Rugby: Joseph hints at key changes for Maori clash against England

Expect key changes when New Zealand Maori coach Jamie Joseph this morning names his team to face England on Wednesday.

With the short turnaround between the two "tests", squad management will be crucial.

"We're waiting for the medical reports to come through but changes are quite likely, to be honest," Joseph said. "We've got depth in some positions and bugger all in others.

"The areas where we've got that depth and feel comfortable, there's likely to be changes."

Joseph was particularly pleased with the contributions from the bench in Friday night's gutsy 31-28 win over Ireland and that will likely see an elevation to the starting XV for hometown flanker Karl Lowe. Another possibility is livewire halfback Ruki Tipuna replacing Aaron Smith.

The story of Tipuna is one of perseverance over adversity. Knocked back for more Maori teams than he'd care to remember - "He probably would have made a lot more teams if he had been three inches taller," said Joseph - he revelled in his chance to finally don the jersey on Friday.

Brought into the squad after Chris Smylie fractured his cheekbone, Tipuna admitted he was disappointed to miss the original squad.

"I have been trying for quite a few years to crack the team and I thought I might have missed my chance."

The 26-year-old has been part of the Bay of Plenty and Wellington Lions squads, but he measures just 1.72m and weighs 70kg. In an age when halfbacks are getting bigger, he is a throwback.

But sometimes small and fast can work best. "The instruction was to get the tempo going. We hit a real flat patch the last 20 minutes in the first half and the first 10 in the second. We were very flat, very slow and the call from Jamie was to speed the game up and get the tempo going," Tipuna said.

"This is easily the biggest stage I've played on. It's a bit of a step up from the club [Poneke] rugby I was playing last week. It's good to get one under the belt and roll into next week against England. Hopefully I can push for a start."

As Joseph cast aside the emotion of the Rotorua win, his thoughts turned to the two areas his side must improve to have any hope of beating an England squad buoyed by their win over Australia - discipline and ball security.

The penalty count might have read only 9-7 in favour of Ireland, but it was the positions on the field where they infringed - eight were within kicking distance - and the types of breaches that would have concerned Joseph.

"When [playing] a team like England, we can't afford those penalties because we'll lose," he said.

Their inability to hang on to the ball for a 30-minute period that straddled both halves was reflected in the stats.

Ireland were required to make 65 tackles only, 11 of which they missed, whereas the Maori made 74 tackles and missed nine. They won 42 rucks compared with the visitors' 66.

All Black scrum coach Mike Cron is expected to work with the Maori forwards today in anticipation of the big challenge from the England pack.