New Zealand coach Graham Henry on Wednesday named three uncapped players in his team to face Italy at the San Siro stadium here on Saturday.
Backs Mike Delany, Ben Smith and Tamati Ellison will make their test bows in the All Blacks shirt with Rodney So’oialo captaining the side for the fifth time.
Henry has rung the changes keeping just three players from the side that won 19-12 against Wales at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium last Saturday.
The All Blacks are expecting an even bigger and more passionate crowd than the close to 75,000 who crowded into the Cardiff stadium.
“It will be a marvellous experience playing at the AC Milan ground (San Siro) in front of 82,000 (people). I’m sure that will create a lot of edge for the Italian side and hopefully also for the All Blacks,” said Henry, who defended his selection of a largely inexperienced team.
“We’ve done it before, I don’t know if New Zealanders get annoyed about it or if you (the press) do.
“We’re just following the objectives of the tour and the objectives were one: try to play winning rugby that we’re proud of in a style that we’re proud of; and to give people an opportunity to play so that we can make logical selections going forward.
“Because we’ve got the players to back up those selections but we cannot do that if we don’t play those players.
“There’s no other opportunity to do that, we don’t play midweek fixtures, we don’t have an extended tour.
“This has been clearly stated on a number of occasions that this was going to be one of the objectives of the tour, so we’re just fulfilling that.”
New Zealand have never lost to Italy in 10 previous matches, often wracking up huge scores although in June in Christchurch they were held to a 27-6 victory.
ALL BLACKS TEAM (15-1):
Cory Jane; Ben Smith, Tamati Ellison, Luke McAlister, Sitiveni Sivivatu; Mike Delany, Andy Ellis; Rodney So’oialo (capt), Tanerau Latimer, Liam Messam; Anthony Boric, Tom Donnelly; Neemia Tialata, Corey Flynn, Wyatt Crockett.Reserves: Andrew Hore, John Afoa, Jason Eaton, Richie McCaw, Jimmy Cowan, Stephen Donald, Mils Muliaina.
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