All Blacks: Fast risers rewarded for rich tour form

Sonny Bill Williams. Photo / Getty Images

Isaia Toeava and Sonny Bill Williams have emerged as the big winners as the All Blacks' end-of-year tour reaches its conclusion, gaining starting spots in the team to face Wales at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

Toeava and Williams come in for Cory Jane and Ma'a Nonu respectively as the only two contentious changes from the team that beat Ireland.

Elsewhere, Jimmy Cowan will start at halfback, while the locking duo that faced England and Scotland, Brad Thorn and Sam Whitelock, has been restored for the test that will determine whether the tour has been a Grand Slam success or an ignoble failure.

Keven Mealamu returns from suspension to take his place at hooker.

They might not state it so emphatically, but the starting XV for the final match is viewed as the selectors' reward for those who have performed best on tour.

It is easy to feel for Nonu and Jane. Nonu has had some game-changing moments this year, most notably in Soweto, while Jane has made few mistakes all season.

But Nonu has looked slightly off the pace this month and Toeava was excellent when coming on against England and in his start against Scotland, so the harsh realities of professional sport have dictated change.

Selection issues aside, the All Blacks have spent part of the week staving off a pincer attack of cheating accusations.

It is not the Welsh alleging All Blacks illegalities, but a beaten Irish flanker and a familiar foe in Robbie Deans. Regardless of who is firing the barbs, the All Blacks are treating them with a degree of contempt.

"It's becoming a bit boring, isn't it," assistant coach Steve Hansen said of Ireland flanker Stephen Ferris' claims that Richie McCaw should have been yellow carded at Lansdowne Rd.

"It's hard because when you're in the middle of the pitch you get fast ball, but when you're in their 22 it keeps getting stopped," Ferris said.

"Richie McCaw did a great job at slowing it down."

Hansen suggested Ferris should have a copy of rugby's rulebook and start studying it more diligently.

"He [McCaw] is the best flanker in the world and everyone wants to take him out of the game. I guess they believe by complaining about him all the time that's going to happen," Hansen said. "I find it amazing that people don't actually understand the rules when they're complaining about him. Richie understands the rules like the back of his hand."

The Irish flanking manoeuvre came after an Australian full-frontal attack launched by general Robbie Deans.

"They don't scrummage," said Deans. "They just manipulate, they play the referee constantly," he said of the All Black set-piece.

"It's all about trickery."

Hansen said the attack was more phoney than war - a diversionary tactic.

"[Deans is] either under an extreme amount of pressure himself and is trying to divert, or he's trying to play little mind games with referees."

Man-mountain Brad Thorn said criticism of the All Black scrum, a domain he takes very seriously, was water off a duck's back.

"I've been in the game a long time. I know the game and I don't just mean the game of footy, I mean the peripheral stuff around it.

"We had [Wales coach] Warren Gatland questioning our scrum four weeks ago when we were playing England.

Hansen said it was understandable that the All Blacks would come under fire.

"Whoever is playing the best rugby gets put under the most scrutiny because everyone wants to see what they're doing."

The All Blacks have been troubled by the inconsistency of rulings on this tour, particularly at scrum time.

Hansen believed the November internationals were being used by the International Rugby Board to develop the second tier of referees to get more depth at the World Cup.

Come the pointy end of the World Cup, he believed, the best referees, such as Ireland's Alain Rolland and South African Jonathan Kaplan, would take charge.

"I've got a lot of faith in the system and the top four or five referees in international rugby are very, very consistent."

Cardiff, Sunday 6am

ALL BLACKS
Mils Muliaina
Isaia Toeava
Conrad Smith
Sonny Bill Williams
Hosea Gear
Daniel Carter
Jimmy Cowan
Kieran Read
Richie McCaw (c)
Jerome Kaino
Sam Whitelock
Brad Thorn
Owen Franks
Keven Mealamu
Tony Woodcock

WALES (PROBABLE)
Lee Byrne
George North
Top Shanklin
James Hook
Tom James
Stephen Jones
Mike Phillips
Ryan Jones
Sam Warburton
Danny Lydiate
Wyn Jones
Bradley Davies
Adam Jones
Matthew Rees (c)
Gethin Jenkins

All Blacks: Andrew Hore, John Afoa, Anthony Boric, Daniel Braid, Andy Ellis, Stephen Donald, Ma'a Nonu