Taranaki v Otago a fitting clash for new stadium

Forget last week's 23-20 win over Auckland, Taranaki have an Otago side stacked with All Blacks to deal with in their match in New Plymouth tonight.

It is the first such game at the new Yarrow Stadium, meaning the home players won't be lacking motivation.

With the two new grandstands packed with vocal home-crowd supporters and the Taranaki players pumped for the occasion, the night promises to be a beauty.

It is unlikely to be easy against an Otago side boasting All Black hooker Tom Willis and lock Simon Maling, and former All Black flanker Taine Randell and props Carl Hoeft and Carl Hayman.

Then there's a couple of present All Blacks on the bench, halfback Byron Kelleher and prop Joe McDonnell.

Toss in the likes of flankers Sam Harding and Kelvin Middleton, big Fijian winger Aisea Tuilevu and talented centre Ryan Nicholas, and it is no surprise the southerners opened with a 21-12 win over Northland in Dunedin.

There was plenty to admire about Taranaki's winning effort against Auckland.

The forwards dominated possession in the first spell but couldn't penetrate the water-tight Auckland defence. A courageous attitude saw Taranaki pick themselves up off the canvas and hit back with two late tries to snatch victory.

The only worry was when the Taranaki scrum was shunted backwards on its own line, gifting Auckland with a try. It obviously stung the players into action, with the driving maul that led to Chris Woods' match-winning try one of the match highlights.

Taranaki coach Colin Cooper has made only one change to his starting lineup, with Andrew Hore back from All Black duties taking over at hooker from Daniel Smith.

Cooper has stuck with Matthew Harvey at second five-eighth, keeping super-sub Mepi Faoagali on the bench.

Another who must be pushing close for a starting position is reserve halfback Denning Tyrell.

The Samoan international looked sharp when he came on against Auckland, clearing the ball much quicker than Brendan Haami, who had been tending to look at options rather than getting on with the job.

Cooper was happy with the win over Auckland.

"The good thing is we took the confidence we got pre-season into the Auckland game," he said.

"Now we've got Otago who we respect. We know the public will get in behind the team and it should be a good night. The players now have to play to the standard we know they can."

Last year, Otago thumped Taranaki 64-19 in the final game of the season, but the score should be much closer tonight.

- NZPA