Inga Tuigamala: Heavyweight battle of loosies holds the key

Richie McCaw provides an advantage in skill and agility. Photo / Kenny Rodger

Opinion

A good dose of Auckland's traditionally mixed weather would suit the All Blacks when they take on the world champion Springboks tomorrow night.

New Zealand has traditionally fared better than the rest in the wet, and I also believe we have a loose-forward trio more suited to those conditions.

Whatever the weather, the battle between the loosies will be fascinating.

The Springboks can field a massive trio. Looking at the statistics, they have guys around the 112kg mark, and they are also fairly tall. Our blokes are around 106kg.

But I think we have the advantage in skill and agility, especially with Richie McCaw there, and our loose forwards can give the All Blacks a vital advantage with their mopping up and support work.

I've been so impressed with the way Kieran Reid has been playing - he has a huge appetite for doing the dirty work and makes few mistakes.

The element of revenge in this game is exciting. It has been terrific to hear McCaw talk about the desire for payback, after the Springboks dominated the All Blacks last year. This is what test match rugby is all about and this game has got an old fashioned feel to it.

We may well be underdogs in our own backyard, which is an unusual situation. From what we can gather the All Blacks are clearly in a mood to wipe out the bitter memories of last year.

Once again the Springbok coach Peter de Villiers has figured large in the build-up.

He comes across sometimes as arrogant but he is doing an excellent job with the Springboks, and is very astute.

Maybe we have not always given him the credit he deserves. His ways are clearly working and it appears he has his players' respect.

It will be interesting to see how the South Africans approach this game but given the likely conditions, I think they will rely on their conservative game plan even though their captain John Smit has said all teams need to keep evolving, to try to stay ahead of the pack.

One of the All Blacks under real pressure is Joe Rokocoko. The Auckland wing has had more lives than a cat, helped by the injury to Sitiveni Sivivatu. There is no doubt in my mind that Rokocoko still has the quality to be a fine test player but he needs to show his worth.

Maybe the key for him is to really enjoy what he is doing - when he is in that sort of mood he can pop up all over the place.

One of my concerns at the moment though is that if Hosea Gear continues to be overlooked he will eventually lose patience and be lost to the game here. Personally, I believe he has done enough to deserve another chance.

Graham Henry has commented that there is more to a wing's game than scoring tries, so clearly Gear somehow falls short in what the national selectors feel is needed for their overall game plan.

I'll beg to differ on that one.

As for tomorrow night, a stirring game is in store and even though Eden Park will only be half full, I'm sure the ground will be able to drum up a pretty good atmosphere given the magnitude of the occasion.

Inga Tuigamala played 19 tests for the All Blacks