Henry changes three for the Irish
Flavell, Kaino and Laulala to start
All Black coach Graham Henry made three changes to his team to play Ireland in the second Test at Eden Park in Auckland on Saturday. Lock Troy Flavell, flank Jerome Kaino and centre Casey Laulala all come into the line-up.
Midfielder Ma'a Nonu and lock Greg Rawlinson move to the bench, while flank Marty Holah misses out altogether.
"Changes have always been part of the plan for this series," said Henry.
"One of our goals has been to see a lot of players on the park, so this is part of a process. The challenge is to make sure our performance continues to improve while we make changes."
An extension of that philosophy sees flank Craig Newby earn a place in the reserves and hooker Andrew Hore take over from Anton Oliver, who is part of the XV that departs for Buenos Aires on Thursday – ahead of the one-off test against Argentina on June 24.
Meanwhile, wing Scott Hamilton has been named to the starting XV for the Argentina Test, replacing Sitiveni Sivivatu who continues to rehabilitate a knee injury.
Henry said the team has not been weakened by the changes.
"We would like to win the game as well," Henry admitted. "We're fairly keen to win rugby fixtures and we probably wouldn't survive unless we do, so we've just got to get the balance right and young players will develop when there's a structure around them.
"Guys like Carl Hayman, Chris Jack, Richie McCaw, Rodney So'oialo, Keven Mealamu in the pack give that solidity."
While the suggestion has been that the changes at centre and flank were planned before last week, the criticism of he performances of Nonu and Holah may well have played a role.
All Blacks: 15 Mils Muliaina, 14 Doug Howlett, 13 Casey Laulala, 12 Aaron Mauger, 11 Joe Rokocoko, 10 Luke McAlister, 9 Byron Kelleher, 8 Rodney So'oialo, 7 Richie McCaw, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5.Troy Flavell, 4 Chris Jack, 3 Carl Hayman, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Clarke Dermody.
Replacements: 16 Andrew Hore, 17 Neemia Tialata, 18 Greg Rawlinson, 19 Craig Newby, 20 Jimmy Cowan, 21 David Hill, 22 Ma'a Nonu.
Date: Saturday, June 11
Kick-off: 19.30 (07.35 GMT)
Venue: Eden Park, Auckland
Referee: Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa)
Touch judges: Matt Goddard (Australia), Brett Bowden (Australia)
Television match official: Paul Marks (Australia)
Assessor: Stuart Beissel (New Zealand)
