Team Naming Thursday - ABs to face the Pumas

Well it's that time of the week again, Team Naming Thursday is upon us once again and Shag has taken the opportunity to ring the changes.

All Blacks

15. Israel Dagg

14. Cory Jane

13. Conrad Smith

12. Ma'a Nonu

11. Julian Savea

10. Dan Carter

9. Aaron Smith

8. Kieran Read

7. Richie McCaw (capt)

6. Victor Vito

5. Brodie Retallick

4. Luke Romano

3. Owen Franks

2. Keven Melamu

1. Tony Woodcock

Reserves

16. Andrew Hore

17. Charlie Faumuina

18. Sam Whitelock

19. Liam Messam

20. Piri Weepu

21. Aaron Cruden

22. Ben Smith

The expected return of Conrad smith to the centres will see the tried and true combination of Smith at 13 and Nonu at 12 returns to the lineup. Looking forward to seeing Conrad unleashed on the Pumas cos boy we all know he can be a very solid tackler!

I was slightly surprised at the inclusion of Retallick to the starting lineup although I must admit it is a good platform to give some of our youngsters a run at test level. Admittedly the line outs have been struggling the past few weeks however it seems that Steve Hansen has gone for form saying during the week "Brodie is playing better at the moment, so we've given him the opportunity to start".

The inclusion of Vito over Messam has to come down to the coaching staff wanting to keep Messam fresh for next weeks game against the springboks in Dunedin. His work-rate against the wallabies in both tests was immense and was just a continuation of his form during the Chiefs super rugby campaign, "we were happy with Victor's performance the other day, we will have a look at how he goes starting".

Julian Savea was probably an expected change with Hosea Gear not making much of an impact in the two Bledisloe cup games against the Wallabies, "Hoses has had 2 good games and played pretty tidily, but we've got to look to the future as well and this man {Julian} has got a huge future and were looking to see him have a start".

Always feel the days drag even more in the lead up to an All Black test and this is no different.

The question still remains if Sir Ted will be joining the Argentinean coaching staff in the box on Saturday. Only time will tell.