Fresh flyhalves hold key to Bledisloe Cup encounter
Print Edition
The outcome of tomorrow’s Rugby Championship test between New Zealand and Australia may rest in the hands of novice flyhalves Tom Taylor and Matt Toomua and the older but less-favored men who are their appointed understudies.
Taylor will make an unexpected test debut for a New Zealand team which has three flyhalves out due to injuries, though he isn’t even regarded as a specialist No. 10 by his Super Rugby team.
Toomua has been handed a second chance in the No. 10 jersey by Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie after his sound but unspectacular debut in Australia’s 29-47 loss to New Zealand in Sydney last weekend.
If either player falters, they will hand an opportunity to their replacements — Colin Slade for the All Blacks, who will play his first test since injury wrecked his 2011 World Cup campaign and halted his international career, and Quade Cooper for Australia, who will renew his role in New Zealand as a pantomime villain. His every entrance and action is met with a chorus of boos.
Circumstance then affords all four players the chance to play the role of hero in a match in which New Zealand is expected to extend its long history of dominance over Australia, emphasized last weekend when it became the first test nation to post 100 wins over another nation.
If New Zealand wins again it will prolong its decade-long hold on the Bledisloe Cup which is contested annually by the All Blacks and Wallabies.
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