NPC leaders keep feet on ground after strong start

One Australian rugby player is back, but the other is still a week away.

First five-eighth Brock James will start for Taranaki in their NPC first-division clash with Northland in Whangarei on Saturday night, but fullback James Hilgendorf will miss the match.

Hilgendorf has not fully recovered from a rib injury suffered in the match against Southland and his place goes to Scott Ireland, who started in Taranaki's 58-14 win over Bay of Plenty last Saturday.

James has been cleared to play after a blow to the head late in the first half against Bay of Plenty.

Taranaki head to Whangarei with a three-from-three record and sole position at the top of the points table.

"The boys have their feet back on the ground," said coach Kieran Crowley.

"The focus now is on Northland. One of our targets at the start of the season was to have a certain number of points after our first four games and we're not quite there."

Meanwhile, in Dunedin, Otago coach Wayne Graham conceded there would be changes for the match against Southland at Carisbrook.

"We're probably at a stage now where we need to make some hard calls and some accurate calls," Graham said after Otago's 7-42 loss to Canterbury last Friday.

"We were disappointed with what happened in Christchurch and we've had a good think about things.

"It's a young team which is learning every week and we're ready now to move on."

One change will be forced because wing Seru Rabeni has gone to the Leicester Tigers.

His Fijian team-mate, Aisea Tuilevu, who has not played in the NPC so far because of a knee injury, is likely to make his comeback via the Otago B team.

Taranaki: Scott Ireland, Sailosi Tagicakibau, Matthew Harvey, Shayne Austin, Lifeimi Mafi, Brock James, Brendan Haami, Brent Thompson, Chris Masoe, Reece Robinson, Paul Tito (captain), Johnny Willis, Gordon Slater, Andrew Hore, Tony Penn. Reserves: Hamish Mitchell, Tama Tuirirangi, Scott Breman, Tomasi Soqeta, Mark Stewart, Chris Woods, Craig Fevre.

- NZPA