Rugby: Red and blacks wary of Wellington's back trio

Canterbury's Caleb Ralph is conscious of the need to quickly close down the three All Blacks in the Wellington backline in the NPC first-division rugby final on Saturday night.

Left-wing Ralph, right-wing Marika Vunibaka and fullback Ben Blair have forged a good combination for Canterbury, but they face some testing match-ups against Tana Umaga, Jonah Lomu and Christian Cullen.

At 23, Ralph is the most experienced of the Canterbury trio and he has a lot of respect for Wellington's firepower.

"They're class players, and we're going to have to get up on them and shut down their space, otherwise they could do what they did to Auckland," Ralph said of Wellington's 48-23 semifinal win last Friday.

Ralph, Vunibaka and Blair have also been performing well in recent weeks, and Ralph says there is a lot of resolve to carry it on.

He has made the most of his opportunities this season, particularly his game-saving try in the Ranfurly Shield defence against Otago.

But much of the action has been down Vunibaka's wing, and Ralph naturally wants to see more ball in the final.

Ralph made his early mark as a centre, playing there for the All Blacks in the second test against England in 1998.

He played both centre and left wing for the Crusaders in 1998 as a draft player from Auckland.

But since he switched permanently to Christchurch at the start of this year, Ralph has been employed exclusively on the left wing, where he is starting to feel more comfortable.

He is a contender for the New Zealand A tour of France next month, but said he had not thought beyond the NPC.

- NZPA