League: Kiwis' mission against the Kangaroos

Debutant Shontayne Hape will step off the plane from England early today and go straight into the Kiwis side to face a Kangaroos outfit desperate for revenge at Ericsson Stadium on Friday night.

Hape comes in for the injured Clinton Toopi, who was running the sidelines yesterday in recovery from a leg injury.

And Motu Tony replaces Lance Hohaia, who was under physio as the team underwent a gruelling training session at the venue.

Hape is fresh from Bradford's win in the Super League grand final, and Tony's Hull team was deep into the playoffs and he has since appeared last weekend for the winning New Zealand A team.

Tony Puletua and Iafeta Paleaaesina have also used the A team opportunity to push their way into the 17 for Friday night's second game of the Tri-Nations, replacing Frank Pritchard and Nathan Cayless, whose wife is expecting a baby.

It's a 17 that has a look of muscle about it, three huge forwards on the bench. Pritchard was not dropped, rather rotated in a move that was described as "horses for courses".

It appears the Kiwis are preparing for a defensively damaging game, where they will try to withstand a fully expected over-the-top front line assault in which they must sap the Kangaroos' strength and blunt their attack.

But in Roy Asotasi, Puletua and Paleaaesina they also have the ability to do the damage on attack as the Aussies sag.

Each of those bench men, plus captain Ruben Wiki and the other prop Paul Rauhihi, is capable of denting the line, carrying tacklers backwards and delivering quick play-the-ball.

On an Ericsson turf that looks likely to be slicked by rain and is sure to be more slippery than the one in Sydney last weekend, the tough-it-up-the-middle game could well be the way to go.

"Both Shontayne and Motu have been in good form," coach Brian McClennan said of the England-based players coming in.

"Having to replace Clinton and Lance is a blow, but it's a good thing we have some talented players to replace them with. Both are match fit and shouldn't have any trouble slotting straight into the team. Tony and Iafeta had great games for New Zealand A."

They were happy with the team, McClennan said.

Asked about the Australians hurting after the 38-28 loss, he agreed that yes, they would be, but New Zealand had been hurting for decades: "They've had one loss. We're the wounded ones."

Watch out for the wounded Kiwi, he said, dismissing talk from Aussie commentator Phil Gould that the Kiwis would be beaten by 30 points. Gould was a great coach, McClennan acknowledged, "but he doesn't know what we're doing".

At yesterday's training it was clear communication was a bigger part of their game, the old heads like David Kidwell and Nigel Vagana shouting out cover orders and instructions to go for the kicker as the squad played out a high-speed session. They needed to blow out the cobwebs and re-focus, said five-eighth Vagana.

To show what winning can do, pre-game sales for Friday that had slowly ground to 1900 last week romped to just under 10,000 on Monday and took a leap yesterday, with corporate block-bookings choosing the international over the NPC final. McClennan wants a 23,500 sell-out to turn Ericsson into "a jungle" for the Australians.

The Kangaroos have two unforced changes for Friday's test, with Dragons' five-eighth Trent Barrett and Bulldogs' prop Mark O'Meley added to the bench to replace Bulldogs' captain Andrew Ryan and Penrith skipper Craig Gower. Dragons' centre Matt Cooper starts at centre to replace Timana Tahu, who has been ruled out of the series after suffering a hamstring injury in game one.

The Aussies set off a firestorm by recalling Parramatta's Nathan Hindmarsh, who had been denied a place because it was thought he could not recover from a knee injury in time to be useful.

* Ericsson Stadium, Friday 8pm

KIWIS
Brent Webb
Jake Webster
Paul Whatuira
Shontayne Hape
Manu Vatuvei
Nigel Vagana
Stacey Jones
Paul Rauhihi
Motu Tony
Ruben Wiki (c)
David Kidwell
David Solomona
Louis Anderson

Interchange: David Faiumu, Roy Asotasi, Iafeta Palea'aesina, Tony Puletua

KANGAROOS
A. Minichiello
Matt King
Mark Gasnier
Matt Cooper
Brent Tate
Darren Lockyer (c)
Andrew Johns
Petero Civoniceva
Danny Buderus
Steve Price
Luke O'Donnell
Craig Fitzgibbon
Ben Kennedy

Interchange: Trent Barrett, Jason Ryles, Mark O'Meley, Trent Waterhouse