Hooker profile: Keven Mealamu

Keven Mealamu. File picture / Brett Phibbs

Here's the challenge. You're holding a rugby ball above your head trying to hit a moving target a few metres away.

Get it wrong and Joe Rugby's on your back. It can't be that hard, he or she will say. Get it right and so what? That's your job.

So Keven Mealamu, hooker and lineout thrower for the All Blacks at Jade Stadium tonight, what is it that makes sticking the ball into a team-mate's hands so difficult for any number of New Zealand No 2s?

"There are so many components - lifting, jumping and movement - it's very hard to single out one person when it involves at least four people," Mealamu said.

"Probably the hardest thing is, everyone blames you when the lineout goes wrong.

"I don't mind that. If I know what's gone wrong I'm happy to try and fix it. It's just a matter of getting all the systems right."

It's not just the All Blacks and the country's Super 12 teams who have had difficulties plonking the ball consistently into the jumpers' hands.

Lions hooker Shane Byrne owes his inclusion tonight in part to the problems big Englishman Steve Thompson has had finding his jumpers.

Mealamu, who has played against Thompson but not Byrne, stressed the importance of being mentally strong tonight. If you miss with the first throw, stay calm, don't panic.

"You put it behind you. As long as you do that, like a bad golf swing, you should be all right."

So are New Zealand teams guilty of over-complicating the set piece?

Remember, it wasn't so long ago that jumpers didn't feel the need to run up and down the line like a standing version of musical chairs.

And also bear in mind, the throwing team always has the advantage of knowing where the ball is going, that small, half-second edge which, allied to good timing, should make it a relatively straightforward exercise.

"There are outside pressures, other teams competing for the ball against you. It's all about finding the space, and sometimes the simple option is not where the space is.

"A lot of it comes down to trust. If a lineout jumper is confident that he wants it there, you've got to trust that if you put it there, he can take it."

The mobile, skilful Mealamu was in the chair the night the All Blacks lost the World Cup semifinal to Australia. It was a bad night to be wearing black. Mealamu is sure he is a stronger player now than then.

"Those are the sort of games you have to learn from. I've played against a lot of good hookers, and you try and pick little things up from their game and add it to yours."

Mealamu reckons he's got a good idea how the Lions will play the game tonight. They will try to dominate the set pieces, put pressure on the scrum and lineout and grind the All Blacks down.

It is easier said than done, but having a stream of know-alls coming up assuring an All Black they'll win, no sweat, doesn't help.

"There's nothing worse than going into a game when people are all saying you're going to win.

"You put all that aside. We'll definitely not underestimate these guys.

"We know they're not going to be playing the way they've played some of their games. They'll lift 10 per cent or more for the All Blacks."

Anton Oliver would almost certainly have been playing tonight but for his untimely calf injury. He's been around the squad this week and Mealamu is delighted.

"He's an experienced man. There's nothing better than having someone there ticking off the boxes and making sure everything is going smoothly."

Oliver was a key figure in the All Blacks' demolition of France in Paris last November. That game has been the basis for much of tonight's selection.

"They are big shoes to fill," Mealamu said of Oliver's performance that night.

"I see it as a big challenge and what's life without a challenge?

"If you never challenge yourself, you never put yourself outside your comfort zone."

And no one ever said being an All Black was a comfortable existence.

* Born: March 20, 1979, Tokoroa
* Height: 1.81m
* Weight: 106kg
* Position: Hooker
* All Black debut: v Wales, Cardiff, November 2002
* Tests: 23
* Province: Auckland