Kiwis wary of Wallaby biff
THE All Blacks will be on high alert for the wounded Wallabies to get punchy in the second Test in Dunedin after the corresponding fixture last year turned spiteful to trigger a “Cold War” between the teams.
But even if that was a chance of happening – and Wallabies coach Michael Cheika played it down – Australia will go into the decisive Bledisloe Cup showdown without their chief enforcer Adam Coleman after losing the lock on match eve.
Coleman was ruled out with a shoulder injury after the big Force forward aggravated the problem on Thursday at training. His place in the second row was taken by Rory Arnold and 21- year- old Queenslander Izack Rodda was called on to the bench for a likely Test debut.
Cheika played down the loss of Coleman, but captain Michael Hooper conceded the absence of one of their best players was a “huge blow”.
The All Blacks seem more concerned about blows coming from the fists of their opponents after captain Kieran Read admitted they’d spoken about how to handle an outburst of aggression and niggle.
Last year the Wallabies turned up the physicality in the second Test in Wellington after getting smashed by 34 points a week earlier in Sydney.
After the bug- gate drama, Kiwi media said post- game that transTasman relations fell to “Cold War” levels.
“It’s been through our minds. We’ve got to expect it,” Read said about Australia repeating the tactics.
“We’ll adapt to whatever comes our way. If we can go out there and try to play our game and play it fair, play it clean, and play it really hard, a lot of that extra stuff doesn’t come into the game.”
Arguably the most serious incident in Wellington was the alleged eyegouge by Owen Franks on Kane Douglas, but the All Black escaped a charge. Cheika watered down the prospect of the Wallabies emerging on to Forsyth Barr Stadium with a plan to niggle.
“If you look closely at every game, there’s plenty of that going on from both sides,” he said. “Sometimes she heats up and sometimes it’s going too fast to even heat up.”