capt), Jerome Kaino, Ali Williams, Brad Thorn, Neemia Tialata, Andrew Hore, Tony Woodcock. Reserves: Keven Mealamu, Greg Somerville, Anthony Boric, Adam Thompson, Piri Weepu, Ma’a Nonu, Isaia Toeava.

Super 14 tipping now live for sign-ups. Join now and invite your mates.

Free Email updates:

• Get a daily Rugby Union email

Our daily emails are only sent if there is content for the sport or that author. You can subscribe to multiple daily emails; or get the daily Roar email with all our content in it. We value privacy. More...

© 2007 AAP